DE LO QUE QUISE DECIR SOBRE LAS LEYES ANTITABACO

Hoy en la edicion del New York Times adjunta a Clarin aparecio esta nota.
No pude obtenerla en castellano, por lo tanto la pego en Ingles y hago un pequeñor resumen.
El autor hace referencia a normas antitabaco en Colorado, Nebraska y Escocia, segun las cuales muchas obras de teatro consideradas clasicas, como ¿Quien le teme a Virgina Wolf? no podrian representarse como las creo el autor por la prohibicion de fumar en el escenario.
Tambien menciona que en algunos lugares se prohibe fumar tabaco pero si se pueden utilizar de hierbas aromaticas en las representaciones.
A esto me referia cuando dije que si bien estoy de acuerdo con la prohibicion de fumar en lugares cerrados de acceso publico me parece que el autoritarismo esta avanzando mas alla de lo razonable.
ESTO QUE ESCRIBO MAS ARRIBA ES LO QUE SIEMPRE DIJE Y NO SI HAY OTRO TIPO DE CONTAMINACION O SI UNA DETERMINADA PERSONA ES RESPETUOSA O CUALQUIERA DE LAS MALASINTERPRETACIONES DEL FORO ANTERIOR.
Al contrario de lo que muchas/os dijeron, estoy por la defenza de los derechos individuales, pero al reves de lo que dicen los fumadores, yo respeto su derecho a fumar, que ellos respeten mi derecho a disfrutar de una comida sin olor a humo.

Smoking ban wafts onto theater stages in Colorado, Nebraska

By Zachary Pincus-Roth,
New York Times News Service

"Hand me a cigarette, lover," Martha says to her conquest Nick in the second act of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The stage directions then read: "He lights it for her. As he does, she slips her hand between his legs."

This scene cannot take place as written in Lincoln, Neb.; Colorado; Scotland; or, starting April 2, in Wales. Smoking bans are so strict in these places that actors cannot legally light even herbal cigarettes onstage.

In Colorado three theater companies - the Curious Theater Company and Paragon Theater, both in Denver, and Theater13 in Boulder- have gone so far as to sue the state, arguing that smoking in the course of a play is a form of free expression. The claim echoes the arguments once made to defend the nudity in the musical Hair against indecency laws. "It will deny residents in Colorado access to great prior works, and cutting-edge new plays as well," said Bruce Jones, the lawyer representing the theaters.

In October a judge ruled against the theaters. The companies are now awaiting an appeal, although they have not decided what they will do if it fails. Paragon is committed to staging Virginia Woolf in July, though it has not decided whether to follow the anti-smoking law or not. A spokesman in the Colorado attorney general's office said he could not comment on an active case.

Not all smoking bans are quite as rigid. In Ireland herbal cigarettes, which do not contain tobacco and which actors frequently use as an alternative, are permitted. England's ban, which begins July 1, allows actors to smoke only "if the artistic integrity of the performance makes it appropriate for them to smoke."

In New York City theaters, which fall under a statewide smoking ban in place since 2003, actors may smoke herbal cigarettes. If they want to use the real deal, the production has to apply for a waiver from the city.

Many productions, like Chicago on Broadway, use herbal cigarettes instead of bothering to get a waiver.

Abbie M. Strassler, the general manager of the 2005 Broadway revival of The Odd Couple, in which Oscar Madison is constantly chomping his cigar, did decide to apply for a waiver. The entire process, starting from when she first inquired, took four months, she said, calling the procedure "absurd." But she admitted that she did not get approval for a three-week Broadway run of Hal Holbrook's Mark Twain Tonight! in June 2005. "I figured I'd take my chances," she said. No legal action was taken.

Actors aren't technically allowed to smoke onstage under the ban in Chicago, but when they do, the law is simply not enforced. Tim Hadac, a spokesman for the Chicago Public Health Department, said that the enforcement was complaint-driven, and that he had not heard of any complaints about actors puffing away onstage.

In Colorado, where no version of a lighted cigarette is permitted onstage, aggrieved producers argue that tobacco is an integral part of the work of playwrights like Albee, Henrik Ibsen and Noel Coward. The company Next Stage canceled planned productions of the musical A Man of No Importance, by Terrence McNally, Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, which takes place partly in a smoky Dublin pub in the 1960s, and Stephen Belber's play Match, in which a pivotal scene involves characters smoking hashish, causing the revelation of crucial information.

Theater13 - which has a bigger budget and can risk a fine - defied the law by staging Match with herbal cigarettes in September. "We put up signage, it's written in the programs, and then we make an announcement before the show," said Judson Webb, one of the company's founding members. "We give people four or five chances every step of the way to make their own decision. If they walk out of the room, we'll give them a full refund." In 10 performances no one did, and no charges were brought.

In Scotland, Keith Richards famously flouted the law in August by lighting up at a Rolling Stones concert in Glasgow. Since the local authorities are in charge of enforcing the ban, the city council simply declared the hall exempt.

 

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