Smoking

[weebarra]

I'm 36 and have been being treated for breast cancer for the past 9 months. I was diagnosed when DC3 was 8 weeks.
I've had 6 months of chemo, a bilateral mastectomy and now I'm doing the radiotherapy bit. AIBU not to want to walk through clouds of smoke at the entrance to the oncology centre?
I get that people are addicted. I've smoked myself and both parents do. It's just that I feel really pissed off when I see both staff and patients puffing away.
I was going to get cancer anyway - I have the BRCA2 gene, but these people don't have to get it. I just want to shake them.

Actually Diesel engines aren't clean at all, and as a lot of the traffic in town is buses, trucks and lorries, that's an awful lot of poisonous shit in the air.

I don't hate smokers, I hate the smell of cigarette smoke and I do think it's selfish behaviour to congregate in doorways inflicting it on other people. Easily solved by a smoker walking away from a doorway.

How do I make my 2 year old not breathe the fag cloud at the hospital doors, Inspace?
So inconsiderate.
99% of the UK population need/rely on vehicles for something.
The alternative is to go back to horse and cart!
Exhaust fumes are a necessary evil.
Fags are not needed. Not necessary.
Smokers love shifting the blame. Those who smoke in private, at home only, or walk that little bit extra so as not to do it at a communal entrance are weird are they? Or unnecessarily considerate?

It's a foolish argument to say that thing ABC is ok / shouldn't be criticised because thing XYZ is worse

Yes you're right squoosh but it's the hatred part which is wrong.

Nope, sorry. I watched both parents die of smoking-related diseases. My mother when she was 53. I was early 20s.

I hated it then and I hate it now and it may be very, very wrong, but I can't help but judge people who smoke.

And that isn't going to change.

My dad lost both his parents by the age of 23 to smoking related illnesses. His brother was 17.

He hates smoking and I suspect looks down on smokers for making what in his eyes is a stupid choice.

His prerogative and I can't judge it.

Me, I just hate the smell etc and I'm scared I'll lose loved ones to it one day. Don't care what other people choose to do if it doesn't affect my family.

I never got why on here smoking is portrayed as 'filthy', 'disgusting', 'skanky', 'vile' etc.

It is a stick of dried noxious materials which is burnt and breathed in and out with resulting smoky smells. Filthy and disgusting is eating snot, shit etc, puking and peeing in the street after drinking. Spitting. Not changing bed sheets for weeks on end.

I do smoke but only ever at home in the garden and never actually in a public place. It is my choice as silly as it is. It has been my crutch through many hard times in my life and I will stop when I want to.

I am certainly not filthy, disgusting, skanky or vile thanks very much. In fact I am much less those things than many MNers if the washing DC/changing bed sheets threads are anything to go by.

The smell is vile - the one that sticks to clothing, furnishings etc, not to mention breath. Old ashtrays is a good description.
People who smoke, smell.

And I meant to add, even our local zoo has outside smoking areas well away from the animals and entrances to anything.

So no reason a hospital can't do it.

grumpy i don't think anyone is condoning smoking in entrances to buildings etc. i for one said clear as day on the first page that this is just thoughtless.

but people dont seem to just have an issue with the smoke around entrances to public building. they seem to have an issue with smoke anywhere.

im not saying that smoking is okay because car fumes are worse. i'm saying that to get so het up about people smoking outside because of the smoke is strange when one car will pump out more smoke, more toxins than a 20 pack of ciggerettes. But that is fine because you can avoid that you can avoid car emmisions in the air about as easily as you can avoid oxygen IMO neither are really fine. But alas i drive a car and do my share of pulluting the air which is why i would never critise a smoker for smoking outside.

if they was in a doorway yes i would perhaps critise, but a park or street? no never.

The smell really is disgusting, for me it's on a par with BO and it's so much worse when I'm pregnant.

It gives me an instant headache, makes me feel sick, makes my nose itchy etc.

And I just don't think smokers can tell how much it makes everything around them smell.

I can tell if someone has smoked within 12 hours or so (unless they have showered and brushed teeth and changed clothes) and I can tell if someone smokes in their house even if they have aired it out for a couple of days.

My PIL smoke though not when we visit, and yet whenever we come away everything we took in reeks of smoke including the carseat and buggy, it's horrible.

Grumpy- I DONT SMOKE. I'm not defending smoking in doorways! I'm saying, lots of other things are dangerous too! Bloody hell

A whiff of smoke gives you an instant headache? I quite like the smell of fag smoke. Perfume gives me a headache

Judging people for not giving up is understandable when you have to watch them die/suffer but do we honestly think they can give up? my mum would rather not struggle daily to breathe as she does but she feels powerless to give up. Judging her (and she gets a lot of judgment) makes herself feel worse about herself and so she smokes more. I think even if you are a smoker who has quit, you still don't understand the grip it has on some people.

It just seems to be a strange argument. The thread is about smoking yet some people are more keen on saying how dangerous other things are?

I wouldn't expect to start a thread on the dangers of obesity and be lectured that I can't have a problem with it unless I also have a problem with anorexia.

InSpace - yes, it sucks really hard, pregnancy for some reason makes smoking so much worse for me.

Excessive perfume is bad too but for some reason I'm exposed to that much less.

Well, maybe you ought to slithy. If you see overeating as an eating disorder then anorexia might be very relevant

But I can avoid walking through the debenhams perfume hall - which really gets up my nose. I cannot avoid taking my son to hospital.

Ah- I have a lot of heavy perfume wearers at work :-(

Maybe I ought to what?

Funnily enough, I didn't mention overeating.

Ugh- I said IF!!! IF!!! Hypothetical!

But I don't see the relevance of discussing a physical state, making that the aim of a discussion, to have people derail it by talking about a different physical state caused by a mh problem.

If I wanted to discuss smoking, I wouldn't expect to be derailed by the dangers of car exhausts. Start a new thread for that.

I'm not derailing- I'm asking people to be a bit more tolerant by seeing the bigger picture!!

Yes but inspace - I didn't mention overeating at all, it's completely irrelevant to what I posted. Unless of course we were actually discussing obesity, which we aren't.

Can you not see the point I am getting at? That one can dislike and discuss ABC without having to dislike or discuss XYZ first?

It's not like we have to solve the issue of car exhausts before the problem of people smoking in doorways is dealt with.

But there is no bigger picture - and there is no need to be tolerant just because car emissions are bad.

No matter how bad they are, it doesn't make the walking through clouds of fag smoke any more bearable for some people.

The picture here is inappropriate smoking at a hospital entrance. The only thing affecting that is the smoking at the entrance.

I have never said people are not allowed to dislike smoke. I am saying, if people tried to look at the bigger picture rather than focussing on fag smoke, we could become a bit more tolerant