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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To feel annoyed with smokers outside the hospital entrance

199 replies

Sistermoondance · 19/05/2011 15:53

I am sitting outside the hospital entrance waiting to be picked up. Thoroughly annoyed as they rescheduled my appointment without telling me.

And everywhere I look there are no smoking signs- on the benches and on the Walls saying that smoking is prohibited. And all I can smell is smoke from about 10 people- either patients or visitors. Can these people not read!!! And if I can smell it I am breathing it in and so are the other poor patients who've come out for fresh air!

I haven't said anything as I don't want to start a row, but I am seething. Either these people are visitors in which case they could walk somewhere where people are not sitting, or they re patients in which case going without a fag would do them good!

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr

OP posts:

Original poster

Sistermoondance · 19/05/2011 16:19

I agree there should be a designated smoking area really... It is the only solution.

OP posts:

worraliberty · 19/05/2011 16:19

But the non smokers didn't have to be back inside the hospital quickly after so it makes sense that if there's no smoking area, the patients stay nearer. You can't really have people wandering all over the carpark in their pyjamas it's not workable.

worraliberty · 19/05/2011 16:20

higgle do you tut at fat people too and tell your children loudly that's what over eating does?

LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726 · 19/05/2011 16:23

Worraliberty... I'm guessing that you have a hospital in mind, I do too - the car park is miles away from the entrance but I think that it's possible for an area to be provided for smokers and there should be one.

I don't like walking through clouds of smoke and entrances aren't the best place - not for chatting, smoking, eating... they're for passing through.

If a designated place was available, it would be just as convenient, surely?

Salmotrutta · 19/05/2011 16:24

higgle you sound perfect ........... I so wish I was you

Pictish · 19/05/2011 16:25

I love people who tut at me when I'm smoking outside.

izzybiz · 19/05/2011 16:27

YABU, when my niece was in intensive care at 19 months old fighting for (and losing ) her life we gathered at the entrance of the hospital to have a cigarette so we could run straight back in as quickly as possible.
You don't know who those smokers were visiting, or how stressed they may be.

worraliberty · 19/05/2011 16:27

Absolutely Lying that's what I'm trying to say. While their isn't an area for them, it's a minor inconvenience for non smokers to put up with...but not as big a deal as some will like to make out.

I don't like bonfire and bbq smoke but it's something I put up with in the summer without moaning.

taylor74 · 19/05/2011 16:28

Even though they've banned smoking at Torbay hospital you can still see them smoking outside the entrance. It never used to bother me but when my mom got lung cancer and was admitted to the cancer unit I'd get mad seeing them smoking outside without a care in the world knowing it was a cancer unit.
I did actually mention it to one woman puffing away who told me to f**k off.
Some peeps really don't care.

GollyHolightly · 19/05/2011 16:29

How did you know the poor old lady had cancer? Lots of poor old ladies have cancer. Did you know that a huge proportion of poor old people die with cancer, but not of it?

Original poster

Sistermoondance · 19/05/2011 16:29

Ok, they were standing next to signs which said smoking was prohibited. Do all of you that reckon it is ok to smoke there, think it is also ok to drop litter or let dogs poo anywhere? All are anti social and not pleasant for others... I just think it is the responsibility of the smoker to move away from other people who are not smoking.

OP posts:

trixymalixy · 19/05/2011 16:29

YANBU, I hate walking through it too particularly when DS is with me as he has asthma. It particularly annoys me at the children's hospital as it is unlikely to be the patients smoking.

It would make more sense to have a smoking shelter for patients, but I guess the NHS can't be seen to condone smoking.

worraliberty · 19/05/2011 16:32

taylor with respect i'm not surprised she told you to fuck off. My Mum also died of lung cancer but I wouldn't dream of preaching to people because of it.

trixymalixy · 19/05/2011 16:38

OP, this is AIBU. People make it their business to come on and say YABU whatever the OP is.

The smokers are so blinded by their addiction they even defended smoking near children on here on the last smoking thread I was on.

