To have a fag in my garden if I want to?

[WomanInChains]

I only smoke in my garden, never in the street or anywhere else. A footpath runs along the side of it adjoining a woodland area. Footpath is a short cut to supermarket, doctors, hairdressers. I smoke in the alleyway at the side of my garden which runs adjacent with the footpath.

I am getting sick of random people making loud comments when they pass by my fence like 'that stink is disgusting, ohh someone's smoking eurgghh' and etc.

WIBU to shout over to the next person to fuck off away from my fence if it bothers them rather than pausing and making comments?

I had this last year. I am a smoker ( on and off for the last 10 years) I don’t smoke in my house or my car as have children.

I gather you don't smoke around children outside of your house, then?

Will you revert to smoking in your house after your children leave home? Do you like the smell of smoke hanging around your clothes, drapes, hair, fingers etc?

The reason I enjoy smoking so much is it winds up the up tight pearl clutchers

It smells like shit and everyone knows it kills you.

Yeah real pearl-clutching

@AtrociousCircumstance - see, you're already triggered

Those pearl clutches will be dancing on your grave

Whoa - what a rebel you are

At least when I was a smoker I didn’t kid myself.

In Frankfurt Airport there are specific glass booths just for smokers. They are brilliant because all the smokers can enjoy one anothers' smoke as well as their own without affecting anyone else!

I reckon that other than in places like the above, smokers should wear a special type of full head helmet that keeps the smoke in for them so as not to allow it to dissipate wastefully. After all fags are very expensive!

You may feel fine but I bet you can't run 100 yards without getting out of breath

Yeah it’s interesting. All my friends make that mistake about me too. A group of us climbed Snowden a while back and several of the non smokers were lagging behind me because they were out of breath! And they did joke about how they couldn’t understand how I, a smoker, was managing better than them! Any issues with my fitness come from being a bit overweight and not exercising enough!

I read an interesting study a while back. They tell people not to give chocolate to dogs because of an allergic reaction but everyone has a story of a dog (often from childhood) that was given loads of chocolate and was fine. Apparently it’s because not all dogs are allergic to chocolate but as there is no way of testing which ones are they just say don’t give any dog chocolate.

This study said smoking is the same. Some people could smoke 100 a day if they wanted and never suffer any ill effects (hence the stories of of people living to 100 on 60 a day) but there is no effective way of testing who is “immune” and who isn’t so they just say “don’t smoke”.

Now i’m not saying I’m immune. We won’t know the answer to that until I either do or don’t reach old age healthily. But meanwhile no I don’t have asthma or get many colds or bronchitis or anything in that vein. Maybe if I do get any negative health effects i’ll stop. But, right now, I have no reason to.

Some people have immunity to the illnesses caused by smoking. I’ve heard it all now

Yes Storm. I can do 30 mins non stop on the crosstrainer at my gym, swim 50 lengths of an Olympic sized pool, and cycle 6 miles mostly uphill pretty easily, don't run as I don't like it and my DC are old enough that their kamakazee missions have stopped so I don't need to.

My grandmother lost a lung in her 20's to TB, but still smoked 60 a day and died at 80. I smoke max 10, no coughing and very rarely do I get illnesses. If I did I would stop but right now I don't want to. Its my disconnect for 5 minutes from all the shit I have to deal with day to day basis, not harming anyone, aware enough to not to affect neighbours. No one is walking through a cloud of smoke. The fence is 6 ft and smoke rises! I even have a smoking jacket that I wear only to smoke so my DC don't smell it on me. I'm so fucking considerate of other people it's ridiculous .

Everyone is different, and it will be different between heavy and light smokers, but several people who've stopped smoking report less coughing and less lack of breath after they stopped.
Whatever you can achieve when you smoke, you could probably do better if you didn't.

Not that I care whether you smoke or not. Just getting some sense in the middle of the discussion.

This study said smoking is the same. Some people could smoke 100 a day if they wanted and never suffer any ill effects (hence the stories of of people living to 100 on 60 a day) but there is no effective way of testing who is “immune” and who isn’t so they just say “don’t smoke”.

Link, please?

