What if the government refuses to ban smoking in public places

I came across a new TLA (that's “three letter acronym”) the other day: KDM. It stands for key decision maker. It was in a great big document that was in my post on how to go about persuading the great and the good to do something to reduce people's exposure to secondhand smoke in public places. ![][1] In Ireland smokers are now left out in the cold Credit :FRAN VEALE/GETTY IMAGES According to this framework for action a large number of public health professionals should devote a great deal of energy to winning the hearts and minds of city councillors, business leaders, trade unions, company bosses, and community leaders to act to limit or ban smoking in public places and in places of work. These people and organisations are the KDMs that we should be influencing. That's all very well—but the thought occurred to me that there's one KDM that matters … [1]: /embed/graphic-1.gif