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.

My dog smokes 40 a day. A total pariah.

Damn your dog what a cancer causing arsehole lol!

Just kidding..I adore dogs even the ones who smoke 40 a day.

YANBU.
As an ex smoker I'd never ever light up outside where people were eating, their were young children and no ashtrays.
I'd move away to smoke my cigarette then come back to sit down.
I don't understand some people. And now as a pregnant non smoker I understand why people hate it, it makes me want to throw up too. (Probably hormones but still!)

peanut that was intended with reference to this specific very obviously dog friendly location. The hypothetical dog haters/fearers simply would not have elected to sit outside this café. If they had, they really couldn't be that concerned by dogs.The defenders of smoking are using dogs as a distraction from the point about the acceptability of smoking round children.

Trifle Re ashtrays: if there are none, it's ok to just flick your ash around? And then drop your butts? To me, their absence is a marker of expectation that this area is not intended as one for smoking.

I only ever mentioned the dog to explain why we couldn't sit inside from the start or relocate. On a colder day, she would have been put in the car while we sat inside. Yet somehow this has become about dogs being as/more unpleasant to sit next to than clouds of cigarette smoke.

I have said several times that it was a surprise to me to find this was still legal; I honestly thought the UK was more forward thinking. I am also relieved to find that most of the smokers on this thread agree that it is unacceptable to light up in the vicinity of young children. Same as most dog owners are responsible too.

Anyway, it's another sunny day, and I'm off to find something else to 'froth' about with my 'snowflakes' before term starts.

Noooooo!!!
I missed the first spring smoking thread, damn you real life!

Waves to all the regulars, now off for a fag x

Yanbu. Hoping the next step is to ban Smoking within x metres of a building, to stop us having to run the gauntlet of smokers as we enter and exit.

Would be interesting to know whther a cafe could choose to ban smoking on their terrace - after all, it is their property. I am sure there are plenty of customers like myself and OP who would appreciate bring able to avoid smoke. It's unpleasant, whether or not dangerous, and spoils my experience.

@Gowgirl

I missed a big chunk as well. It's got it all this one

It's unpleasant, whether or not dangerous, and spoils my experience

See! Now it's shit like this is why I

Smokers are selfish.
Just look at all the rubbish on our streets. I really think that the majority of smokers do not consider cigarette ends as rubbish. I know this is off topic but it is something I loathe.

Agree gamerchick

Always a bit amazed at these people who seem constantly outraged that the world and its millions of inhabitants do not operate exactly to their personal preferences and specifications. I mean jeez...I don't like smoke near me or my kids much. There are tons of smells and noises I find obnoxious (loud people yap yap yapping away with their grating voices and braying laughter, ugh). But they've as much right as I have to be out in public doing their thing. I suck it up, or if I really can't take it, I use my functional legs and exercise my right to move somewhere else

Ilovechoc - It's really not 'a lot' at all. It's 13 in a year. And dogs have killed precisely zero children at cafes in the past 3 decades.

Let's compare it with this report from the Royal College of Paediatrics on the most common causes of child and infant deaths and oh look - SMOKING -

Over half of deaths in childhood occur during the first year of a child’s life, and are strongly influenced by pre-term delivery and low birth weight; with risk factors including maternal age, smoking and disadvantaged circumstances.

If people want to smoke it's up to them but please don't pretend it's not dangerous to children and is more dangerous than dogs as that's frankly bullshit.

majority of smokers do not consider cigarette ends as rubbish. I know this is off topic but it is something I loathe

I don't know about where you live but where I live you get fined many pennies for chucking fag dumpers. The enforcers just come out of nowhere.

Exactly Strummerville!

Lots of lovely frothing I hate being late to the party

Ah don't worry man, soon people will be wanting to sit in pub gardens where smokers are. Those ones are always decent

Fenellamaxwellspony im so sorry you have such a boring life you felt the need to Google like a maniac all those lovely statistics.
Try googling how many people have died of lung cancer via cafe seating passive waft of smoke?

ilovechoc I'm very sorry you feel accurate information is so non-essential and boring. You will not the first statistic I gave you of 13 is for deaths as a whole, as is the smoking one. You may not like being proven wrong but perhaps try and learn to do it with grace.

mummy, that smell makes me feel sick'. Oh bless him

Fenella sorry dear you obviously haven't been reading my posts I disagree with smoking round cafe tables with children nearby, but this is not a death rate competition just a small fact that many people don't like dogs round cafe tables due to allergies, their smell, fear etc and so the dog comparison is really valid, baring in mind that dogs have known to kill children in parks

Ooooh gamer the pub garden ones are the best!

Ilove you made a wildly inaccurate claim, darling. That dogs kill lots of children. This is wrong, and I provided the relevant information. You'll get over it eventually.

A waft of smoke outside isn't going to cause damage is it? I'm asthmatic and it doesn't get to me outside.

Depends how bad your asthma is.