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One thing that really gets up my nose is inhaling other peoples' stale cigarette smoke against my will. It's about time to ban smoking in public places in this country and stamp smoking out once and for all. You know it makes sense!
There's nothing worse than coming home from a bar or a club smelling like a dirty ashtray
There is nothing worse than coming home from a bar or club after an evening out and finding that your clothes smell disgusting because they have been saturated with stench of smoke. I'm not the only one who is fed up of this, and I'm not some born again non-smoker, I just wish that I had a choice whether or not I came home smelling like a dirty ashtray.
Another thing that I really hate is walking down the street behind someone smoking a cigarette. Every time they exhale out comes that cloud of stale smoke and bang, you walk straight into it and aside from crossing over to the other side of the street there is very little you can do about it. It is not a pleasant experience and it is one I could live quite happily without.
I know there are a lot of people in this country that smoke and I'll be willing to bet that some that are reading this article are fed up with people who don't smoke always harping on about their 'bad habit' and telling them what to do.
The simple fact is though that smokers are affecting the health of non-smokers as well as their own. People die each year just because they have breathed other peoples smoke and that is something we really should be taking seriously. In my opinion a complete ban on smoking in public places is the only way forward. Even outdoors in so called smoking areas!
There seems to be a huge number of web sites on the internet dedicated to stopping smoking or with information about smoking. Here are a few that I thought might be of interest. The Net Doctor is very interesting as it contains information on many health issues as well as smoking, how to quit and it even includes an 'addiction calculator'. If you want to know the facts about Lung Cancer then look no further. Then there's women and lung cancer, an interesting site with some pretty dramatic statements regarding the disease. Apparently the information is slightly out of date now though because breast cancer has just recently overtaken lung cancer.
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I have every reason to hate it as i grew up living with my gran who slowly died a horrible cancerous death because of smoking. It didnt help that i was a teenage athlete at the time. I actually started smoking when i was 26 just to try and fit in. It eventually became too disgusting and i stopped so ive turned full circle and returned to how i've always felt about it. I can only pray that one day smoking will be eradicated from society but those prayers will not be answered I'm sure. Certainly not while there is the greed and corruption to lure people into addiction and make ciggy manufacturers their profits. S x
Enter a non-smoker into your domain or pub, and it appears to be the most important discussion in the place. If it is that easy for me to put the cigarette out when I want to, why does the smoker find this concept so hard to grasp. If you forget and light up you get a cold stare from your fellows , is that the end of the world?
I don't think you can compare smoking with drinking alcohol. Drunks may well cause many problems because of their behaviour but if someone is sitting drinking a glass of wine in a restaurant garden they are causing no one either a social or a health problem.
If someone in the same garden is smoking it does cause problems for the non smokers. It smells awful and the dangers of second hand smoke are pretty well documented now.
I hardly think that's a reasonable comment. The needs of non-smokers have been put first as you call it by the introduction of any type of ban on smoking.
This comes down to personal choice and whilst a non-smoker has an absolute right to not inhale second hand smoke or suffer the effects of smoking, a smoker has the right to indulge in their habit in peace. Special areas need to be created with adequate ventilation/extraction to allow smokers to partake with no threat to the non-smoker.
I don't smoke, I gave up a while back because I had some health issues which, whilst not caused by smoking, gave me reason to think about my overall health.
Smokers in the UK are treated like they have the plague. If you're an alcoholic you have an addiction to alcohol and you are considered to be ill. If you are a druggie you are addicted to illegal drugs and you are considered to be ill. If you are a smoker you are addicted to nicotine and you're just a dirty scumbag smoker! That hardly seems fair really that they are treated so differently. Please don't tell me that it is because the other two don't affect other people because they do. A high percentage of petty crime is the result of drug addiction and alcohol is clearly the cause behind a lot of violence.
Then there are the financial issues. An outright ban on smoking could only reasonably be supported by an increase in general taxation to account for the lost revenue. None of us want to pay more tax than we already do and that in itself would be an arena for griping.
Sadly there doesn't appear to be an answer to the problem other than for smokers to consider the effects of their habit on others and to make every effort to keep away from non-smokers whilst indulging. Similarly non-smokers need to give them the space to do this and not claim their right to be there just for the hell of it. An example of this is a local pub near my house where the smoking area is over the back of the garden away from the main beer garden. Some non-smokers like to sit there and then complain about people smoking in that area too! Why? It just isn't reasonable.
They can advertise a product that is currently viewed as harmless whilst essentially promoting smoking because you can call it vaping but they are sucking on an object that looks like a cigarette and blowing out vapour that looks like smoke.
It normalises what it’s taken years and a big fight to mostly remove from advertising and the media.
As I said in an earlier post, I am in two minds about a total ban.
On the one hand, it’s a dangerous, poisonous and addictive drug that has been promoted ruthlessly for generations with the sole intention of getting people hooked and then making huge immoral profits from them.
But, would a total ban work or just drive it underground so that it becomes a new source of income for criminal gangs?
I don’t know. But I think maybe extensions of the current ban on smoking in enclosed public places might be one way to go. Perhaps, as I said earlier it should become a private habit but how does that protect children in their own homes?
I am not sure how making it illegal would work out in practice.
On average, children and babies who live in a "smoking home" do less well at reading and reasoning skills compared to children in smoke-free homes, even at low levels of smoke exposure.
They are at increased risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cancer as adults.
They are also more likely to smoke as adults and so the cycle of illness and death goes on and on.
Surely it is time for our government so show a little moral backbone and ban these "death sticks" totally and just for once put the needs of the non-smoking members of our society first.
Most people I know who still smoke are a lot more considerate than many smokers were in the past, and not many have old Smokey's stubborn and selfish attitude.
Only then will justice be not only done, but seen to be done. Take him down.
That is a very selfish attitude and one that is out of step, I think, with the way most people think these days.
It doesn't just affect you - your smoke can make other people ill and it's very unpleasant to be around.
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