Non-smoking taken to ridiculous levels

As a non-smoker, I am in favour of smoking being restricted to designated areas. However, the current trend of imposing even outdoor smoking bans at shopping centres such as Lifestyle and Ballito Junction, is ridiculous. Don’t people have anything better to do?
Rather than ban smoking outdoors at restaurants that supply ashtrays, why not ban smoking on the beach, where most people just bury their cigarette butts in the sand? If we are concerned about health issues and pollution, why not ban all the open fires on the sugar cane farms after crop cutting?
Alternatively, if this is nothing else but an issue of being considerate towards others, why not ban braai’s? I am also a vegetarian, and I consider the smell of burning animal flesh to be considerably more repulsive than the smell of burning tobacco.
I realize that many people see this differently. Nonetheless, at a time when marijuana is being legalized in places such as the states of Washington and Colorado in the USA, I can’t help but feel that we are going in the wrong direction.
MARKUS KÄMPF
Ballito