Setting aside all the hype & dogmatism, for me it does come down to choices & consideration.

If at a venue a smoker wanting to smoke choses to leave the room for a few minutes, get their fix (for it is an addiction, like any other) they can then return to the room and carry on enjoying the music & the company. It costs them little but courtesy as while they are actually smoking (as opposed to leaving their cigarette smoldering in an ashtray) they are not using their hands & mouth to sing or play.

For someone for whom smoke is a problem, it is rarely sufficient to go outside & get a "fix" of fresh air, which will then "magically" counteract the effect of the smoke & enable them to return to enjoy the music & the company. It is more likely that they will have to leave & not return.

I am one of those who do not smoke & cannot cope with a smoky atmosphere. Since developing asthma,it is no longer a choice but an imperative as there are times when I literally cannot breathe because of poor air quality. There are any number of places I would like to go & music I would like to enjoy but because a few choose to smoke in the venue I have no choice but to stay away. This includes any number of places where I have paid for my ticket to enter only to find that I cannot stay because I cannot breathe. It has been said that no-one is forced to go to a smoking venue & this is true but it is also true that the choices of smokers limit the choices of others.

If a person choses to smoke I am not going to bother to remind them of all the health problems they are liable to be causing themselves & others. They cannot live in our society without being aware of it & if they chose to ignore / minimise or disbelieve that then nothing that is said to them will change their minds.

I am not going to descend to the playground mentality of name calling or the one upmanship of the impact of weight or drink on individuals health, nor would I suggest trying to force people to give up smoking.

But I do believe that it is as simplistic and self absorbed to say " if they don't like my smoke they don't have to come to public places", as it is for the non smoker to suggest legislation banning all sales of tobacco (as prohibition in america once tried to ban alcohol). Neither idea has the merit of common sense or consideration for others.

I would however ask that those who chose to smoke consider the limits that their behaviour and choices impose on others.

You don't need to be a tree hugging, brown rice eating, vegetarian hippy to believe that everyone should be able to have the choice & freedom to go to places to enjoy music.