People smoking outside in public

[Mimicat44]

I had to go into town today for an appointment (normally try to avoid it at this time of year) with dd in her buggy. Even though it was only a ten minute walk from where we parked, we had to walk through/around four separate groups of people smoking. No way to avoid breathing in the smoke. I don't think I'm being particularly PFB as it would have pissed me off if I'd been alone but it was infuriating thinking of dd having to breathe it. At one point we got stuck walking behind someone who was smoking with no way to overtake. AIBU to wish that they would ban smoking in the street/outside public spaces? Why does their right to smoke trump our right to not breathe poisoned air? If they want to carry on, fine, they can stink up their own houses, tar up their own lungs and clean up their own fag butts!

Actually the rector ponced a fag outside then came to the receptionand drank my best scotch

Ooh you smokers are sooo risqué!!

Yeah its gross but what can you do. Its not like theyre forcing you into a headlock and blowing smoke down your throat.

YADNBU OP

I am tired of running the gauntlet with my DC on way to school/train station/after school clubs/bus stops. It's a chronic daily nuisance and the smoke we are breathing in IS harmful to lungs. Saddest of all are the smokers outside the main hospital entrances.

Meanwhile the evil tobacco industry is laughing it's toxic head off and taking the money!

So pleased that our cafes, pubs and workplaces are now smoke free inside which is wonderful, but this outdoor smoke is a genuine nuisance to pedestrians, particularly in London where the pollution is rank at the moment (Hopefully Sadiq Khan seems to be serious about tackling this!)

One day we will all look back in dismay...

So if you are a smoker you can't have a special occasion. I have a wedding photo of me fag in one hand glass of wine in the other smiling my head off. Guess that's not special. Here have a grip.

I hate it when people have barbecues in the summer. All that stinky smoke and disgusting smell of meat. It's so rank I have to close my windows if they're close to me.
I also hate it when people let off fireworks in November and New years eve. Its noisy and annoying.
Guess what, OP. That's life and I just have to put up with it. These are legal activities, just like smoking in public is. Get over yourself.

Heh so do I penguin

But seriously guys, your children are not seriously going to be at risk in public places from the minority of adults who now smoke. You need to chill out about it. (of course general pollution levels in London are another matter and anyone intelligent worries about that. And the correlation between smokers and the chance of their own children taking up smoking - even when the parents don't smoke round their kids - would be a concern to anyone with a few brain cells. )

Anyway I hate this fucking government and wouldnt voluntarily plough more money than necessary into their coffers!

YAB fucking ridiculous. When I was a child/teenager, you could literally smoke anywhere- in the cinema, on the bus/train/tube/aeroplane, in restaurants, standing in the queue at the bank. I remember going to the Post Office and staff sitting behind the counter smoking. When I was a student nurse in the early 90's, we used to sit in the nurses' office smoking while we did handover. It's hard to imagine now. Getting the occasional whiff of smoke outside is not going to harm your PFB. I gave up a 30 a day habit 10 years ago but this thread is honestly making me feel like having a fag. Smoking is an addiction. Would anyone dare to come on here and say that alcoholics and drug addicts are disgusting?

Gowgirl
Eventually smoking will become a rich peoples pursuit as the price goes up, therefore making it desirable......anyone see a pattern.....

Yes, there will always be idiots.

Two annotates and a fact (both from the olde days when smoking was aloud indoors)

When I went to college the canteen area was separated in to two areas, smoking and non-smoking. The non smokers where protected from the smoke by an invisible wall. The smokers used to sit and stand by the middle area and blow smoke in to the non-smoking half making it even worse (usually in the winter months). Until the non-smokers went outside, the smokers then sat in the nice warm area till the buses were about to arrive and then come outside and blow smoke at the non-smokers again.

On a fantastic, hot summer day we went to the pub, all of the smokers were outside (a rarity). So we staid inside, a smoker came in, bought a cigar, looked at us, the pub, lit up blew the smoke around, then left laughing.

The fact, in ye olde days smoking was sold to people as a healthy thing to do.

So Although I couldn't give a monkeys rectum, about lots of smokers today, The older generation do have an argument about why they started.

That having been said (background in place etc.) OP YABU. It it leagues better than it used to be.

get over it its a free (for now) country

The irony of people moaning about having to pass smokers while heading for the train or bus.

Both of those modes of transport chuck out far more pollutants than a single cigarette puff you may inhale in passing.

Unless you travel everywhere by foot or bike then you can't moan about anyone polluting the air as you are contributing to it yourself.

So a ten minute walk, passed possibly three groups of smokers. Get a flippin grip. Oh and yes, I have read most of the thread.

Oh, and none of you "run the feckin gauntlet" of smokers, blocking every high street, groups of 40 smokers outside every public building, shop, office, bank, cafe.....as a smoker, even I notice how very few people smoke outside these days (it's too cold, damp, we cannot be arsed mostly). Anyone who says they are suffocated walking up a high street is being totally ridiculous, it simply does not happen.