To object to people smoking in town/city centre?

[ilovemyhens]

Busy, shopping, lots of people crowded together type of thing. Then, you're walking along and having to pass people who are standing having a fag outside stores or walking along the street smoking and you have to follow in their smokey wake

I used to smoke and can understand that people like a fag, but surely they can hang on till they reach somewhere less crowded before they light up.

It's also annoying for ds2 who is 6 to have to walk along and get a face full of smoke when we walk past because of people standing with cigs.

Am I turning into one of those annoying militant ex smokers, or am I reasonable to feel angry about this?

Oh lighten up OP....go and have a good shag or something

yanbu in any way. the smoking ban has made it impossible to sit outside cafes any more because of people effing smoking.

I think you need to give smokers a break tbh , we can't smoke in pubs at bus stops prett much everywhere so when out shopping having exited the mall for a smoke in the open air we are now in the wrong because people are walking past , the only thing to do is to ban smoking altogether but that will never happen because it generates too mch money in taxes .
So for a happy medium there should be more smoking areas built since we are now banished outside but our filthy habit is still contributing to the economy fairs fair
fwiw I never light up if there are a few people around and always stand as far away as possible .

Urm in Wales outside Government buildings and Universities it does say;

"Smoking is prohibited within 10 metres of this building".

So one would have to stand in the road. Probably to be killed by non smokers who drive.

Or someone trying to light a cig while they drive, seeing as they havent quite managed to stop people smoking whilst in their own cars... yet.

Lord, the "smokers should jolly well be fitted with a full head mask if they want to indulge their foul habit" brigade are almost making me want to take it up again, several decades after quitting!

I quite like the smell of a freshly lit ciggie, it takes me back to sitting in the park chatting for hours about life, the universe and essay avoidance at Uni in the 1980s.........

However, removing the rose tinted specs, I've never liked the smell of stale smoke on hair and clothes though, or the health risks!

I do think a bit of live and let live is called for,for the vast majority of people without serious health conditions, merely walking past a couple of smokers outside a shop can't be that bad surely?

There's no health risk to walking past a smoker in the open air. Try telling that to the nose poke brigade though. I wonder who else they'll start on as soon as there are no smokers left?

I suspect it'll be "I can't sit outside my local pub anymore because those dirty drinkers breathe alcohol fumes all over me and my family"

You know what? I can't wait til the hot summer days. My local has a 'Beer Garden' and a 'Smoking Garden'.

You know where the non smokers go when the beer garden is full? Yup, you've guessed it, the smoking garden. And I take great pleasure telling them to fuck off and stand in the beer garden or go inside to the sweaty smelling bar if there is no room for ME a smoker in the smoking garden . They even have the temerity to waft the smoke away.

I'm a considerate smoker and don't smoke in queues or near buildings but really! the non smokers really take the piss sometimes.

YABU. Clearly a smoke free fascist! They are banned from indoor places (which I agree with BTW), what more do you expect?

ds1 and I had to walk through a thick fog of smoke just outside the entrance to the hospital last time we visited

They weren't even supposed to be smoking on the hospital premises, but they were, dozens of them!

(playing world's smallest violin)

Really OP, how do you cope with real problems?

YABU. People are allowed to smoke, and they can hardly do it anywhere anyway - seems like since the ban people seem to feel that they should be afraid they're about to start massively dying if they have to so much as look at a cigarette.... get over yourself.

The only issue I have is that cigarettes are right on a height for young children and toddlers. DS has been burned by an unaware smoker before and DD has been covered in ash as people flick their cigarettes.

Things have improved in our town centre, most people seem to congregate at the benches and bins right in the centre of the walk way, so you don't have to walk through smokers or right behind them.

Don't really mind for myself, it's just the kids really. I gave up so they wouldn't be subjected to smoke, so sometimes it's frustrating, but really it's temporary exposure and not a big deal.

"There's no health risk to walking past a smoker in the open air. "

worraliberty, did you read my earlier post? Yes there bloody well can be, if you have a crap chest. Those on this thread attacking the OP mostly are not taking into account that for some this can be damaging.

Rubbish madhairday walking past a smoker in the open air would make no difference whatsoever. Honestly, if it did you'd best walk around with a face mask a la Michael Jackson!

FFS. I ended up in hospital after breathing in smoke. Is that not enough for you? I have lung disease and my lungs are in such shit condition that I can't tolerate smoke. Yes this was a one off but now when I walk past people it hurts. A lot.

past people smoking that is.

So you want me to go round with a face mask, as I don't feel alienated enough already being disabled. well, cheers love.

Yet you say car exhausts don't affect you??

Sorry but if it's that bad (the odd puff of ciggie smoke in the wide open world) you really should wear a mask because you sure as hell can't expect the rest of the town centre to change their habits for you, can you?

Obviously not.

Might as well stay house bound and stop bothering people, hey.

Car exhausts not as bad as tobacco, no

This whole anti-smoking craze has got ridiculous over the past several years,utterly ridiculous. In a similar way to anti-bacteria. Fair enough that we can't smoke in public buildings,absolutely fair enough,however,you are being totally unreasonable to want it banned from outside. LOL LOL LOL. SILLY WOMEN (and YES it is mostly WOMEN who fart around about smoking,and many other 'popular things to worry about'.

You sound like a petulant teenager now Lol.

All I'm saying is if you're honestly telling the truth and a quick whiff out in the wide open is going to do that to you, yes you really should protect your lungs because no-one else will.

Really I can't understand how car exhausts don't affect you like a momentary slight puff of cigarette smoke wafting past as you walk.

I agree IQuiteLikeVodka Mass hysteria over....

Germs
Salt
Sugar
Just the mere smell of cigarette smoke even on someone else

I agree germs can be bad, I agree too much salt isn't good, I agree too much sugar isn't good, I agree passive smoking is bad...

But FFS what is it about people that makes them clutch their pearls and go so way OTT? Where has common sense gone?

Probably because of the level, I guess. I don't have the answers, only the experience.

I want to live life as normally as I can, so I put up with it, but do have to dodge if I am standing near someone because of what has happened in the past. It is miserable, and as I have said previously I'm no killjoy, really, and it's not just me. There are loads of people who struggle a lot. It's about courtesy for all.

Ahh well standing near would be different to walking past (as in what the OP is moaning about) madhairday I would move away too

Yep. I guess I reacted slightly OTT to your 'rubbish' post

However, even walking past can be pretty horrible if I get a faceful. Which can't always be avoided. And the reaction scares me at times, tbh, as in the sharp pain and tightening. Not nice.