She could have been an alien sent to collect the reactions of humans to a smoking pregnant woman. This is why I just ignore all of them in hopes of skewing their data.

You don't like me? lame.

only on CP would pregnant women smoking be acceptable.

You seem a little too ripe for confrontation which may be part of your problem. I didn't say "I don't like that guy". I said, "I'm not a huge fan" which is a much nicer way of saying "I don't like that guy". It's akin to saying, "I'm concerned for the welfare of your unborn child" which is a much nicer way of saying "you're a worthless, selfish POS".

Pretty sure no one here finds it acceptable. Hell even with the argument I made that it's blown out of proportion by the media.. I still find it completely unacceptable, low class and selfish.

"Harmful to others" is rarely the case in reality... on the flip side, it being inconsiderate is far too often the case.

And a fetus/baby doesn't have a working respiratory system.. it goes in through the bloodstream... not better by any stretch but just keeping the facts straight. (I'm assuming you are referring to respiratory as in the act of drawing in through the air not cellular respiration which wouldn't make much more sense anyway.)

Respiratory system? Of an unborn child?

Bingo. The whole "OMG SECONDHAND SMOKE" is a red herring that people hide behind because they don't like the smell of it.

I don't think anyone agreed that it was an acceptable practice for a pregnant woman to smoke. The question is should you inject your beliefs on a complete and total stranger.

I wish our schools properly taught the difference between causality and correlation and maybe even a class on epidemiology. Hell a simple class on toxicology wouldn't hurt either.

The thing that bothers me more than ANYTHING is that people swallow these "facts" and then go around espousing them as if they KNOW with absolute certainty what the reality is. Rarely do they do the research and dive into the actual studies themselves.. instead preferring to trust sensationalist media crap. Don't quote some bullshit meta-study... show me hard evidence. Oh, sorry, that's right.. it doesn't exist. This rant applies to all sorts of crap science not just the smoking propaganda.

In this instance, I have no problem with the idea that smoking is harmful to a fetus. Every worthwhile study I have seen shows a small BUT statistically significant impact. That is plenty for me to agree that pregnant women shouldn't smoke. AND there is always a chance that it is worse but we just don't have the hard proof to back that up. I just hate the rantings and assumptions of proof that in reality doesn't exist.

I agree with you except for the inexplicable lung and throat cancer my wife's grandmother contracted even though she's never smoked a day in her life and spent 30 years working in an office environment full of smokers. Her body has been zapped with so much chemo now that she has to eat special food because her salivary glands don't really function any longer.

In support of a defenseless child? Why wouldn't you? Unless you're the type of person who gets a kick out of confrontation the very act of objecting seems to imply that you care more about the kid than the woman carrying him/her.

I'm sorry about your wife's grandmother but you know full well that anecdotal evidence is not evidence at all in a serious discussion of the risks. I can point out more examples of no contact with smoke and instances of lung disease or even examples of people who smoked their whole life and never had the disease.

Yes, I recall you bringing this up before. The thing is, you can find isolated incidences of lung cancer in non-smokers...it happens. There are other things that can contribute to it. You can't say with absolute certainly that secondhand smoke caused it.

With that said, I have no issue with workplace smoking bans, no one should be subjected to that on a daily basis. Hell, even the restaurant ban didn't bother me. But we crossed the line over to absurdity with the bar ban and there are even places where smoking outdoors is being controlled. Walking by someone who is smoking outside isn't going to give anyone lung cancer.

I agree with this completely. I doubt I would handle that way myself but I have zero problem with it happening.