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Three Steps To Avoiding Secondhand Smoke

With the chances of the Indianapolis City-County Council tonight overriding Mayor Greg Ballard’s veto of the recently passed smoking ban about as likely as me becoming the grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, I’ve decided to offer up three quick steps into helping individuals who worry about going out to a bar, tavern or restaurant and being exposed to secondhand smoke.

1.  Walk up to the door.

2.   Read the sign and see if it says “smoking” or “non-smoking” establishment.

3.   If it says “smoking” do not enter.

There are two really nice things about these instructions.  One they are easily repeated.  Two, they also work well with private clubs.

Posted: 02|13|12 at 6:00 am by Abdul Hakim-Shabazz
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  • Rob

    Your three steps are excellent.  I followed them the other night and encountered no second hand smoke.

  • Rob

    Your three steps are excellent.  I followed them the other night and encountered no second hand smoke.

  • streetfighter

    Bravo-Home of the free-

  • cynical sam

    I’m afraid way too many people will now start wearing smocks while out and about.

  • Frank Grimes

    Of course, the whiners don’t care at all about reading even simple exterior ‘this is a smoking establishment’ signage, and they all selfishly want every last business smoke-free, even the ones they’ll never patronize. And aren’t they essentially winning, with the high number of bars(heck, even including ones I didn’t expect would make the switch, like Front Page and Old Point) voluntarily banning smoking, and not to forget the ones that made the switch in the last few years? Let’s of course not forget that if I had to guess, the vast majority of workers in these smoking establishments are working there, since they’d rather associate with smokers on the job, and not the whiny minority of non-smokers that always complains about even the most brief passing whisps of cigarette smoke outside.

    Great job with this entry, Abdul!

  • M Theory

    Can you still smoke at the Chatterbox?   I have not been there in ages, but it is my favorite bar.

  • John Doe

    I believe I’ve figured out that the Columbia Club is the target for the Council and their wish for banning smoking in private clubs. As you know, the club building is 10 stories tall and is smoke-free with the exception of the 3rd floor bar, The French Room Lounge. Evidently the CCC is using scare tactics that if private clubs are exempt from the smoking ban, then the ENTIRE Columbia Club suddenly will become a haven for smokers and that all the club’s hotel rooms suddenly will become smoking rooms. I learned this last evening on FB and from Zach Adamson’s statement to me and to others posting. I’ve never seen anyone smoking a cigar or cigarette anywhere on the premises of the Club other than the designated 3rd floor bar where children do NOT go. In fact, I, a non-smoker, have never caught one scent of smoke in the building. Have members of the CCC actually visited the Columbia Club and experienced how well the members have worked out their own method of dealing with both smoking and non-smoking members? 

  • Are you kidding?

    I’d rather see a more honest sign for smoking establishments. 
    ie:  ‘Hazardous, enter at your own risk, we kill people here’.  Now THAT would be a real sign.

  • John Howard

    I don’t know about this as it puts an awful lot of emphasis on personal responsibility.

  • Wsti88

    Three,  they also work well when a comprehensive smoking ban is in place. 

  • Abdul

     I am member of the Columbia Club and our system works just fine.  Thanks for mentioning that in your post.

  • Ben D. Over

    We propose that we put “no sex” signs on all of the hotel room doors in Indy. We have been in contact with 7 CCC members that are behind us. This is a non partisan issue. They all know that SEX kills and we must stop it.

  • Are you kidding?

    Yeah, if we follow Abdul’s advise, all doors should say, ‘Sex here’  or ‘Sex prohibited’. 

  • Rico

    For Ramon’s sake, could you please go over the three steps again–slowly?

  • Tom Wilson Williams

    Unfortunately, a lot of the really fun places to go are smoking. This is especially true for twenty-somethings who want to go out in Broad Ripple, for example. You will probably go into several bars, and I think most, if not all, will be smoking. It would be kinda lame if you only went to non-smoking bars. I have been to other states where the bars are all non-smoking and it is much better. The smokers just have to step outside, not a big deal. And the non-smokers, which are the majority of people, get to breath clean air and not have their clothes smell all smoky and their throats all scratchy the next morning. I agree that there should be exceptions for smoking themed establishments like cigar and hookah bars, private clubs, and the like. But other than those places I think the general rule should be no-smoking for the reasons stated above. 

