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

[PopMusic]

(My first aibu - am bracing myself)

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.

Where do you buy cigarettes at a hospital? Does the WRVS shop sell them?

or maybe they could just be a little more humanist and understand that people aren't all ideal and make the best choices but we should at least try to not make their illness a little more comfortable

If there aren't any no smoking signs surely it's just a matter of common courtesy and common sense not to smoke near the entrance.

Well you would think so HoHo, Baffling.

Sorry, and I will say this again: smokers do not HAVE to smoke. You simply do not. If you do not have a cigarette, you will not die. You will just be a grumpy bugger for a while.

If you were on a 12 hour flight, and could not smoke, you wouldn't. If you were so ill you could not get out of bed, you wouldn't smoke. I'm sorry, but you do not need, have to or have any right to smoke. So have some basic manners and consideration for other people, and take your choices 300yds down the road away from the hospital, fgs.

I occasionally need to have a wee. But I don't do it in hospital doorways.

There is no right, in human or terms, to suggest you have the right to smoke. You might crave a cigarette, but that is your problem, as our choose to be a smoker, not mine. Do what you like, smoke if you like, but be intelligent or empathetic enough to think about what you are doing and consider other people. If you can't even have this consideration or courtesy for ill people and children, you deserve the contempt which people afford you, IMO.

Whilst in hospital having treatment for an illness probably originating from their addiction, are drug addicts given a space to shoot up or alcoholics a space to drink booze?

Probably not. Smokers aren't an exception. They manage time on a flight. They can cope in hospital.

PS I am an ex-smoker.

Garlicbreeze, that sounds almost idyllic .

Just FYI, no ashtrays by the no smoking signs in this particular hospital but lots of cigarette stubs on the ground (well, I did have to wait for ten minutes, there was nothing to do but people watch and lookat my surroundings - first time I had been to this hospital ).

i dunno when i smoked i did have to smoke i was pretty addicted. i just love the way only on mn nhs patients are compared to people taking a flight on a plane

real world and mn really are poles apart

FGS, Belle, don't tell me how to live my life! Now YABU! You don't know what I can & can't do. I'm certain you've got habits I consider bad. I wouldn't lecture you on them unless you'd specifically asked.

FYI, I take sleeping pills on long flights to mitigate this very problem. If I wanted to become a non-smoker, perhaps I'd work at it but I don't and you have no right to insist I should.

Heh, I don't need that fag now because I'm emitting steam

To reiterate, HOSPITALS PUT THE ASHTRAYS NEXT TO THE SIGNS. Point this out to them and suggest they provide an appropriate rest area.

Be fair ladies, it's a bit rich to expect someone in the throes of emphaseyma to gallop 300 yards through blizzards to a shelter to have a drag when they can stand in the doorway isn't it.

whistles nochalantly

xpost, Pop, re signs!

You're right, the local arbour thingy is lovely! It looks like they got some craft group to make it :)

Congrats on a very successful first AIBU

Germy, what if the patient is in with heart problems? Or pneumonia? Do you think smoking will make their illness more comfortable?

No ashtrays next to the signs at our local hospital, and they have provided somewhere.

I love the illogicality of the anti-smoking brigade. First they ban smoking everywhere indoors - can't provide smoking rooms, oh deary no. Now they moan about people smoking outside! Well, whaddya know, if you ban it inside people will smoke outside.

Agree smoking right next to the entrance doors is Not Very Nice for other people. But I suspect a lot of the conflict is down to hospitals having those no smoking on the grounds rules. If you impose rules that are too draconian, people break them. Especially when they are under stress - as are many people being treated in or visiting people being treated in hospitals.

I still don't understand why all the ill non-smokers should have their symptoms exacerbated and their discomfort significantly increased so that it's more comfortable for the smokers ? Why does the humane approach only go one way?

Perhaps the hospital should offer them spare blankets to wrap around their shoulders on chilly days. Or better still, provide those outdoor heaters you get at BBQs.

I'm not telling anyone how to live their life. I'm not telling you to quit smoking. I am just expressing the opinion that doing it in the entrance to a hospital is an act of selfishness.

You do not have a medical condition which means your health is compromised if you don't smoke. I have one which means mine is compromised, in a very scary way, if I have to breathe your smoke. By smoking in a non smoking place, which I have no choice but to use (ie a doorway) you are dictating to me that I have to breathe your smoke.

Calm down. Have a fag maybe?

Holly the self inflicted emphysema sufferer can drag their O2 tanks very slowly away from the door to enable the asthmatic child to pass freely I believe.

Ooh yes HoHo a chiminea is it called?

Holly, I think a bit of fresh air and exercise would do them good - prevents dvt.

what an awful reflection on ill patients this thread is

I love smoking threads, I really do.

Firstly - let me tell you this:

I smoke.

I smoke a lot.

I pay a lot in taxes through smoking.
Only 10% of tobacco revenue funds the NHS as a whole. Where does the other 90% go? Well £1 in £3 of all revenue goes on the benefit system.
You have forced me to smoke outside in the poxy rain and snow.
I will die early.
I doubt I will collect much, if anything of all the pensions I've paid into over the years.
That will be absorbed by the state.
I am doing the country a massive favour by dying early.
I will free up housing.
I will free up a job.
I will not be burdoning the NHS.
I will not be laying in my own piss in a care home with some MW feckwit not giving a shit about my meds.

Frankly - you non smokers should get on your knees and thank the smokers for keeping your income tax low, and your benefits sustained. Because if we weren't subsidising the state in this way there would be no state system.

I take a bow

Holly all of that is irrelevant to the thread.

It's an AIBU about smoking next to the entrance to a hospital.

Perhaps Damien Hirst will donate some of these to the NHS to landscape their grounds. It could be quite a feature.
Might be better with a roof on maybe?