to genuinely not understand why smoking is vilified

[Redpipe]

and yet drinking, overeating and other addictions that cost the NHS huge sums of money are not?

AIBU to genuinely not understand why it is just smokers in this country that are socially unaccepted?

but see no harm in jogging and breathing in all the dangerous carbon monoxide fumes from all the passing cars.

What? About 15ppm? Of all the things to worry about in car pollution, CO is pretty low down the list. Dangerous? You know the bad old days when you could shut yourself in the garage with a running car and kill yourself? These days the car will probably stop running before you even get a headache. I worry about particulates from older diesel engines, but the gaseous emissions from modern engines are pretty much just water and carbon dioxide.

I can't speak for others, but excessive drinking does bother me.

Quite capable of being bothered by more than one thing. It's not an either or thing.

But I'm not annoyed by drinking in general, because in general it doesn't affect others.

I think it's just all getting a bit out of hand now with people still wanting to have something to complain about.

I don't know anyone in RL who would get upset at walking past someone smoking in the street it just seems a bit much!

Where I live smoking, binge drinking and over eating are all vilified. I hate walking down the high street having to dodge the litter and detritus that follows a Friday and saturday night 'out on the town'm be it broken bottles, takeaway wrappers or cigarette butts. Watching/ hearing someone else eat sets my teeth on edge, as does walking through smoke to get into hospital, shopping centres and my own home (my neighbour likes to smoke outside, right next to my front door grrr). It's all unsociable and mildly annoying to me for the reasons above, and a lot of my friends would agree. It's up to the individual however to spend their money on what they like, I wouldn't dream off trying to dictate what others should and shouldn't do.

pianodoodle I can't stand it, the smell, even the faintest whiff brings the memory of morning sickness screaming back! I wouldn't ever tell someone to stop because of that though, if they can't smoke on the street where can they?!

I blame a creeping health fascism for the assumption that it is acceptable to vilify people for making poor health choices but wonder where will it stop???

First they came for the fags, then they came for the booze, then they came for the chocolate biscuits....

FWIW I don't think that the majority of non smokers do actually 'vilify' smokers although most non smokers do dislike it; there will always be people who are prepared to screech loudly about others making choices (and to continue to smoke is a choice, however addictive smoking can be) about which they disapprove, but IMO they are a minority, just a very vocal one.

Live and let live people :)

100% of non-smokers die - FACT

I just wish smokers would actually smoke more instead of just dangling their cigarettes around at kids face level.

"I don't smoke myself but am amazed at the seriously health conscious types who obviously don't smoke and probably hate anyone who does, but see no harm in jogging and breathing in all the dangerous carbon monoxide fumes from all the passing cars. Why can't they see that this is far worse than standing next to a smoker."

Why the assumptions about what people who try to look after themselves, think?

but, No it isn't, if comparing like for like, otherwise anyone working or living in high traffic areas would be dying of disease en- masse.

Consultants don't just wake up and come up with their knowledge, there is massive amounts if research ongoing which includes cross cultural studies.

There isn't a point to staring smoking. We learn to comfort eat during childhood, most obese people have issues. Fat people are not because truly greedy, I more since I have gone vegan again. Being tipsy (or drunk) is fun, so are some drugs. We need transport. Smoking is nonsensical, it is an addiction, as opposed to being able to drink occasionally.

when we were staying at DFIL & DSMIL house, I went for a run to escape the smoke. lovely run. beautiful countryside.

got back, got in the shower..... got out of shower clean and refreshed, picked up towel......

....that smelt of cigarette smoke!

(I have a nose like a dog. cigarette smoke is a strong and irritating smell.)

Im not sure if smoking is seen as worse than over-eating. My husband writes off anyone at interview who is clearly overweight OR smells of smoke. He says both show lack of self control.

Alcohol is much more socially accepted, maybe because so few people abuse it. Everyone who smokes is an addict and risking disease.

I don't think it should be banned though.

I don't mind the smell of smoke actually, Im not a smoker.

"so how often have you had to wash your clothes/hair due to other people's drinking?"

Yet again you are trying to compare like for like. For me both having to wash my hair or having to tread around vomit at a cash point are both vile.

This is exactly my point! Why does washing your hair trump treading round vomit?

AndysMildAdventures

Does it really matter whether it's one fag compared to lots of alcohol. Both are anti social. I don't see swathes of moderate drinkers out on the weekend in the centre of towns. I occasionally see moderate drinking in a restaurant or bar but there aren't any smokers in there any more.

don't see swathes of moderate drinkers out on the weekend in the centre of towns.

What? You mean that if I go to Pizza Express and drink a bottle of beer with a pizza I don't exist...?

Yes, redpipe it does. Its an explanation as to why smoking is more disliked in general. A smoker is annoying and invasive whether they smoke one cigarette next to you or twenty. A drinker becomes annoying and invasive when they have had many drinks and they become drunk. Someone sitting next to me having one drink doesn't affect me, someone sitting next to me having one cigarette does.

elskovs your husband is clearly a cunt and I feel sorry for anyone he employs!

Because other people vilify it. As long as you're in a crowd of people saying the same thing you must be right and good. It doesn't really matter if you are yelling at people for smoking or for supporting the wrong party or football team. As long as you join a crowd and shout when they do.

There are of course serious downsides to smoking, but the vehemence is out of proportion to the effect it can have on a casual passerby and no one wants to ban people from harming themselves or skiing would be illegal.

Some posters ask "but you don't get so hot about people drinking" and they get flamed because... well you can't shout about that. Everyone has friends or relatives who drink so it just can't be done.