  • Rob

    Tom, a lot of really fun places have either the wrong music, the wrong kind of beer, ugly bartenders, too many young customers, are on the wrong side of town, or have other aspects that I don’t care for.   I have been to other cities where every bar appeals to me, and those cities are boring. 
    Give it a break, Indianapolis has more than a few bars that are non-smoking, it is not reasonable for to demand that every bar and private club go non-smoking.

  • Clutch Cargo

    How could you be so heartless as to expect people to take the time to read a sign on the door, when they’re so busy manufacturing plastic altruism from unprocessed egotistical hysterics? Pretty soon, that’ll be the only industry allowed by the commissariat. Oh, wait! We’re already there. Looks like the PC-BS factory will be the sole, remaining union shop…

  • Ramon

    4.  Eliminate smoking in all public places and but allow it in private homes.  Then Abdul can smoke his smelly cigars at home and only those who wish to visit him there will have their health endangered and end up smelly like an old wet dog.

  • Abdul

     I don’t smoke cigars in the house.  Never did.  But thanks for thinking of me.

  • Rhondaleebaby69

    Once again Abdul ignores the impetus behind smoking bans (not just in Indiana, but worldwide).  Employee health.  He would have us return to the days of Hazmat teams handling chemicals with their bare hands or coal miners working without respiratory protection.  “If they don’t like it, they can work someplace else.”

  • John Doe

    Rhonda, I truly believe the CCC shot itself in its own collective foot when it dug in its heels over the private club smoking issue. If the private club issue had been removed from the smoking ban, then Indianapolis today, right now as I sit at my computer, would have a comprehensive smoking ban in place. As it now stands, we’re back to square one with nothing to show for our efforts. 

  • Rhondaleebaby69

    I tend to agree with that, however what’s to prevent bars from becoming “private clubs” once the smoking ban is (and it will pass eventually either at the state or local level) in place.

  • Think Again

    Great advice.  If you’re an adult.

    If you’re a kid, brought into an establishment by an adult, not so much.

    That IS what the last round of shouting was all about.  Nothing more, nothing less.

    You were there.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_433XZCWH6B4IWK6BFZTDQRJKLI Bob Johnson

    Why would anyone bring a kid into a bar?

  • Anonymous

     Gee…have you considered getting some investors together, and opening your OWN establishment?

    Guess that is too hard…much easier to get government to do your dirty work for you.

    So, if you don’t want smoke on your clothes, don’t go into a smoking establishment.  Jeezzz…this is such a no-braniner.

    ALSO, it’s clear that YOU are not interested in the ‘heath’ of the poor workers in these smoking establishments.

    You know, the ones kept there against their will…we need to get the GUVMINT involved; clearly, there is TRAFFICING IN PERSONS going on here.

  • Anonymous

     Sorry…need to deduct a LIKE from Rhonda’s post, as I mistakenly hit LIKE vice REPLY.

    MY reply is thus:  Why not return to the days of PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY??  There are MANY more bars and restaurants that are smoke free, than those that permit smoking on their property.

    You are correct….if they do not like the working conditions, they are FREE TO FRACKING LEAVE!

  • Anonymous

     Uh, you’re an idiot.  This was NEVER about ‘the kids’…too soon for that.  It’s about banning otherwise legal behavior, and removing personal responsibility from one and all.

    How many BARS are allow kids?  When will you fraking libs go after smoking in your car, or in your home?

    Don’t say you won’t, ’cause you’d be a fraking liar.

    What do YOU like?  What VICE do you partake in?  Gambling?  Booze?  Fast Food? Porn?

    WHAT?

    I want to know, what will YOU do when they come for YOUR vice?????

