Clean air should be a human right. That should include pollutants from smoking, pollutants from automobiles, and pollutants from industry and commerce. It's not a question of one or another.

Lack of clean air is one of the biggest markers of social inequality, and it demonstrably leads to higher rates of respiratory illnesses and earlier deaths for lower-income people who are often forced to live and work in polluted environments with unclean air. It takes a toll on the body over time.

Even just seeing statistics like how asthma rates among children have decreased in places that have banned the sale of gas stoves...like, it shouldn't be a debate. Whatever people want to do to their own lungs, fine, but given that air is shared by everyone, it should be permitted only in private, where no one else is sharing the same air. It's not about whether one has a right to smoke or drive wherever they want, but whether one has the right to infringe upon the right of others. The right to health.

What gave you the idea that I support our current car-centric infrastructure? I don't, for multiple reasons clean air being one of them. But that's not an issue that can be addressed with one law, smoking in public is.

Your freedom ends where mine begins.

Exactly. And if your freedom to enjoy a public space requires you to impact the enjoyment and health of others that's where your freedom ends.

Your freedom ends where mine begins.

You say those words but I don't think you really understand them. It's a declaration of negative rights, i.e. others aren't allowed to do something to you. Freedom of speech is such a right in the US as it requires the government to not infringe upon it. This is in contrast to positive rights, e.g. the right to healthcare where somebody has to do something in order to provide the right to others. Read up at https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_and_positive_rights

What it absolutely doesn't mean is: I am allowed to take away your rights by doing whatever I want. We're talking about smoking, but it could just as easily be pandemic prevention measures (if you were antivax or antimask because muh freedoms, let me know and I won't waste any more of my time), or shooting a gun into the air (others don't have the right to not have bullets randomly raining down on them /s). My freedom to not get shot (i.e. life) doesn't end where your freedom to shoot begins. That's called murder (or manslaughter etc). I'm not saying it's the same magnitude as smoking, just using an example to make the situation clearer.

You are not owed clean air in public spaces. You are not owed air free of unpleasant smells.

🤓