I particularly love it when they trot out the " well car fumes/drinking/eating burgers are bad for you too" lines. Such a fail of an argument. It's like arguing that because we are exposed to radiation from the sun, what difference would a little nuclear spill make? One vice makes all others all right does it?

doley · 19/05/2011 16:38

Sometimes it really is just too late to stop unfortunately .

Even when facing a terminal illness ,the stress really is too much .

Unless you have personally been addicted it is very difficult to comprehend.

I was very lucky to stop as easily as I did ,if I had not got the bit of advice that worked for me personally ~I don't know if I could have given up ?

Salmotrutta · 19/05/2011 16:39

There was a case at a hospital up here where a doctor challenged a group of smokers near a hospital entrance as it was a no smoking zone.
He got punched and it turned out that the group of smokers had just lost a relative, were very upset and had gone out to have a cigarette to calm themselves down. That is no excuse for punching anyone but it points out that some people are under huge stress with dying relatives and need that cigarette.
FWIW I hate seeing smokers congregating at doorways too and I always move away from people - but we really have been marginalised.

taylor74 · 19/05/2011 16:40

I never preached I just said it says no smoking and your outside the cancer unit. I was shocked that someone would be that thoughtless. But these are of course my thoughts and I'm very protective over my mom, who as since passed. And yes I'd say it again in a shot there's a time and place to have a cig and it's not outside a cancer unit!!!!!

taylor74 · 19/05/2011 16:45

I was a smoker too so I know all about it. I smoked 20 a day so I know about it all. But I'd never be the insensitive.
Been packed in 6 yrs now. I feel that some smokers don't care, they smoke in cars with kids in, smoke when pregnant. 1st thing I did when I found out I was pregnant was pack in as it wasn't me anymore but my baby to think of.
Anyone can pack in

worraliberty · 19/05/2011 16:46

I think Mumsnet is weird when it comes to smoking.

There seems to be very little sympathy/empathy for smokers. Start a thread about obesity and it's a very different story. You'll read things like "But it's not that simple to give up over eating, I had an unhappy childhood/death in the family/divorce, food is a comfort/crutch, my addiction to food is a real addiction, I've been overweight for years and don't know how to change my habits' etc etc etc.....

100's of sympathetic posts will appear by people telling them they understand how difficult it is.

So why does one 'addiction' draw more sympathy and understanding than another?

trixymalixy · 19/05/2011 16:48

Really worraliberty? I would say the opposite. I think threads with smoking in the title attract more smokers trying to defend themselves, in the same way dog walking threads attract the dog contingent.

DaisyLovesMetronidazole · 19/05/2011 16:49

I agree with worra.

And I've never even tried a cigarette.

trixymalixy · 19/05/2011 16:50

Also worraliberty, we need to eat to survive, you can't just go cold turkey like you could with smoking or drinking alcohol and more people have experienced trying to lose a bit of weight than trying to give up smoking so can empathise.

aldiwhore · 19/05/2011 16:53

As a smoker, I don't like to smoke around other people unless they're smoking too... and certainly not at entrances (to anywhere really, other than the entrance of a smoking shelter) but the zero tolerance of smoking has gone so far that there are very few designated areas and people end up smoking where they wouldn't do otherwise.

People WILL smoke, personally I like to smoke and am fully aware of the risks, give me a space to smoke and I wouldn't dream of blowing it your way (too selfish).... I do feel we're being forced to inflict our smoke on non-smokers by the very lack of places where we can puff away to our heart's content.

doley · 19/05/2011 16:55

taylor :) I don't think it is possible for everyone to give up ,some just can't .

I just think poor HUMAN .

worra I think it is because there are no warnings on the cream cakes ...

BEING OBESE KILLS .

It is more socially aceptable to eat too much ,it is seen as vulnerability in society .

Smokers are not given that same allowance .

worraliberty · 19/05/2011 16:57

trixy you don't have to over eat to survive though. Most obese people on (here anyway) seem to claim to have a food addiction...I don't think I've ever seen anyone admit to simply being greedy.

But both addictions can be cured so i still don't understand the judges on here who lavish sympathy on people who can't seem to stop eating too much.

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