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Pink Smoke

I almost never go out in bars or clubs, whether on the gay scene or not; probably a partial cause for my lack of social life. One of the reasons for my not patronising these venues, in addition to my lack of interest in drinking and the level of noise in those places, is cigarette smoke. I hate when breahting air becomes as difficult to find as a straight Lib Dem politician in a leadership contest and then to have to bring the memories of that experience at home with me, afterwards.

The recent ban on smoking in public places in England (see what I had to say on the subject of smoking/smokers by following the link) which will take place in the summer of 2007, will probably not make much of a difference with my habits in this respect but it looks like it will for a lot of gay men.
About 53% of gay men smoke, nearly double the 29% of all adult males. While 8,000 gay men have died from Aids to date, one charity estimates 12,000 die every year from smoking-related diseases.
Protect and survive, The Guardian - 11 August 1999
Further more, it seems that most of those smokers are so-called "social smokers"; people who smoke only when encouraged to do so by the people around them in a social environment. It is therefore good to hear that gay venues, gay politicians and even punters, who feel encouraged to finally try and stop smoking, are, on the whole, welcoming the ban.

While the ban will probably not do much for my social life, it will most certainly make a huge difference for the general level of health on the gay scene.

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  1. TM2/23/2006 12:36 pm

    I was talking about this to another anti-smoking friend, our argument is the same, but we expect the poor discriminated aginst smokers to carry on anyway as a protest :0(

    ReplyDelete

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