Looks like the Brits have more stones than us!
If that were the case 230 years ago there would have been no American revolution. No Boston Tea Party.
What we see here is not a matter of public concern for social well-being as much as it is for a creation of social sameness, a system wherein the greater goal is one of isolation rather than individualism.
The truly large threats to society are those that are global in nature but divorced from natural harm traceable to natural results but are only allowed to be named and championed by those who have previously positioned themselves to be the arbiters of both cause and effect.
If the cultural standards by which generations have succeeded are replaced by immediate problems caused by perceived future ruin from easily controlled agents of harm while the rest of the culture crumbles around it unabated, the results when all is said and done will be much the same as the day that Caesar woke up quite dead and voiceless with only the poets left to mourn his greatness.
Many European countries have anti-smoking laws similar to ours. The difference between anti-smoking laws in Europe and those in America is that in Europe they are widely ignored.
I was recently in the airport in Frankfurt and saw "No Smoking" signs every 10 meters. Travelers didn't care. They lit up wherever they pleased. I saw people smoking directly under the "No Smoking" signs! Nobody bothered them or said anything.
Could you imagine the pandemonium if someone lit up a cigarette in an American airport?