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?

You’ve made me laugh with some of your comments op! You need to be more like that with the passerby comments.

As you said, you’ve tried your best to ensure that your smoking doesn’t have an impact on anyone other than yourself. I would ignore the comments, They can walk faster past your house, it’s not going to cause them issues. But you have to admit, smoking does smell, some people are more sensitive to the smell than others. I cannot stand the smell, I think it’s truly disgusting.

Yabu - smoking is disgusting

A lot of non smokers will never be happy until smoking is banned completely

It kills people, they die horribly, they cost the NHS a fortune, and it's a highly addictive drug usually taken up when too young to fully understand the implications, or that they apply to you.

I see people with mobile IVs, in dressing gowns and slippers, bald-headed from chemo lighting up opposite the Sutton branch of the Royal Marsden Cancer hospital. All weathers. That is not a free choice; that's a hideous addiction.

Having said that... OP, you're trying to be a considerate neighbour, and not affect people who can't just move away, so you're doing all you can. I don't blame the complainers, either, but you are doing everything possible to consider non-smokers.

OP, I gave up with a nicorette spray. Fags I lovely and I loved smoking. But I watched someone die of cancer this summer and saw someone else suffer with COPD so I seem to have finally stopped although my smoking had only been sporadic for the last decade.

Please give up if you can. Because you’re funny and people who bring mirth to the world should stay in it as long as possible.

Smokers pay a LOT of tax on cigarettes so I think they've paid for any NHS treatment! (Not totally serious!)

Your garden, ignore people walking past.

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”.

A nurse once described it as being like horse races. If you have 100,000 horses at 200-1 and bet on all of them, eventually one would win. But if you can only make one bet, why would you bet on the 200-1 horse when you know it’s pretty sure you’ll lose your money.

Smoking is the same, why take the terrible odds you’ll be the person who is okay? Most likely you won’t be.

I would rather my neighbour have a cig or ten in her garden than have to listen to her fucking dog yapping away.
All day, every day it's yap, yap fucking yap.

Smokers pay a LOT of tax on cigarettes so I think they've paid for any NHS treatment!

Premature deaths don't just cost the care. They cost a lot in terms of benefits to survivors, mental health needs of survivors (and those undergoing treatments) benefits payable due to smoking related disability, unemployment due to smoking related disability.

I also suspect you have absolutely no clue how much cancer treatment actually costs. I had one surgery that took 9 hours, involved three separate teams, and the staff I actually saw - who weren't most of the teams, as clearly I was not unconscious at that stage - involved 11 people. I needed a week in hospital afterwards, one night in intensive care. I've had a PET CT scan, multiple mammograms and X rays, ultrasounds and CT. I've had complex genetics tests (as a non-smoker, with a family history, and also Oncotype DX to assess how likely the cancer is to come back). I've had meds coming out of my ears and am currently having chemo, which is so toxic each dose must be individually fetched by a qualified staff member for each patient, and infused in a well staffed specialist area. I had an extravasation - when it leaks into a vein - which involved plastics to keep an eye in case it became necrotic. I have a key nurse, and a wig is an option. I'm looked after by a surgical team, a plastics team, a radiography team, an oncology team. When chemo ends I'm going to have a month of daily radiotherapy, more surgery after that, and then I will, hopefully, be on aramatase inhibitors, biophosphonates, and a brand new drug in final trial stage right now, to try to discourage the fucker from returning... and I'll need those for ten years.

The that that could be fully funded by someone smoking 20 a day for twenty years is kind of laughable. My chemo alone would be around fifty grand at cost.

The best way to avoid cancer is to move more, drink less alcohol, don't smoke and don't get obese. But I'm none of those things - they think it's just the 10% with dicey genes. And I have to say, when I look at my four year old, I'm so grateful I don't have to sit there thinking, if only I'd not smoked, I might not have risked you being without a mum before you're even in junior school. Which is hopefully not going to happen, but certainly cannot be ruled out.

Just saying.

Smoking benefits nobody but the manufacturers, and the human costs are unspeakable.

I guess it must smell pretty bad OP, if EVERY person who walks by makes a negative comment.
You have every right to smoke in your own garden and they have every right to make comments because it’s affecting them in a public area. Neither side is BU, it’s just life.

Well, to be fair, they are making these comments on a public footpath, not in your garden! You can't really stop members of the public from talking about anything when they are in public! They don't care if you like it or not. They are not in your garden and, therefore, not intruding on anything. The fact that your garden happens to sit along that pathway is just what it is. Members of the public could equally argue your smoking bothers them but you are, of course, well within your right to smoke in your garden just as they are to talk in public!

If it bothers you that much, just put on some earphones, play some music and enjoy your fag!

Premature deaths don't just cost the care. They cost a lot in terms of benefits to survivors, mental health needs of survivors (and those undergoing treatments) benefits payable due to smoking related disability, unemployment due to smoking related disability.

That’s not really fair. Well, not unless you genuinely believe you won’t die if you don’t smoke. Bereavement is a fact of life, people not smoking doesn’t mean they won’t die sometimes so including bereavement support as a cost is just silly.

People usually get ill and infirm before they die, regardless of what from or when. Pensions, care and support for people who live to 95 will cost more.

Well, not unless you genuinely believe you won’t die if you don’t smoke.

Given my post clearly spells out that that I'm currently in treatment for cancer, and have never smoked, I'm very acutely ware that non-smokers can die, thanks. As I mentioned, I look at my four year old sometimes and wonder if I'll live to see her reach KS2. Are you always that tactless, or do you just lack reading comprehension skills?

I also pointed out that lots of smoking related conditions don't, in the end kill, but are very disabling, which again costs the taxpayer an absolute bomb in a whole range of ways, care costs, benefit costs, and loss of workers.

People dying in old age have paid taxes all their lives. They have fully contributed, in so many ways, financial and with their labour. And they are far, far less likely to leave minor children behind them, which also costs the state a fortune in a whole range of ways.

Saying smokers fund their own care just isn't accurate. I've not funded mine, either, but my odds of needing it were heavily reduced by my life choices - I've just been really, really unlucky. And there's a grassy bank opposite the Sutton branch of the Royal Marsden Cancer hospital, full of bald people clutching IV stands attached to their ports and cannulae, and they're puffing away on the cancer sticks. It's astonishing - going through hell to try to live, while sucking on something guaranteed, in their specific cases (because recurrence is far more likely, and there are serious risks while in treatment, too, made dramatically worse by smoking), to kill them.

Smoking is a horrible addiction, mostly started when young, and smokers are victims, not villains. I'm not blaming them. I just think the comforting lies, and insisting that the addiction harms only them, is denial on their part. It harms all of us.

Sorry. I put that badly and I have to admit I didn’t read the entire post. Apologies.