I am a 66 year old man who has smoked all of his life. I have never had a serious illness or been operated on. I was in the hospital once with a kidney stone but other than that I am in very good health. I am also retired and enjoy traveling by plane and taking a cruise now and then. Like most people my age I try to be courteous around non-smokers by using a little common sense when smoking in their presence. I do not smoke in another persons house unless I am invited to because I would not want them to have to smell the smoke for the short time I am going to be there. I also try not to fart when I am in their house because I am aware of their paranoia with odor that they might not find pleasant. It seems like I have spent the last ten years trying to please these people who are so offended by the smell of my smoke. They believe that they are going to die of cancer if they get within thirty feet of my smoke for more than five minutes. During those same ten years I have managed to enjoy my meal in a nice restaurant while listening to my loud, obnoxious and sometime profane guests enjoy their alcohol. Some of these people are so obese that I seem to loose my appetite. Should I complain that they are disturbing my ears and sight. Should I complain that I am offended that they are in my world living and acting in a way that I do not agree with. I think not. I have to share my world with people of different habits and it sure would be nice if people would try to tolerate me now and then.

My point for the cruise lines is this. You have to try to please all of your customers and try to make a profit at the same time. You feed all of your customers for free. You make most of your money from the people who drink alcohol. Most people who drink alcohol smoke. The people who don't smoke or drink will still take your cruise and complain that the twenty mile per hour breeze does not clear their air from the odor of my smoke. But one thing is for sure. If you do not allow smoking on your cruise ships your smoking customers will definitely not pay for your services. I may fly sixteen hours non-stop on business without smoking but I will not sail seven days for pleasure without smoking. If you can do without the money of smokers, so be it. I have seen most of the world anyway and I have seen more fat and obnoxious people than I care to see again.

It's called tyranny of the majority. A significant portion of nonsmokers have lapped up the antismoking hysteria without question. They have deteriorated into neuroses and bigotry.

for the last 6 years my vacation has been a cruise on carnival lines. they charge enough and we get a balocny room . no way am i spending another 250.00 to have a room cleaned. so no more cruises. the smoke clings to your body and hair when you sleep the smell will get in the bed. are they going to have someone watch to see if you take a shower before you go to bed????

DON'T cruise. I've never understood the appeal of being confined with hundreds of strangers, in a boat on open water.

And since Noro has been a plague for untold numbers of years, what in hell is the scientific community NOT doing to create a viable vaccine to prevent this scourge. I don't get the lack of concern on their part.

D. Boyd, your second hand smoke is damaging to other people's health. While you may have eluded tobacco related diseases, that does not mean everyone else is genetically equipped to do the same thing. As for your blatant insult and discrimination towards overweight people, their condition is not harming your health. The loud and loose behavior of those that consume too much alcohol is also not harming your health or anyone else's, just their own. Your smoke is invasive. It makes you and everyone around you and the environment stink like a stale ashtray. For every cigarette smoked, the danger of second hand smoke lingers for 8 hours whether you see smoke or not. The studies are in. Face the facts. The majority of people don't smoke and they don't want to inhale your smoke.

I smoke and i'm getting sick and tired of MY rights being violated by the holier than thou non-smokers. YOUR perfume/cologne causes me severe migraines as i'm allergic to about 90% of those out there. Do I get a reprieve? NO!!! YOUR "stench" also lingers, gets on my clothes, and in my hair. Every time I leave my home I have to shower and bag my clothing as soon as I get home, take medication, then lay down for 2 to 4 hours to recover. The number of people who feel they need to bathe in their "smelly stuff" perhaps should just bathe period???? I enjoy smoking. I neither drink nor do illegal drugs. I enjoy a smoke before and after dinner. Yet, I no longer go out to eat except for bringing fast food home - the only place I can enjoy a meal "out" the way I like to. My rights are being violated by your sanctimoneous "your action is killing me". Tell you what - YOU start staying home instead of the smokers having to stay home. See how long you like it before you get tired of your rights being violated. I have just as much right to smoke as you have NOT to smoke. But it's not your rights that are violated now is it?????

PhonesAAA: "It makes you and everyone around you and the environment stink like a stale ashtray."

This flies in the face of the historical record. Until the antismoking propaganda started pushing secondhand smoke "danger" in the late-1970s, complaints of the "stink", let alone "unbearable, overwhelming stink", were unheard of. The "stink" is one of the markers of denormalization pushed by the government-funded fanatics and those that lap up the propaganda:

"This relentless tide of bad news about smoking has carried numerous subtexts that have compounded smokers' spoiled identities, which we highlight below".  
 
Smokers as malodourous  
Smokers as litterers  
Smokers as unattractive and undesirable housemates  
Smokers as undereducated and a social underclass  
Smokers as excessive users of public health services  
Smokers as employer liabilities  
 

PhonesAAA: "For every cigarette smoked, the danger of second hand smoke lingers for 8 hours whether you see smoke or not. The studies are in. Face the facts."

8 hours!!! You're not citing facts. You should be ashamed for propagating this divisive, bigoted trash.