Smoking outside cafés?

[PuntCuffin]

Took my boys out to a local country park this morning. Decided we would have lunch while we were there so got ourselves settled at an outside table at the park café. We had our dog with us (as did many other families) so could not have gone inside.

Halfway through our meal, another family sat at the neighbouring table and both adults proceeded to light up cigarettes. So, we ended up with smoke wafting across us. Both boys stopped eating pretty much immediately, and started saying they felt sick. (Yes, they are probably hypersensitive but, it was pretty grim.) I gave up on trying to convince them to finish their lunch and we left the area, as did another family who hadn't finished their meals either.

There were no ashtrays on the tables, so the café clearly don't endorse smoking there.

AIBU to think this is a) Fucking inconsiderate behaviour and b) to be amazed that it is legal to smoke round an area where people are eating, even if it is outside.

Perfumes can be toxic: www.scientificamerican.com/article/toxic-perfumes-and-colognes/ Don't be stupid.

Yeah, that's right. Smelling shit perfume is EXACTLY like breathing in smoke from cigarettes. People die from it ALL the time.

Out of curiosity, are all these people only affected by cigarette smoke, or do barbecues and bonfires upset them too?

I'm not sure as no one has lit a bonfire on the table next to me when I've been out for lunch.

Heavy perfume also turns me green but it's not toxic. To equate the two is stupid.

Point taken.

In my defence....I did preface with, "Since this has turned into a free-for-all".....indicating that I had held back until normal logical discourse had been abandoned.

But no it is not the same.

But good lord I got hit with a wave of perfume yesterday in Morrisons...I was wobbling...and I couldn't get out of the slip stream.

Yeah there are some scents that can knock you bandy. Perfume lovers don't care though. If challenged they'll say 'oh grow up it's not like it'll kill you like smoking does.' People are entitled to smell offensive to others all they want.

Smoking tobacco is poisonous. Inhaling secondhand smoke is poisonous. They banned smoking poison spreading items inside to reduce exposure for people who make the choice to not poison themselves. Your addiction does not give you the right to puff out your poison anywhere it might go into my or my loved ones lungs. It IS an antisocial and unpleasant habit (forgetting the health dangers). Please be considerate and do it away from other people. You make the choice to poison your body but that does not include inflicting the fumes on people who choose to not poison themselves. And it's a choice. You CAN stop smoking. The only thing stopping you is YOU.

That'll sound much better on your knees with your hands clasped in front of you bunny

I second Bunny. I enabled my hard smoking mum (smoker for 60 years) and didn't question or challenge her. She stopped 7 years ago with nothing but will power. She got extra time with her grandchildren that she wouldn't have got.
I held her hand as she died from lung cancer last autumn.
I get that smokers are addicts and will say all kinds of stupid shit to justify what they do. If my 30 a day mum can give up with all the shit she had to deal with, anyone can.
If you think I'm just preaching, so what?

Well, I mean there is another level to this conversation...and I feel the same, in some respects, about alcohol.

As a society, we know, and have known a long time about the effects of tobacco. The dangers can hardly be exaggerated. That it is mercilessly and thoroughly addictive only makes it much more sinister.

And yet I can....at almost anytime....within ten minutes go and legally buy a pack of smokes.

With alcohol....has there been any substance that has caused anywhere near the damage? And yet there it is.

It is strange.

Alcohol in excess can harm the individual alcoholic and devastate the lives of those around them . But smoking harms those around the smokers directly as well as the smokers.
I drink a glass or two of wine at the weekend. I don't do it in front of my children and I never drink and drive. If I thought I had a drinking problem I would seek help. I don't pour alcohol down the throats of those around me. I don't sneer at the teetotal.

I read this morning that smokers have lungs that are damaged in such a way that it makes them the equivalent of 20 years older than their actual age.

I find that shocking. If I smoked then reading that would terrify me.

I find that shocking. If I smoked then reading that would terrify me.

Listen, there are some feisty smokers here saying things. But smokers know. Once you are past those first few years...when it is so fun to smoke....it becomes an endless constant practice of every hour having to administer. It still has its moments....work breaks are much more fun...that first coffee or drink....but it is a dirge. And quitting is so hard.

Some quit....but my advice is to never start. And I am willing to bet, that of my fellow smokers/ex-smokers here....every single one will agree with that.

I always think smokers are weak. I smoked in my 20s, got sick of the smell, cut down and stopped. Replaced cigs with carrot and celery sticks until i got away from the habit. It is a habit. You wont die quitting. It is. Very selfish habit too as you inflict it on others.

What an unpleasantly judgemental and smug post, @C0untDucku1a!

My mother smokes - I wish she didn't, but as she is in constant pain because her spine is crumbling due to arthritis, I reckon she uses up all her strength on just getting from the beginning of the day to the end, and has none left for giving up smoking.

My mum also couldn't quit when all kinds of other terrible health and personal stuff was in the way. I couldn't judge her for that. But I wished she'd quit earlier instead of right at the end and there is nothing wrong with Duck or others urging people to quit and being firm about it.
I'm sorry your Mum is struggling with arthritis, I really am.

I think they say less than 10% actually succeeded in permanently quitting.

I have been off them for a decade but don't feel out of the woods. A while back the thought hit me about how nice a frosty Budweiser and a Marlborough would be. Well a box of Marlboroughs and about five icy beers.....heavens! It passed though.

It was very, very hard quitting...took many years. My wife just put them down and that was that.

I'm a non-smoker and actually quite like the smell of cigarettes. But I don't appreciate smoke blowing over me whilst I'm eating and would hope that smokers would be considerate enough to be aware of where their smoke is wafting. General seating areas, well, you take your chances I suppose, but the seating area outside of a cafe? Just be mindful of where your smoke is wafting and be considerate of others.

Smoking outside is perfectly legal
So's farting right next to a stranger, but I would rather not inhale someone's poo crumbs whilst I'm eating

This would annoy me too. Both my son and I have asthma and cigarette smoke can be a trigger. We'd probably both be sitting their coughing and wheezing if someone did this to us. YANBU OP

I'm assuming the smokers defending smoking on this thread are parents which is even crazier

I'm not a smoker.

We are not defending smoking we are defending the right to smoke in an area where it is legally allowed all year round and not just when its pissing it down

my friends runs a bar in our local town and has just opened a second.

His first bar has a particular gimmick of a massive beer garden - terraced, seating, heated etc. He's made it completely smokin free.

Guess which is the most popular venue in the town. He's opened a second and is buying a third. Also with no smoking at all in the immediate vicinity.

I'm hoping he's going to buy up the town 😂

Even when "it's pissing it down", the smell of smoking is hideous when it rains in humid weather. I'm sick of having to hold my breath every time I want in and out of public places.

Since when was a beer garden a "gimmick"?

You hold your breath in public places, phyllis?

I'm impressed.