Should Actors Be Smoking At The Stagedoor ?

[GavestonPS]

kdogg36 said: "Michael Kras said: "Second hand smoke has been proven to be not just as bad, but worse, than first hand smoke. Studies have shown that airborne contact with second hand smoke instantly thickens the blood and makes you more vulnerable to heart attack and stroke. And that's barely the tip of the iceberg."

I'm definitely not pro-smoking, and some of the things you say are true, but your initial claim is false. Here's a reference:

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2017/02/secondhand_smoke_isn_t_as_bad_as_we_thought.html

 

 

"

Thank YOU! That article amply illustrates the problem with the assumptions underlying this entire conversation.

I'm not arguing against indoor smoking bans either. There's no question that air quality is improved when smoking is banned indoors, even if that improvement is largely aesthetic. (Myself, I don't find passive smoking objectionable, but I know a lot of people disagree and they should be respected. More unpleasant to me is the odor of stale tobacco smoke that is left on everything the passive smoke touches.)

The problems with the original studies of passive smoking were explained to me by a professional chemist 25 years ago, long before the "Montana Miracle" was debunked. So the evidence was there all along, but it was ignored in our zeal to ban anything that might give anyone pleasure. As a culture, we need to be wary of such movements (which is NOT to say smoking isn't bad for the smoker).

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newintown, I'm a funny kind of anti-intellectual. I have three college degrees, all from schools ranked among the top 25 in the nation. One thing an intellectual might notice is that however pure its aims, scientific study is conducted in a cultural context that influences how the results are interpreted. Another thing is that the scientific method demands that observed phenomena must be widely replicable before the observation is deemed valid.

[GavestonPS]

newintown said: "And despite the results of these studies, the universal belief of all mainstream science is that passive smoking is never healthy, and often deadly. My question is - why even try to defend it (to even a small degree)?

 

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Because individual rights have to be weighed against harm to others. The harm of momentary, OUTDOOR passive smoking (which you continue to conflate with long-term, INDOOR passive smoking) is negligible. When we get to "How dare an actor smoke outside the stage door?!", it's time to dial down the hysteria.

[MedicoDeMuerto]

If you're asking if her behavior was not okay, I would say that in an social situations it is not classy to smoke. But it's not illegal or anything, nor is it a fatal flaw. As long as they're kind, who cares? If you're asking an actor/smoker yourself, I would not recommend it. 

[mikem]

IVY:  Are you supposed to be smoking?

VIOLET:  Is anybody supposed to smoke?

-Tracy Letts, August: Osage County