Yeah it’s interesting. All my friends make that mistake about me too. A group of us climbed Snowden a while back and several of the non smokers were lagging behind me because they were out of breath! And they did joke about how they couldn’t understand how I, a smoker, was managing better than them! Any issues with my fitness come from being a bit overweight and not exercising enough!

All the carbon monoxide you've been inhaling has improved your lung capacity, obvs.

We can still smell it. If strangers are commenting on every single little time you go outside that you're getting a complex about it as you said, then it's obviously an issue? SUrely they would'nt make such a massive issue if it wasn't that bad.

I think it's like if someone was sitting in their garden doing incredibly stinky farts 💨

One of DP's responses to smoking comments is "You think that's bad? Wait till I fart!"

@Storm4star Maybe if I do get any negative health effects i’ll stop. But, right now, I have no reason to.

You are hilarious.

The point is that once you have some negative health effects it is going to be too late.

Irreversible changes.

One of DP's responses to smoking comments is "You think that's bad? Wait till I fart!"

What a catch.

@Womaninchains It's so funny to read how you and the other smoker here are so fit.

Clearly proof that smoking causes dementia and addles the brain if ever more proof was needed.

It also causes depression. A doctor on a programme on telly about it said she cured her own depression by giving up fags.

Just carry on having your cigarette outside and ignore the comments. All these people with something to say must be perfect. I get irritated with shit drivers, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be driving. Some food smells make me gag, people who do non-stop diy banging all the time. Ffs live and let live

I just find it somewhat funny that people can’t accept that “some” people can smoke without it affecting them. None of the smokers are saying it doesn’t increase certain risks. But the anti smoking brigade can’t seem to accept that some people will not be adversely affected by smoking. Does the scientific evidence state that every single smoker will die of a smoking related illness? No it doesn’t. Does it state that every smoker will have some sort of breathing difficulty/related illness? No it doesn’t. Life is full of risk. Getting into a car is a risk, even more so riding a bicycle or motorbike (especially so in London where I live). Smoking is the risk I choose to take.

user145 Of course shit drivers shouldn't be driving, what a strange thing to say, did you hear about the man with bad eyesight, he was in denial, quite recently, who killed people on a pedestrian crossing?

Storm I do accept that some people are not as badly affected by smoking as others, but why take the risk and keep making the manufacturerers even richer? They are known for being exploitative employers too.

It's the people who smoke their own roll ups who are not so badly affected because they don't use gunpowder, tar, etc. tp keep them alight.

I do see what you’re saying and, maybe if I was in my 20s right now, I might look at it differently. But i’m nearly 50. I’m single now by choice and so chances are I will be living alone in retirement, which we all know isn’t the best. I had my children young, their both nearly 30 and their lives are going well. I’ve achieved what I wanted to achieve and done most of the things I wanted to do. I have no desire to “cling” to life. Other than the bloody menopause, i’m healthy right now. So, however many years I have left I will take and be ok with it! In the interim I will continue to enjoy the things I enjoy! I’ve seen enough “healthy” people pass away now to just say “sod it” and live how I want.

Despite it being a pita for me, I do think it’s great that smoking is becoming far less common. Of course I am happy that my kids don’t smoke and their children will grow up with smoking being unpopular. I am happy about that. However to go back to the OP, I don’t think abuse of smokers is right and I do wish people would understand that (most) smokers do not seek to deliberately piss off people around them. Nor do we need to be told what the risks are. We know. We choose to continue. It is an informed choice. Maybe a stupid choice in many people’s opinion but we know what we get from it and we think it’s worth it!

Does the scientific evidence state that every single smoker will die of a smoking related illness? No it doesn’t. Does it state that every smoker will have some sort of breathing difficulty/related illness? No it doesn’t.

You seem to misunderstand how scientific research. It is, for the most part, unconcerned with the individual and draws conclusions at a population level.

It is impossible to draw any definitive conclusions at an individual level. This hardly compromises the integrity of the research.

I do find it pretty amusing that you're here to convince us that you're a super-healthy mountain climber who happens to be a smoker. The smokers I know are generally a bit yellow and phlegmy.