Smoking panel: Margaret MacKenzie

MEET THE PANEL Name: Margaret MacKenzie Age: 49 Lives: Glasgow Works: PA/Office manager and part-time bar worker Non-smoker

I am a non-smoker and have never smoked and work in a pub part-time where people smoke all around me.

I am looking forward to 26 March with great delight due to the fact that I will be able to work in a smoke-free environment.

I hear people (smokers) griping every night about their right to smoke and the fact that the government is taking away that right by bringing in this smoking ban, but they don't seem to give any thought to the non-smokers who have to breathe in their smoke through no fault of their own.

I quite agree that they have a right to smoke but they don't seem to agree that I have a right to not smoke and don't particularly wish to breath in their smoke.

They are the most inconsiderate people imaginable and so selfish about their rights that they totally disregard everyone else's rights.

They think they are being hard done by.

Well I for one thing it is the right thing to do.

I know there are all sorts of help groups and aids to help people stop smoking, but at the end of the day if they don't want to give up then let them smoke elsewhere and not in my face.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and are not endorsed by the BBC.

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We asked for your views on the ban. The following represents the balance of opinion we received.

Cigarettes are one of the biggest selling products in Scotland and the government receives huge tax revenue from them. If less people smoke due to the ban, the government will generate less revenue and therefore be forced to enforce stealth taxes and raise the prices of other products.
Luke Hooman, Stirling

I lived my childhood in a house with a chain smoker. Now I spend my life wheezing with asthma caused, I am certain, from that childhood inhaling another person's smoke. In those days my relative knew no better. We do know better now and people have to realise that they are harming others with their addiction (or pleasure if they choose to call it that). If I go out to a pub or a restaurant where people are smoking it ruins my evening. I would feel even worse if I had to work in such an atmosphere. So these smokers are not only ruining their own health but mine too. Stub it out! I support this ban wholeheartedly
Judi Rumble, Kintyre

I just gave up smoking -again - I can't wait for the ban to come in. It is the only way to go now, pubs and clubs (well some of them) tried to use self regulation i.e. the smoking area/non-smoking areas. It simply can't work, unless they are sealed off and businesses simply wouldn't spend the money on making it a safer environ for its customers. Sitting in a resturant in a no smoking secion offers no protection from a smoker in the smoking section right next you!
Colum Coleman, Glasgow

No-one would argue that non-smokers don't have a right to a social life, but everyone has that right. I think people are missing the point a bit. Smokers do not want things to stay the same as they are now - a ban is fine but it must work to suit everyone. The decision should lie with the publican - either you run a smoking pub and hire staff who are happy with that, or you have a totally smoke free establishment. That way there is a choice and choice is what it is all about. Adults do not need a nanny and this government has appointed itself as Mary Poppins. What happened to her - oh I remember, she deserted her children and disappeared into the night!!!
Loraine McGregor, London

The Scottish Executive do not have the power to enact such a ban under the 'protection of workers' banner. That is not a desolved power, it is the responsibility of the UK Government through The Health and Safety Executive. What next for Scotland, alcohol, food, dangerous sports, driving? Do not scoff there are mindless zealots out there who given an inch will take the mile. Be warned.
Robert Feal-Martinez, Swindon, England

Andrew Scott - if you know where you can find a completely non-smoking pub, perhaps you can share it with us? I've certainly never come across one, so us (majority) non-smokers don't have a choice!
Keith Legg, Dalgety Bay

I am 110% in favour of the ban. Last Sunday I played snooker with my son, at his club, for less than two hours. When I got back in the front door my wife said "Oh my God - smell your anorak. The front porch stunk for several hours afterwards.
Charles Roberts, Oxfordshire

I agree with Susan here, cars and smokers choosing to smoke in public are two different things. I choose to drive a car as I have no other way of getting to work. Without the car this country's economy would grind to a halt. Yes it does pollute but cars are becoming more efficient/less polluting and new low/nil polluting technology is nearly here. However, smokers choose to smoke, do not need it to stay alive, keep their job or keep their country afloat. In fact if you got rid of all smokers in Britain companies would become more profitable and more work would be done (fag breaks) certainly in my company anyway. The country would then have a better economy. Before you say it the tax issue doesn't prove true either. Smokers, just admit it, it's wrong, cancerous and harms people who do not choose to be harmed.
Steve, Perth

