Where there's smoke there's fire: Outdoor smoking bans and claims to public space

摘要

The Canadian city of Vancouver was very early to introduce extensive smokefree legislation. Smoking has been banned in all indoor locations for well over a decade and tobacco control advocates have also recently begun to push for the expansion of such legislation into outdoor spaces in the city. Drawing on a 6-month period of observation of smokers and "not-smokers" on their lunch breaks at office sites in downtown Vancouver, I examine the ways that smokers engage with outdoor public space. I show that while smokers continue to make material claims to such space,these claims have become increasingly tenuous. I argue that tobacco "' denormalization" strategies provide essential context for understanding outdoor smoking bans and raise ethical questions about the form of de-facto prohibition they appear to encourage.