My town center is off limits at night time because of the violent drunks. In the morning someone has to clear up the broken glass and vomit, but hey that's just being sociable and drink never hurt anyone right?

If your best friend regularly gets in the car after a drink you can't say anything can you - that would be rude. If he ploughs into a bus stop full of people that's just bad luck. But "oh god I saw a smoker in the park yesterday! he was 50 ft away, but I wanted to kill him". The hostility is just over the top.

The media don't help because when they print research results they don't explain them properly. When you see that "millions died of smoking" that won't be what the researchers said. "contributed to" would be more accurate. Those millions are the same people who died of obesity and the same people who died from heart disease, liver disease and so on. Because all of those things contributed to them dying earlier than they might have otherwise

After a bit people start making stuff up about it. Like the bogeyman gains more teeth and claws with the retelling.

There are people on MN who believe you can catch cancer because someone who visits you is married to someone who sometimes smokes and it gets passed to you on their clothes.

One poster had a sealed package delivered in a van in which someone had smoked when it was not being used for deliveries and she had to destroy the items in the package in case it infected her family.

It's not even helpful. Tell kids it makes them smell bad - which is true. Tell them it makes them out of breath walking up stairs - which is true. Tell them it greatly increases their chances of getting serious and terminal illnesses - which is true. Even tell them that they won't be very good at sex if they get out of breath all the time, but don't snatch them away from the road because a truck went by with a smoker in it. if they see people being irrational about it then they will dismiss all the warnings as lies and propaganda.

I wouldn't be surprised if most smokers now were the old people who started back when the same mob said that non-smokers were anti-social/miserable gits. It's not easy to stop once addicted.

"But "oh god I saw a smoker in the park yesterday! he was 50 ft away, but I wanted to kill him". The hostility is just over the top."

Have you ever actually heard anyone say that?

*My town center is off limits at night time because of the violent drunks. In the morning someone has to clear up the broken glass and vomit, but hey that's just being sociable and drink never hurt anyone right?

If your best friend regularly gets in the car after a drink you can't say anything can you - that would be rude. If he ploughs into a bus stop full of people that's just bad luck. But "oh god I saw a smoker in the park yesterday! he was 50 ft away, but I wanted to kill him". The hostility is just over the top.*

What utter rubbish!

People who behave like that are just as harshly criticised as smokers, if not more so. They are also selfish and irresponsible.

One poster had a sealed package delivered in a van in which someone had smoked when it was not being used for deliveries and she had to destroy the items in the package in case it infected her family.

Clearly that's representative of people who don't like smoking

Nobody on this thread has said that being within a few yards of a cigarette kills you or that drinking doesn't cause problems. The fact is that there are many more smokers than there are binge drinkers and drink drivers there is plenty of evidence that passive smoking affects the health of others, even now smoking indoors in public places is outlawed.

But people seem to think that breathing a tiny bit of smoke will cause lung cancer but people drinking one beer in pizza express is representative of alcohol use in this country

But people seem to think that breathing a tiny bit of smoke will cause lung cancer

Who thinks that?

I have to confess that, at this time of year, a tiny bit of smoke does do me a degree of harm. I walked past a guy smoking outside a hospital today and the lungful I got set off a massive coughing fit. That doesn't help me feel well disposed towards smokers at all but I don't expect to get cancer from it.

I wonder what the average alcohol consumption is per person in this country. I wouldn't be surprised if it were one beer with a meal. There are plenty of idiots to fill the town centres on weekend nights but there are an awful lot more people at home not drunk when that's happening.

I don't think anyone thinks breathing a tiny bit of smoke causes cancer. They think it stinks.

Excessive boozing is disgusting and dangerous. I think it is vilified as much as smoking is.

My goodness there are some weird attitudes on here.

If your best friend regularly gets in the car after a drink you can't say anything can you - that would be rude. If he ploughs into a bus stop full of people that's just bad luck. But "oh god I saw a smoker in the park yesterday! he was 50 ft away, but I wanted to kill him". The hostility is just over the top.

This one takes the biscuit. Nobody except the very stupid, thinks it is bad luck if a drunk driver ploughs into a bus stop of people. Drink driving and causing death whilst under the influence are pretty serious offences. I wouldn't worry about being rude if somebody I knew tried to drive whilst drunk - it isn't rude to try and stop such as offence being committed and if the 'friend' took offence, they aren't much of a friend are they? You would have to be pretty pathetic to take that approach. Most likely the drunk driver would end up in prison and he would most certainly by vilified and rightly so. Smokers don't go to prison for smoking, even in a public place.

Nobody thinks binge drinkers are hilarious either do they? Nobody I have met certainly - may those who actually do it think it is funny but they aren't most people surely?

The point for me is that there is nothing good about smoking. It serves no useful purpose and even in moderation one cigarette is one cigarette too many. You have to eat, you can't avoid it so it is hard for a binge eater to give up binging (and of course not all of them are overweight and costing the NHS a fortune too). Fat people get vilified all the time. Social drinkers who drink in moderation and don't get howling drunk don't cause a problem either. A little drink in moderation is supposed to be good for you. That is never the case for smoking. Smoking affects people close to them because of the smell and the smoke. It isn't necessarily going to cause them harm in the short term or as a one off but it is anti social in any situation.

And just for the record, smoking does so much more damage than just lung disease and cancers. My father has Alzheimers and is registered partially blind both of which are directly linked to smoking. He could have got treatment for his eyesight but he didn't because he wasn't prepared to give up smoking. The effects of smoking are huge.

I couldn't care less what others think of smoking.

I only care about what the scientific proof says and what the HUGE costs are to the individual, to families, the NHS, to the tax payer etc.