George, just because someone is anti-'being-forced-to-smoke' does not mean that they are not also anti-'cancerous fume-ridden motor vehicles'. Surely one thing that makes the world better does not exclude another thing that makes the world better.
Susan Thompson, Stonehaven

Unless you plan on arguing that you didn't know pubs were smokey environments when you took the job (in which case I'd be inclined to ask if you knew they served alcohol as well) then you accepted the health concerns when accepting employment there.
James McEnaney, Glasgow

I agree entirely with Margaret Mackenzie's comments. My wife and I seldom go out for an evening, as smoke makes my wife ill. Up to now, my wife feels, that "the right not to smoke" is taken from her. What Margaret says, I could not put it better myself! I think smokers are the most selfish people around. When they light up, they are only thinking about themselves, not about the people around them. My wife is a nurse, she sees the damage smoking does and it costs the health service a fortune to treat these people when they turn ill.
Allan Watt, Hawick

Last week I went out twice for meals and drinks in restaurants that have already enforced the ban - The verdict, wonderful!
Gordon Stewart, Glasgow

The Scottish Executive seem to be playing the health card a lot on this one, so if they are that bothered about people's health, why don't they just ban smoking outright? Put their money where their mouth is. But of course they won't, too much tax money involved you see. So are they really that bothered about the health of people?
Boab, Edinburgh

So, you're a non-smoker who chooses to work in an environment that exposes you to smoke! If you joined the fire service you'd expect to come across a fire, now and again. Join the Army and the likelihood is that you'll be put in harm's way. Give up the part-time job or find another where customers can be expected to bend to your will. You will need extra work, though, to pay for the health services, subsidised by smokers, that you now enjoy.
Ian McLean, Glasgow

Do smokers realise how bad they smell? They stink and make the rest of us stink also, not to mention the adverse effects on our and their health. The ban can only help, and I would recommend a boycott of Swallow Hotels and their associated premises if their injunction succeeds in the face of the democratic will of the people of Scotland.
Soutra, Dalkeith, Midlothian

Why not get a job in a non-smoking pub? When the smokers leave how many pubs will shut?
Alastair Ross, Ayr

It is so heartening that your work place is going smoke-free. I am one who was seriously injured by working in such an environment. You can find out how it was for me and others in our workplace by doing a google search on 'S.A.F.E. Smokefree Air For Everyone'. Our stories are entirely true, please do not expose yourselves to your smoky environment one day longer, if you can help it.
Albert J. Benson, California

And I bet you drive a car. I have never broken a child's leg with a cigarette, I have never spread an old age pensioner over the pavement with a cigarette. Because you don't smoke the rest of the world is supposed to go along with your opinions. Car exhausts in cities do far more damage to children than cigarette smokers. You're quite happy to drive cars and lower a child's intellectual capability by 5-7% from car pollution. No, I agree that non-smokers have the right to drink/eat in premises that are smoke-free if that is their choice and the choice of the premises owner but to force your attitude on others is not acceptable. Here's the bad news non-smokers die too, non smokers get cancer.
David Sharkey, Glasgow

I am an ex-smoker. I find the smell of tobacco burning repulsive and I do not want to inhale any second hand and cancerous fumes. I really can't believe the total hypocrisy, however, of most non-smokers' views. Stop driving your cancerous fume-ridden motor vehicles for a start; if you are really concerned about second hand fumes killing people. I don't really think there is much to add to that and I am sure most non-smokers never let this little thought enter their biased brains.
George Short, Tain, Ross-Shire

Sweet, sweet, clean air. No clothes smelling of other people's filth. The ban has actually made going out a pleasure, not an ordeal.
William Rafferty, Dunfermline

I am originally from Scotland and have lost family and friends to cancer I totally agree with this ban and think that our next generation and beyond are going to see a reduction in smoking related diseases. If smokers feel that they have the right to pass on their second hand smoke then they are the ones that are selfish.
Sean Ferguson, Edinburgh