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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think smokers should not smoke next to a no smoking sign?

221 replies

PopMusic · 23/02/2013 20:25

(My first aibu - am bracing myself) Grin

Today, I was parked outside a hospital waiting for my parents to come out. Right outside the entrance of the hospital and for about 50 metres, there are numerous signs (I counted eight from where I could see) signs saying "please do not smoke here" and "no smoking". I was waiting for about ten minutes, and I saw lots of people (15) smoking around the whole no smoking zone inc. several people (6) actually smoking next to a no smoking sign. I was partly amused by the irony of it but I also thought there must be a reason why it's a no smoking area, so why are they smoking there? Why could they not walk a little way and smoke where there were no signs? Just to let you know, the whole entrance area inc. way beyond the signs is sheltered and it was not even snowing nor raining.

OP posts:
ThePinkOcelot · 23/02/2013 20:29

YADNBU! I work in a hospital and the Trust has just spent money on putting up no smoking signs everywhere - on the lamp posts etc. People stand and smoke underneath them - pathetic. Also, daily on going in to work I see people standing in their pjs with their drip standing beside them, having a fag. FGS! It really shouldn't be allowed. TBH, it pisses me right off!

Sparklingbrook · 23/02/2013 20:30

YANBU. I think there are smoking shelters at our hospital well away from the main entrance.

KatyTheCleaningLady · 23/02/2013 20:31

Of course YANBU. That said, if a hospital makes it too hard for people to get to a smoking zone, then the signs will be ignored. People are going to smoke and they're unlikely to walk 50 feet away from any sheltering walls in order to do it. If they were to put up something a bit like a bus shelter some distance from any doors or windows where people could smoke, then there would be fewer people huddled in doorways. I understand that this could be construed as "encouraging" smoking, but it has to be better than people simply flouting the rules.

Saski · 23/02/2013 20:33

As a non-smoker, I feel frustrated anytime I'm subjected to smoking fumes.

Original poster
PopMusic · 23/02/2013 20:36

That's the thing though Katy, there is a huge bus shelter type thing all the way from the car park to the hospital, about 100m of it.

OP posts:
tallulah · 23/02/2013 20:36

This really used to infuriate me while I was having chemotherapy. You come out feeling like shit, sit down by the entrance to wait for your lift and somebody comes along, sits next to you and lights up. Right underneath the sign. Usually a fellow patient.

I noticed on my last check up that they have moved the entrance and erected a smoking shelter, so it must have been upsetting others as well.

Sparklingbrook · 23/02/2013 20:38

Why would you want to stand outside a hospital in your ill fitting dressing gown, attached to a drip having a fag? That makes no sense to me at all.

Except the addiction makes you do these things? Sad

CloudsAndTrees · 23/02/2013 20:39

I've smoked outside hospitals when there have been signs saying that you can't smoke anywhere on the grounds of the hospital at all. I wouldn't be selfish enough to stand right outside the front door, but nor am I going to walk for five to ten minutes to get out of the grounds to find somewhere that I am allowed to smoke. The time I did it I was too upset and stressed at my reason for even being in a hospital to give a flying fuck about no smoking signs.

Sparklingbrook · 23/02/2013 20:39

And I am sure those drip stands shouldn't be leaving the hospital.

Cassarick · 23/02/2013 20:40

In our local hospital they boarded up the 'smoking area' and made the hospital and the grounds no smoking. People are supposed to walk nearly 300 yds onto the main road to have a ciggie.

Needless to say they now just sit outside the entrance and ignore the signs and everyone has to wade through it all! If they'd left the smoking area there would not be a problem to anyone else.

Sparklingbrook · 23/02/2013 20:44

Someone should go out the front and move them all along.

Silverlace · 23/02/2013 20:50

I collected a friend from a hospital appointment and while I was waiting for her I saw a woman sitting outside the entrance in a hospital bed having a smoke. I looked and looked again and it really was an actual bed!

KatyTheCleaningLady · 23/02/2013 20:52

CloudsandTrees, that's exactly what I'm talking about. It's ridiculous not to give smokers somewhere to be stinky away from other people.

On a sort of related note: I once spent several hours in the middle of the night at the hospital in Paisley with an ill child. We got there around 10 and left around 3. I got hungry during that time and there was not one damn calorie available for sale. The vending machines only sold no-calorie beverages (water, flavoured water, Coke Zero, etc.) Obviously, some twat got the idea that selling junk food and soda would be "bad" for those of us who are stupid enough to get ourselves ill in the first place and so they were going to be sanctimonious and make us drink artificially coloured and sweetened crappy beverages. IT WAS MIDNIGHT AND I WAS STARVING AND FUCK THAT!

Sparklingbrook · 23/02/2013 20:53

Shock Silver. Nooooo! 'Push me out for a smoke'? Confused

KatyTheCleaningLady · 23/02/2013 20:54

I've seen people with IV stands and wheel chairs smoking. Yes, it looks dumb but, you know what? They're addicted and why torture them further? Just let them have their fag.

Silverlace · 23/02/2013 20:55

Sparkling, yes really. I wondered how she had got out there! I have seen people in wheelchairs and attached to drips but never a bed before.

Sparklingbrook · 23/02/2013 20:55

But they are torturing the people going in and out of the entrance who are sick themselves Katy. Sad

Sirzy · 23/02/2013 20:56

This really pisses me off. My DS has pretty bad asthma and ends up in hospital a lot, I would like to be able to get him in without is having to walk through smokers stood at the door to A and E

KatyTheCleaningLady · 23/02/2013 20:58

Sparkling, that's why they should be given a place to smoke where they won't be a nuisance to others!

Sirzy · 23/02/2013 20:59

The problem is by providing smoking areas the hospitals are basically saying its ok to smoke which isn't really a message they want to send!

Sparklingbrook · 23/02/2013 21:00

They have at our hospital Katy but they seem to prefer blocking the entrance. Sad

Sirzy · 23/02/2013 21:03

At our hospital you can be at the main road (ie off hospital grounds) in under 30 seconds walking, yet people still stand by the door.

it wouldn't matter what hospitals provided some people would still be too selfish

PrettyKitty1986 · 23/02/2013 21:03

But they are torturing the people going in and out of the entrance who are sick themselves Katy.

That's a bit melodramatic. It's not pleasant but it's hardly tourture Hmm . Nowhere near as bad as those smokers will feel from being deprived.

Sirzy · 23/02/2013 21:04

I assume you have never had to walk through the smog of smokers with an asthmatic child who is struggling to breath anyway Kitty?

KatyTheCleaningLady · 23/02/2013 21:07

They will feel as if they're being tortured. They will be in great discomfort.

At least if there's a smoking area to boot people into, there won't be any excuses.

That said, I'm sure there are people who would ignore it and just stand at the door. They should definitely be told to move along. It would be nice if there could be fines issued.