    Fracking Lib.

  • Anonymous

     You really don’t expect an reply to that, do you?

  • Think Again

    People take children into VFW and Legion halls all the time.  Far too often, as a matter of fact.  THAT’S what this was about.  If Hizzoner had simply agreed to the no-children provision in Legions, we’d have a strong ordinance.  He chased the wrong issue.

  • Tom Wilson Williams

    I have a job, so I won’t be opening a restaurant to prove a point anytime soon. 

    I think you missed one of my main points when you responded to my point about smokey clothes: most non-smoking bars and clubs are lame. Don’t know why that it, but it is true. So sure, I could go somewhere else, but it wouldn’t be as much fun.  

    Also, I am concerned about the health of the workers in smoking bars, but then again, a lot of jobs are dangerous. I think that’s a fair concern, but probably a better health concern would be the secondhand smoke everyone, including the workers, are forced to inhale in smoking establishments. 

    And please don’t say go somewhere else again, because I have already addressed that. If you don’t like my point, fine, but I have already said there aren’t a lot of fun places to go that are non-smoking, especially on weekend nights. 

  • Think Again

    I’d love to go after smoking in closed cars carrying children.  It’s child abuse.  

  • Are you kidding?

    The sticking point became when the Mayor claimed that veterans’ halls could decide for vote among themselves and announce whether they choose smoking or non-smoking.  But it smoking, the Mayor still didn’t want to bar children.  Basically it defeats the purpose of keeping people free of 2nd hand smoke, especially for children of families who attend events there.  To put it bluntly, the Mayor has he insist the children enter the gas chamber if membership approves the gas.  Never in the country has a Mayor, especially one who touts public safety, hinged a no-smoking ban on the premise that you must allow children into smoking a veterans’ hall.  Irony is too small a word for this. 

  • Clutch Cargo

    The EU proves your argument to be false with EN 13779. Look it up. I thought the veterans fought for everyone’s freedom–not just your selectively applied rhetoric.

  • Uatu

    We do not live in the EU.

  • Scooter

    Funny that all those screaming for the health of the children of veterans ignore the ‘cocktail’ of injections the armed forces were given prior to being deployed to sw asia… and all the children with birth defects that were caused by those ‘cocktail imunizations’.

    Where are y’all at on that one? Walking into a smoking/non-smoking facility is a simple choice. Those GI’s that went to war had no choice, nor did their affected children.

    C’mon liberal, save me from myself do-gooders, let’s see you go after a REAL social problem.

  • Scooter

    Funny that all those screaming for the health of the children of veterans ignore the ‘cocktail’ of injections the armed forces were given prior to being deployed to sw asia… and all the children with birth defects that were caused by those ‘cocktail imunizations’.

    Where are y’all at on that one? Walking into a smoking/non-smoking facility is a simple choice. Those GI’s that went to war had no choice, nor did their affected children.

    C’mon liberal, save me from myself do-gooders, let’s see you go after a REAL social problem.

  • Scooter

    Funny that all those screaming for the health of the children of veterans ignore the ‘cocktail’ of injections the armed forces were given prior to being deployed to sw asia… and all the children with birth defects that were caused by those ‘cocktail imunizations’.

    Where are y’all at on that one? Walking into a smoking/non-smoking facility is a simple choice. Those GI’s that went to war had no choice, nor did their affected children.

    C’mon liberal, save me from myself do-gooders, let’s see you go after a REAL social problem.

  • Rob

     Tom,
    The problem is that you see your request (to ban smoking in every bar) as reasonable, it is not a reasonable request.
    It is a very selfish request, to quote Frank, “selfishly want every last business smoke-free, even the ones they’ll never patronize.”.  It is a very unreasonable request,in  that there are a lot of alternatives, go to other smoke-free bars, open up your own bar, stay at home.
    And your attitude (para phasing), I have made my point so don’t bother me anymore, shows more evidence of a child-like belief that the world revolves around you.

  • Tom Wilson Williams

    That is an inaccurate paraphrase.