I am not a smoker, but my mother is. My mother has never been one to smoke while we have eaten meals either inside or out. She and several friends of hers who smoke always waited until after the tables were cleared of food and people before lighting up. They all believe that those people who are eating around them don't always want to inhale the cigarette smoke from their cigarettes. So for all of you who smoke, if you want to light up, by all means do so, but please take into consideration for those around you. It won't kill you to wait until you walk away from the table before lighting a cigarette. And the council really needs to give the smokers a few places in which they can light up without upsetting the rest of the community.

I have to say, this whole anti smoking policy is getting completely out of hand. Why is it someone who objects to involuntarily breathing in someones cigarette smoke is allowed to do the same damage by driving his/her car? This is a joke, I thought "the air is there to share". If I choose to fill my lungs with carcinogens with enjoyment, fine. However, why should an anti smoker be allowed to pollute me with chemicals just as bad if not worse from their exhaust pipe. You had your banning of smoking indoors and as a smoker I support it 100%, but ban it outside and now your being unjust. Smokers pay the health costs threefold by paying the hefty taxes on cigarettes, so what is the real problem?

Why is a chiropractor giving "expert" advice on the effects of smoking?

I agreee with banning smoking in public places. As with designated area in pubs, clubs and many resorts now-a-days, there needs to be allocated areas.

The real problem is that smoking is like being a nudist. If you practice your pleasure then there's no way of containing it. How do you stop smoke escaping into an open door of a restaurant? How do you stop a child from breathing in at the next table? The only difference is that nudism wont kill your neighbour quite as fast as your smoke does. As for the car fumes argument - nobody has quite driven their exhaust pipe up that close just yet.

The chiropractor is not giving expert advice. Where was the word 'expert' used other than your own context? Nothing would delight me more if a medical expert would speak out. Then you would hear some pretty grim language here. Have you seen what is on a packet of cigs lately? The only people not listening seem to be in Camden.

Did you deliberately choose such an ironic screen name, "freedom of choice"? Why should freedom of choice only be extended to smokers?You are explicitly telling me I should NOT have the "freedom of choice" to breath unpolluted air. Cigarette smoke is proven - 100% proven - to be carcinogenic. What gives you the right to force me to inhale your waste smoke? Try answering that one directly, why don't you?? I don't care if you want to smoke - that's your decision and I respect it. The problem is that you won't extend the same courtesy to me. That's just plain SELFISH! (I used to be a 50 a day smoker - Winfield Red, into the bargain - so I know what it's like to be addicted to such a powerful drug. I don't envy your habit because I've felt it's power first-hand.) As far as your well-worn, specious argument that car exhaust is just as bad - that's technically correct. But are you seriously comparing the contribution made to society by the car with the contribution made to society by cigarettes? What a laughable analogy!! Further to that point, how many people sit within 6 feet of the exhaust pipe of a running car to eat their meal? Would you? Of course not. But you expect us to suck up your toxic gases and just cop it! Lastly, might I ask everyone concerned to make this an INFORMED debate? You say, "Smokers pay the health costs threefold by paying the hefty taxes on cigarettes". What a giant piece of bulldust!! Simply plucking a figure from the air doesn't make it fact, although I suppose you have to rely on any tactic you can when you're vainly trying to defend the morally indefensible. The FACT is that smoking ADDS billions to the public health bill, so as well as being FORCED to move to escape YOUR drug habit, I'll also be FORCED to subsidise your chemotherapy bill when you get lung cancer. (And I've seen how ugly death by lung cancer is - I reckon it'd scare your drug addiction out of you if you ever saw the results) (LOL! Comparing cigarettes and cars... I still can't get over the intellectual bankruptcy of that argument!!!)

Lets hope that common sense prevails throughout this debate. A leaf should be taken out of the policy of Lend Lease with their no smoking policy in place in the Kellicar dining precinct of Macarthur Square at Campbelltown, not only is there outdoor dining in this area, also a children's playground. It makes for a nice social place to enjoy the outdoors. On a smelly note when you enter or exit Macarthur Square through the main entrance near Ella Bache and David Jones one has to remember to hold their breath for the stench is choking. Another "smelly ciggy" public dining venue is Narellan Macdonalds, the smokers hanging around the doorway there have ensured that I do not return, might I mention the children's party room and playground is very near this doorway as well! On a positive note I would like to take this public opportunity to thank the thoughtful woman who asked if I minded if she smoked while I dined recently at the Elm Tree Courtyard Cafe in Camden, it is nice to know that there are a few mindful smokers out there in our smelly world.

Thanks for that insightful overview about the relationship of smoking outdoors and proximity of the same risk emitting from an anti smokers exhaust. I can now take a deep breath of relief that those smog clouds around some major cities have no contribution whatsoever from car exhaust fumes. Come on, its exactly the same thing, what next? all houses who currently have woodfired heating must immediately stop? Should we also ban all use of charcoal barbeques as well? They're all exactly the same thing. By the way, the majority of outdoor eating venues are extremely close to the road anyway so what difference does it make? However to the other "freedom of choice", it might pay you to read some information about the links of similar tobacco related diseases with air pollution from things such as exhaust pipes before you find it so hilarious.

I used quotation marks and a question mark in my screen name to differentiate myself from the "original" Freedom of choice here. Apologies for any confusion I may caused by doing that. Not only have you failed to answer my very direct question, but you're now talking about home heating and charcoal barbecues? Where did they come from? Try again. Here's the question: What contribution to society do cigarettes make? Cars allow us to move out of our own village and get to villages/towns that are too far away to get to easily by foot. A car allows you to get to Sydney, or Wollongong, or Newcastle and back home in one day. Do cigarettes do that? Trucks bring the food you eat from the farm to the market to the supermarket. Do cigarettes do that? To entertain your home heating diversion for a second, wood fires keep familes warm in winter. Do cigarettes do that? Barnbecues cook food for us to eat. Do cigarettes do that? What DO they do? They have NO productive use at all. They are a frippery! As useful as a talkback radio host! Perhaps we should start calling smokers what they are: drug addicts. Maybe that would help us truly understand exactly how useless a habit smoking is? Let me ask you another question: How would you feel, Freedom of choice, if someone lit up a marijuana cigarette next to you and let the smoke drift all over you while you were eating your breakfast? Unhappy and indignant would be my bet! In relation to your red herring about smog - NO ONE has said here that car fumes are good. Let's make it plain - CAR FUMES ARE BAD, TOO! But car exhaust has NOTHING to do with the issue at hand, which is the FORCING of non-smokers to inhale cigarette smoke. I understand why you're laying red herrings - it's a classic ploy used by politicians the world over to avoid debating the actual issue at hand - but please stick to the topic. I honestly feel that if you can't answer my questions directly, you're wasting space here in a very important public health debate.