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AIBU?

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Original poster

To be so sick of cigarette smoke everywhere I go?

170 replies

WanderingNotLost · 14/12/2016 17:34

And I do mean everywhere. Walking to the train station, people walking ahead of me smoking and I can't avoid it. Walking into the train station, at least half a dozen people desperately puffing away before they have to get on a train for max. 25 mins. Breathing out the last cloud of smoke as they get on the train and then their breath stinks up the carriage. Lighting up as soon as they leave the station at the other end. Walking from the tube station to work. Outside the building entrance when I go out for lunch. Same story on my way home. When I'm at home, can't have the balcony door or any windows open as other people's smoke wafts in. If it's not cigarette smoke it's that sickly sweet vapour. I just hate it so much, and I'm so aware of how bad it is for people - and smokers choose to do it, the people around them have no choice about breathing it in. If it were up to me it'd be illegal.

And please, please, no ridiculous comparisons to exhaust fumes (not that I drive anyway). Cars etc at least have a highly useful function, they get you from A to B. Smoking has literally not one single redeeming quality to make it worth all the negative aspects.

OP posts:
Original poster
WanderingNotLost · 15/12/2016 15:23

Moustache - it's not as easy as that when you live or work somewhere like London. you might get away from one smoker but within a few yards there'll be another. And another. You move somewhere, they're there too. It isn't easy to avoid. If it were I'd never have started this thread!

OP posts:
Manumission · 15/12/2016 15:23

Ha you had me for a while there, but the pub garden detail was too much Grin

CockacidalManiac · 15/12/2016 15:24

Yeah, the pub garden thing. Never much of a problem in the pub gardens I sit in.

DontTouchTheMoustache · 15/12/2016 15:26

Perhaps you should move to Yorkshire?

Original poster
WanderingNotLost · 15/12/2016 15:26

Yeah well good pub gardens are few and far between in London so they get rather crowded when the mercury rises above tepid...

OP posts:
ACubed · 15/12/2016 15:27

I live in a very crowded part of London and agree that it's gross having to walk (esp with buggy) through clouds of smoke. I used to smoke so I know this makes me a hypocrite, but I do think that for all the public areas where they have banned drinking, smoking should also be banned, as I think it's just as antisocial. Really winds me up that I can't have a can of beer outside in a public place on a sunny day in most areas, but it;s fine for everyone to smoke.

Manumission · 15/12/2016 15:34

She can't do that dont; She's clearly the only Londoner who understands London well enough to explain the unique London experience to the others. She's needed!

DontTouchTheMoustache · 15/12/2016 16:00

???

To be so sick of cigarette smoke everywhere I go?
HotNatured · 15/12/2016 16:53

I lost a friend to lung cancer, he was 35, never smoked in his life, but his dad did and my friend died because of passively imbibing his father's toxic fumes.

I'm asthmatic and someone smoking in the same vicinity induces an attack, which I can die from.

I work in the City (London) and encounter people smoking on a daily basis, they are on street corners, outside offices, bars and restaurants, waiting at bus stops and walking to and from the tube station.

Smokers are selfish, ignorant drug addicts. If you want to kill yourselves by puffing on sticks filled with weeds, be my guest, but do it away from me Angry

WorraLiberty · 15/12/2016 16:59

Smokers are selfish, ignorant drug addicts. If you want to kill yourselves by puffing on sticks filled with weeds, be my guest, but do it away from me Angry

Pretty sure you've accidentally left out the word 'some', there?

DeepanKrispanEven · 15/12/2016 17:00

*Never much of a problem in the pub gardens I sit in.8

Oh, well, that's conclusive then, isn't it. Are you seriously suggesting no-one ever smokes in pub gardens, and that it's never a problem to someone else who would like to eat outside and doesn't particularly want smoke around them as they eat? Of course, it's allowed by law, and of course the person who doesn't like it could go inside. Or maybe the smoker could be ever so slightly considerate and move away so they don't blow smoke over their neighbours, or wait until they've left before lighting up? Or is consideration a totally unreasonable thing to ask for?

Christmasfan123 · 15/12/2016 17:01

I'm sick of e-cig smoke too... so many people think it's acceptable to smoke it in shops etc!!

lilyb84 · 15/12/2016 17:03

I think some of you are being unfair to the op. I don't think she's coming across as hysterical or any other of the terms being levelled at her. Maybe a bit ott on a couple of points but what's wrong with saying you find something unpleasant? A couple of posts here are also conflating several other posters' comments and attributing them to the op.

