I'm all for banning smoking in restaurants and bars, for the simple reason that smoking is not an integral part of eating or drinking. If you had to smoke in order to eat or drink it would be different, but I don't like having to have my meal ruined because someone three tables away, in the smoking section, is sending a gray cloud my way. If there truly were a God, he would have blessed us non-smokers with the ability to create nauseous flatulence in quantity, and on demand, for just such an occasion. I could send a cloud of colan smoke over to your table to ruin your meal just as you're ruining mine.
The fact is that until someone adapts the "Get Smart" "Cones of Silence" for use in restricting someone's cigarette smoke to their immediate area, there's no way to prevent the smoke from reaching non-smoking customers. Having designated smoking tables don't work as we're all sharing the same air, and the smoke doesn't know it's not allowed to drift pass the "Smoking Area" signage.
For those barkeeps and restaurantiers who believe that there should be smoking at designated smoking tables, I have a simple solution to the problem: make it the law of the land that if smoke from the smoking area floats over into your table in the non-smoking section, and disturbs your meal, your meal is FREE! That'll put and end to the theory that smoking/non-smoking areas work quick, fast, and in a hurry!
Restaurant owners are allowed (or should be allowed) to set whatever rules they want in their establishment. If you want to eat there and the restaurant allows smoking, you have to put up with it. If you smoke and the restaurant doesn't allow it, you have to put up with it to eat there. It's simple.
