to think just because it's not illegal to smoke outdoors doesn't mean it's always ok

[Fieldsgrowingdark]

Three of us were queueing at the bus stop this morning when along came a man who stood right beside us and lit up a cigarette.

Myself and my mum were sitting on a park bench chatting yesterday when a young woman plonked herself on the other end (about 18 inches from us) and enjoyed a cigarette.

I've also just been reading the thread about people standing around hospital doorways and underneath patients' windows puffing away on cigarettes.

You will often be told by smokers that it's legal because it's outside, as if that makes it okay.

AIBU to think even when you're outside, smokers should show some consideration for the people around them?

YANBU. I don't want to breathe in people's second hand smoke where ever I am. I can't understand why some people still smoke when there are so many ways to stop.

They won’t ban it completely outside. Smokers are generally net contributors to the state through tax and the fact that they statistically die much sooner and so don’t claim as much of a pension etc etc

I do enjoy people getting so irate about it though, I think the hate towards smokers on mn is disproportionate. I am an ex-smoker though so I may be slightly biased.

can only assume that all of the MN posters on these threads are under age 12. I mean, seeing as they all pass out when so much of a whiff of smoke passes them outside they can't have been around when people could smoke indoors!

Why should pregnant women have to inhale people's 2nd hand smoke when sat outside at a restaurant, stood in a bus shelter, etc? The same goes for children, people with asthma, etc. The ban came in for a reason.

Nobody forced them to start smoking so I hardly think you can say they are being forced to go outside, they have a choice to not smoke if they don't want to be outside.

Nobody is forcing none smokers to eat where people are smoking
There are other options.
It's posts like this that make me think what the hell, why bother being nice, just blow it in their faces, but I'm not like that.

Well Christmas I think you'll find the ban came about due to much lobbying from the people who had to suffer the inconsideration of smokers during the years when all the 'rights' were on their side.

Even now, when non smokers have been very vocal about how uncomfortable being around smokers can be, you still have smokers casually lighting up anywhere and everywhere that it isn't actually illegal to do so, with no thought for the people around them. It is those people who will be to blame if smoking is eventually banned everywhere. If all smokers behaved with courtesy and consideration we wouldn't even be having those discussions.

We got complained at once for smoking by someone sat at a table outside a pub.

Pity it was on the Kilburn High Road, just with all the traffic and buses. churning out diesel.

Cheap perfume offends me much more than a bit of smoke

Totally agree.
And don't get me started on the disgusting littering.

Could easily be banned in public places. Other places do it with cannabis. Legal, but not in public.

I went to the zoo the other day lots of smoking and vaping I couldn't believe it. It smells is disgusting each to your own but surely around so many young children and babies it should be illegal.
Why do smokers think vaping is better than smoking? People vape everywhere gets me mad on the school run poor kids.

Well if you can't smoke indoors you've got to smoke outdoors. Seems that this is a case of being careful what you wish for, for anti smokers. No one ever died of cancer due to someone lighting up near them in a beer garden.

I'm asthmatic and i suffer extreme shortness of breath and need to take my inhaler when around smokers.

I think you should move away if you're smoking and people are eating next to you. You shouldn't smoke in doorways or near windows. And especially not at hospitals and kids areas.

Tbh, i fully support a public area ban of smoking.

No one ever died of cancer due to someone lighting up near them in a beer garden.

Are people really that ignorant regarding the effects of second hand smoke .

It really won't kill you. The worst that can happen is that you'll be around someone doing something you don't like.

I can't understand why some people still smoke when there are so many ways to stop

Why do some people eat junk food when they know it's bad for them? They could just stop.

Why do some people drink too much alcohol when they know the risks?

Why do some people not use protection during sex and end up with STD's or unwanted pregnancies when condoms are so readily available?

It's called personal choice. Most of us are not perfect human beings who have perfect lives. A lot of us just get through each day as best we can. For some, smoking helps. A lot of people can't understand that. That's ok. I can't understand why anyone would get hooked on drugs or become alcoholics, but plenty of people do. There's help for people addicted to substances but are they all rushing to line up to get it? No. It's fine to hate smoking but people have reasons why they smoke.

I loathe smoking but I'm pragmatic that the current legislation is about as far as a smoking ban will go.
What I do have a problem with is the litter. Most filters are a form of plastic, which take up to 12 years to biodegrade.

4.5 TRILLION butts are littered every year. Many end up in the oceans, wildlife can choke on them. They are washed into drains and the nicotine enters the water table, which bring additional problems.

PLEASE at the very least don't grind your fags out underfoot. Use bins and ashtrays that at least will go to landfill which will reduce the problem.
Thank you.

Nobody is forcing none smokers to eat where people are smoking
There are other options.

I mean....there sometimes aren't. When we stop for lunch if it is busy you have to sit outside. That sometimes means people around you all start smoking. I live in a seaside town and restaurants/pubs are rammed through winter and summer.

It's called personal choice. Most of us are not perfect human beings who have perfect lives. A lot of us just get through each day as best we can. For some, smoking helps.

I get that, that's why I said some people. I know people that smoke, but complain about the fact they smoke, the money it costs them, they have to go outside to do it, etc. There are so many ways those people can stop, or switch to something like vaping, but they don't.

It really won't kill you. The worst that can happen is that you'll be around someone doing something you don't like.

So smoking around someone with reduced lung capacity or asthma is fine because it wont kill them. Never mind the fact myself and several people have commented that we struggle to breath properly after being in contact with cigarette smoke, we have clearly been imagining those difficulties.

A persons right to smoke is just that, their right. When they start to subject others to the smoke then they inevitably put those people at greater risks health wise. It's fine if you want to smoke outside but what people are asking is that you do so with consideration. The attitude of some smokers on this thread is astonishing, it's like they think they now own any outdoor space because smoking has quite rightly been banned indoors.

Being legal doesn't make something right. Do we really have to make all anti-social activities illegal? What about common sense and consideration - don't they exist anymore? It's not illegal to fart in someone's face, but I still wouldn't do it - can't see the difference.

For most people, the only outcome of someone having a fag in a beer garden is annoyance. Up to them entirely how annoyed they get. Personal responsibility, innit.

Funny story- When I used to smoke (and restaurants still had a smoking area) I was on the next table from a guy smoking. When the waiter arrived with my beer and his food he stubbed his cigarette out and tucked in.

As my beer had arrived I lit up and he said “excuse me, can you put that out, I’m eating”

I hate it when I’m walking down the street behind someone smoking a cigarette and their smoke blows behind them and all over me. It happened the other day on a narrow pavement next to a busy road, so there was no escape other than to stand still and wait for them to get far ahead.

Nothing to do with a moral crusade or health worries, I just think it’s inconsiderate and I hate the smell. I feel the same about people who eat smelly takeaway food on public transport. But smoke is worse as the smell really clings to you.

I'm a smoker and unless a non smoker approaches me I never smoke around them. I also would never smoke near someone eating as even tho I'm a smoker I hate the smell of it.
However I know a lot of people with asthma and have never known any of them to have an attack from walking past someone smoking.

Are people really that ignorant regarding the effects of second hand smoke

Over a lengthy time period and in confined spaces, not sitting opposite a table of smokes for an hour or standing next to them in an open fronted bus stop for 10 mins.

The bus stop one is even more hilarious considering they are by the road side and does far more damage, are some still that ignorant to those effects?

Lol. Some people just can't cope with being in public places because someone somewhere might do something they don't like.