I've already posted upthread but I'm an ex-smoker and also live in London. I've just left work and have had someone walking ahead of or next to me smoking for most of my 10 minute walk to the bus stop (Kings Cross to Russell Square) and now at the bus stop, no matter where I stand, there is someone smoking near me.

I'm not exaggerating or saying I believe I should be protected from the horrible nasty smokers, poor me. But it does sometimes feel that you can't get away from it. I'm lucky to live opposite a park and in an area with lots of open space, where it's not an issue. But when in central town I do spend most of my time walking or standing near smokers.

I also agree on the pub garden front. In London we mostly avoid them unless there's a no-smoking area now we have ds. Much nicer outside the city Smile

When there are posts about smelly food on public transport the anti-food brigade is usually pretty strong. I find it odd that people are so defensive of smoking in public places when passive smoke is much less pleasant and actually harmful!

Incidentally I'm not pro a ban and don't have any problem with people smoking as it's their choice. But I do find it weird how defensive smokers can be of something that's scientifically proven to be harmful to them. I never spoke like that when I was a smoker and would have been mortified to have told my second hand smoke was affecting someone.

BratFarrarsPony · 15/12/2016 17:03

" Smokers are selfish, ignorant drug addicts "

That's nice.

CockacidalManiac · 15/12/2016 17:07

Oh, well, that's conclusive then, isn't it. Are you seriously suggesting no-one ever smokes in pub gardens, and that it's never a problem to someone else who would like to eat outside and doesn't particularly want smoke around them as they eat?

It's a legal activity; they have to sit outside to smoke, they can no longer sit inside. May I suggest getting a grip?

CockacidalManiac · 15/12/2016 17:09

And for all those living in London (and it mostly seemsto be those) moaning about all the poisonous smokers; you choose to live in one of the most heavily polluted part of the country.
You only have to visit the dump for a day to taste the pollution.

expatinscotland · 15/12/2016 17:11

'But i'm an outdoors person. One of my favourite ways to spend a summer evening is in a pub garden with my friends '

On what planet does sitting in a pub garden equate to being an outdoorsey person? Hmm

lilyb84 · 15/12/2016 17:15

It's hardly a dump Hmm

And I'm not 'moaning'. I'm pointing out why it can be unpleasant, for some people, in certain situations. No one is saying they're shocked that there are more people obviously smoking in a more populated city centre than in a less populated rural area.

BratFarrarsPony · 15/12/2016 17:16

I am afraid i agree with Maniac.....
If you are jogging in London you have a lot more to worry about than a few smokers puffing in pub gardens and workplace doorways. You can literally taste the air sometimes..
Although as a fairly new ex smoker I do agree that it smells horrible.

CockacidalManiac · 15/12/2016 17:17

Sounds like a dump to me, if you listen to these horror stories of thick cigarette smoke throughout the city.
I live in a very large city, we seem to manage.

DeepanKrispanEven · 15/12/2016 17:18

Cockacidal, may I suggest you read the whole of my post where I specifically said that smoking in pub gardens obviously is legal? So you were hardly making a novel point. However, I pointed out that maybe consideration for others could come into it occasionally, which is hardly a hysterical statement calling for demands for grips, is it?

No one has to sit outside to smoke. They could move away from people who are eating. They could wait before they light up. Or, and here's a radical new idea, they could just not smoke. It's not compulsory.

Manumission · 15/12/2016 17:18

cock never in 4 decades in London did I ever feel I was dogged by cigarette smoke (and I'm not a smoker). I suppose the entire city might have changed in the three years since I left Hmm

What HAS changed in London is most of the real Londoners have gone and it's filling up with people who bang on about living in London constantly but would really like the whole place sanitised, pedestrianised and put under glass.

CockacidalManiac · 15/12/2016 17:19

No one has to sit outside to smoke. They could move away from people who are eating. They could wait before they light up. Or, and here's a radical new idea, they could just not smoke.

Or you could mind your own business.
HTH.

Hygellig · 15/12/2016 17:22

I hate it too. I was at the retail park today right behind a dad who was smoking and didn't seem to mind the fact it blew all over his baby who was being carried just behind him. There also seem to be a lot of people smoking in the street. On the other hand, I personally know hardly any smokers, I've never seen anyone smoking around school and I'm glad to not have to go back to the days of smoky pubs.

CockacidalManiac · 15/12/2016 17:23

I think it's great that people aren't allowed to smoke inside buildings, such as pubs.
You can't chase them outside and then moan about that too.