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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

488 replies

WomanInChains · 14/09/2018 09:41

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?

OP posts:
Lethaldrizzle · 17/09/2018 16:46

Give it up!

InertPotato · 17/09/2018 17:34

No I can't as I read it about a year ago and I didn't think to save it as why would I? Hence why I said "a while back".

If it were a credible study, it would have been picked up by the press and a quick google search would turn it up.

Storm4star · 17/09/2018 17:41

Note to self: From now on whenever you read anything keep links in case a discussion comes up on Mumsnet where people ask for it Grin
Honestly! I just said "I read a while back" I didn't make any claims about it! If someone else can talk about a doctor once saying on TV that giving up smoking cured her depression then I can mention a study I read! It's a discussion site, not one where everything written has to be fully verified first! And actually Queen did post a link to something similar to what I read.

Lostandfound81 · 17/09/2018 17:51

Storm4star

Note to self: From now on whenever you read anything keep links in case a discussion comes up on Mumsnet where people ask for it grin

If you’re going to refer to a study in something as serious as smoking, then yeah - i would make sure I had a link.

QueenoftheNights · 17/09/2018 17:59

If it were a credible study, it would have been picked up by the press and a quick google search would turn it up.

It took me less than 5 minutes to find the link I left a couple of posts up. Just put in a few relevant search terms.

It was news at the time but do remember this was looking only at lung cancer, not all the other diseases that smoking causes.

The main cause of death in women is heart disease. Smoking contributes hugely to that.

Storm4star · 17/09/2018 18:05

If you’re going to refer to a study in something as serious as smoking, then yeah - i would make sure I had a link

Why? It's a discussion, not a Court of Law!

Lostandfound81 · 17/09/2018 18:14

@Storm4star

Sure, if that’s your approach

As evident in this thread though, you won’t be taken seriously

InertPotato · 17/09/2018 18:21

Queen, the study you posted concludes that there's a heavy genetic influence on risk of lung cancer, in this case indirectly through an addiction gene.

This does not tally at all with Storm's point, which is that some smokers will never submit to smoking-related diseases.

InertPotato · 17/09/2018 18:22

Why? It's a discussion, not a Court of Law!

It's more important than a court of law - it's your heath. But it's yours to squander as you see fit!

Leesa65 · 17/09/2018 18:24

Precious prats .

OP YANBU

Storm4star · 17/09/2018 18:27

Ok for those who love their links, I do have one saved on my computer from a discussion about a month ago on "third hand smoke" which is another one being thrown at us smokers:
www.acsh.org/news/2018/06/08/third-hand-smoke-screen-fear-13060
It's an interesting one too! And at least now I've posted it here I can find it if I need it again!

No one has to take me seriously, opinions are not facts. I haven't given facts, I've relayed opinions about things I have read. I did not say "look everyone this study is 100% true". I said I found it interesting, which I did. Surely knowledge includes open-mindedness? Not just spouting what the "experts" say and assuming it will apply to 100% of any given group? Otherwise we can just stop the discussion at "smoking is bad".

Singingitoverandoverandover · 17/09/2018 18:32

If you want to risk dying a horrible death and are ok with that, go ahead. No biggy.

Storm4star · 17/09/2018 18:32

The addiction gene was part of it but it's about how some smokers stay healthy. This isn't the study I read, but this BBC article explains Queens link. Specifically this:
The analysis of more than 50,000 people showed favourable mutations in people's DNA enhanced lung function and masked the deadly impact of smoking
www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-34360865
This wasn't the article I read but it was along those lines.

Lostandfound81 · 17/09/2018 18:37

@Storm4star

You must really love smoking

lynmilne65 · 17/09/2018 18:40

What the f has it to do with anyone else ?

Lostandfound81 · 17/09/2018 18:41

And they don’t remain “healthy”
Their lungs do. That’s the point of the article.

But they certainly don’t say that these smokers are “healthy”!

QueenoftheNights · 17/09/2018 18:42

@storm4star
I'm not sure really what your point is? Are you trying to convince yourself and other people that smoking is not that bad for us? Note the very first line of that headline- RARE.

The article you and I linked to (and there is an even more detailed paper on it- by 'paper' I mean the actual research paper) simply makes the point that some smokers have a gene which means their lungs are relatively untouched by smoking.

HOWEVER it also says that this 'lung protective gene' does not have the same effect on other cancers and heart disease.

So if you are trying to escape some illnesses by carrying on smoking, you won't have much luck.

My dad was a light smoker for 80 years. He died from dementia and heart failure. His lungs were perfect, relatively.

Lweji · 17/09/2018 18:45

I always wonder if those studies take into account all the variables including whether the respondents are poor, smoke, eat badly etc etc.

You don't have to wonder. You can read them. It will be in the Materials and Methods section, or similar.

InertPotato · 17/09/2018 18:47

Surely knowledge includes open-mindedness? Not just spouting what the "experts" say and assuming it will apply to 100% of any given group?

I feel as though I'm going around in circles here, but this in a nutshell is precisely what a rigorous, peer-reviewed clinical study will prove. At a population level (i.e. group), you can predict health outcomes, not with 100% accuracy but within a small margin of error i.e. 5%.

Lweji · 17/09/2018 18:50

Now, some people have excellent DNA repair alleles and have a finely tuned immune system and apoptosis mechanism. They are likely to live to their 100s and not get a serious disease. They are also lucky.

Others have small glitches in their DNA repair mechanisms, which may lead to catastrophic changes in individual cell genomes and lead to cancer.

So, yes, it's possible that any one individual isn't affected by smoking or any other cancer risk factor.
But science isn't sufficiently far ahead to tell you if you're one of those.

RaisinRainbow · 17/09/2018 18:54

I see OPs point of view about her right to enjoy her property as she wishes, and express her choice to smoke.

However as a non-smoker, smelling/inhaling other people's smoke is highly unpleasant, and it's natural to express that.

The direction that govt legislation has taken leads me to think in future, our duty of care will extend to others where it is reasonably foreseeable our actions will have a negative effect - such as smoking within your property with the awareness your smoke is likely to affact others.

yestocheesecake · 17/09/2018 22:47

I'm an ex smoker. I remember the judgement, so I understand . I wouldn't return to smoking, and feel so much healthier since I quit, but people who go on about people smoking when it's banned indoors, and they could just walk the hell away, just get on my bastard tits.

Meesh77 · 17/09/2018 23:39

Hard to walk away when it’s drifting into your house, unless you actually sell up, which I did.

That got on my bastard tits, too.

I’ll never understand the attitude ‘go somewhere else if you don’t like it.’ It typifies the attitude of many smokers I’ve spoken to, though. They tend to be the ones who claim their ‘right to smoke’ as though they haven’t noticed that ‘the right to fresh air’ is perhaps more fundamental - and that others have rights, too.

Angelthekingcharles · 19/09/2018 22:07

You can smoke what you want in your garden, it is your garden - please feel free, we live in a free world! And please enjoy it without worrying about anybody else. Feel free to tell them to fuck off if they complain about you enjoying the free world in your own garden.

You could burn a bonfire every night, the anti smoking people couldn’t complain and if they did you could still tell them to fick off, it’s your garden.

Enjoy your garden, where do you live? I might come round to smoke with you, or light a bonfire or not smoke and just play loud music, or have a dog that barks, or just bright lights! Please feel free to be free in your own garden xx

Gersemi · 20/09/2018 01:15

When someone wants to come and help/encourage you indulge in totally inconsiderate conduct towards others, they're revealing rather more of their characters than they might want generally known.

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