Editorial: Smokers' rights

It's been a mixed week or two for smokers.
They've come under fire in reaction to the Auckland District Health Board's threat to exclude staff who light up, cigarettes are now banned in prisons and new rules have come in stating tobacco products and ads must be kept out of sight in shops. Would-be smokers after a packet that's hidden behind a screen will probably feel a bit self-conscious, like a bloke surreptitiously buying top-shelf magazines in a brown paper bag, or anyone trying to buy cold and flu drugs at the pharmacy and not wanting to be thought a P cook gathering ingredients.
But smokers have had a significant win, too, this week. The Auckland Council - and this is not just any council, it's a super council from which others may well take their lead - has rejected a policy banning smoking on the street.
Too right, some smokers might say. They might argue that it's their right to light up in the street, especially now it's banned in the tearoom at work.
Just as others might argue it's their right to enter and exit buildings, or even walk down the street, without getting a face full of someone else's smoke.
The whole rights issue is a thorny one, as these things always are.
But usually claims of rights and discrimination would pertain to (and let's make a value judgment here) far more worthy sectors of society.
Is it more important to champion the rights of those discriminated against for their race, religion, gender, sexuality, physical or mental ability, age, physical appearance, politics ... or the rights of those who choose to smoke?
The Human Rights Commission, which knows a bit about these things, said the Auckland DHB would be within its rights to not hire smokers because smoking was not specified in legislation as a banned reason for discrimination.
Still, it must be hard to be marginalised for doing something that's not illegal (yet!) and that thanks to current laws and rules, many only do in their own time, away from work. The Lakes District Health Board says it will review early next year its rules around staff who smoke. As much as it may be hard to stomach workplace rules governing private, legal habits, you would like to think that, especially when it comes to hands-on health staff like doctors and nurses, they practise what they preach.