To think smoking should now be banned in public spaces?

[MrsKingfisher]

I saw on the news footage of people Christmas shopping in London and people sitting outside in cafes etc. Given the current situation should public smoking be banned? Not only because it stinks and it's anti social but more people are now meeting outside due to covid. I don't believe there is any evidence that breathing out smoke spreads the virus anymore than normal breathing. It's just selfish, non smokers no longer can be told 'if you don't like it go inside'

@NotABridezillaToBe

Im sure you had your horrid screamer moments as a toddler as have i abd everyone else. Smoking is totally uncomparable. It gives you cancer!! You wouldnt get cancer from hearing a cranky child, which you once were too anyway. I cant believe i have to say this.

Please show me the link for the study that shows brief exposure to second hand smoke outside causes cancer? It someone is asthmatic and particularly sensitive that’s a shame, but some people are allergic to nuts etc and die on exposure, but that’s not an argument to ban nuts.

It is comparable, it’s about the negative externalities of your choices affecting other people. Perhaps people should just keep their toddlers at home, or at least in the garden, especially if they are prone to crying.

The high tax rate on cigarettes is intended to internalize all the negative externalities of smoking including the smoke, the smokers are literally paying for the inconvenience they cause you to make it all a bit fairer.

I get that smoking is rank and it should just be banned so everyone would stop. That’s worked so well with drugs hasn’t it? You lot should become government advisors.

It's not a brief exposure it's the collective compounded exposure day in day out. Walking down the high street, waiting at the bus stop, waiting outside shops to get in, fucking stinky literally toxic smokers eveeywhere, puffing as they chug along like a cancer train. Its not second hand smoking from one cig its the unavoidable, imposed on us inhalation of 10 or 20 cigs depending how long and how often you are out.

Children that you compare them as a choice to smoking .. how ridiculous. They are the future carers, nurses, doctors and tax payers who will look after you when your lungs invariably disintegrate. They are needed and the future, your smoking is literally death and disease.

If smoking is illegal it will not be done in public or very few will do it and will hopefully get done for it with a fine.

Asthma and breathing problems are far more widely common than nuts allergies. But it iisn't just about asthma. If you don't give a fuck about your own health, fine. That's your taxes argument.. hopefully it covers your medical bills. Why then do you need to contribute to fucking up others health or exasperating their health conditions. It even affects childrens developping lungs. It's the ultimate selfish attitude. I'm going down and talking you all with me.

Again, i cant believe i need to spell this out. You lot pro smoking are like insolent children clutching straws: but whhhhyyyy can't I smoke my fag? Whhhyyyy? But whyyy??? Ugh

You lot pro smoking are like insolent children clutching straws: but whhhhyyyy can't I smoke my fag? Whhhyyyy? But whyyy??? Ugh That does work both ways, you know!

The anti smoking brigaed think they are being logical and are absolutely correct in their way of thinking... but mostly they are ill informed and then they too are reduced to spoiled brats bleating....

I would rather have people smoking outside in public spaces than in their own flats - their neighbours can't just walk away from the smell and pollution.

Children that you compare them as a choice to smoking .. how ridiculous. They are the future carers, nurses, doctors and tax payers who will look after you when your lungs invariably disintegrate. They are needed and the future, your smoking is literally death and disease

Or they might be the future authoritarian public, the shitty you tube influencers, using their platform to make life just a bit worse for everyone else, full of self righteous, let's cancel / ban everything we don't like, just like you. Ugh. No thanks. There's more than one way to go down. I'll take my chances with the second hand smoke.

smoking is such a detrimental habit it truly is. I hate the fact that my partner does. he stinks of it, its boring that he always need to pop for a fag quick and its expensive. we also have children and this concerns me from a health perspective too. smokers know all this though. that being said, whilst I do agree with you OP, I don't think it is going to be possible to achieve what you want until it is illegal to smoke. that's not happening any time soon.

@Kaliorphic

Children that you compare them as a choice to smoking .. how ridiculous. They are the future carers, nurses, doctors and tax payers who will look after you when your lungs invariably disintegrate. They are needed and the future, your smoking is literally death and disease

Or they might be the future authoritarian public, the shitty you tube influencers, using their platform to make life just a bit worse for everyone else, full of self righteous, let's cancel / ban everything we don't like, just like you. Ugh. No thanks. There's more than one way to go down. I'll take my chances with the second hand smoke.

Or, shock horror, some of them might even grow up to smoke too!

OffredOfjune. Sadly you are right. Children of smokers are not only more likely to die but are also more likely to become young smokers.

It is genuinely a class and intellectual ability issue. Smokers tend to be less well educated and from lower socioeconomic groups. Sadly the legality of smoking allows the ultra rich tobacco company executives to grow richer and more powerful at the cost of the more vulnerable. It exacerbates health inequalities by increasing risks to the poor.

Smokers were more likely to support Brexit, whilst some universities are pushing for smoke free campuses.

It’s also one of the positives of Coronavirus that about 300, 000 people have given up smoking from fear. Maybe now we have ‘control of our borders’ we could stop the import of tobacco and have one good thing come out of leaving the EU.

Or, shock horror, some of them might even grow up to smoke too

Indeed. One would also think that today's smokers don't already pay a considerable amount of tax, paying into the education of the the future carer, nurses, doctors, and taxpayers. There's no guarantee, despite the financial investment, that many of these kids will be any of the things that society actually needs or benefits from, aside from an increasingly more unpleasant and intolerant society. Especially when you look at their entitled parents and what they've turned out to be.

It is genuinely a class and intellectual ability issue. Smokers tend to be less well educated and from lower socioeconomic groups.

Not in my experience it's not.

@Kaliorphic

It is genuinely a class and intellectual ability issue. Smokers tend to be less well educated and from lower socioeconomic groups.

Not in my experience it's not.

Then your experiences are outwith the statistical evidence.

@Kaliorphic

It is genuinely a class and intellectual ability issue. Smokers tend to be less well educated and from lower socioeconomic groups.

Not in my experience it's not.

I've been involved in smoking cessation clinics for 20 years. That is true. Lower socioeconomic groups have a higher % of smokers - as do gay or Polish people.

ONS data

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthandlifeexpectancies/bulletins/adultsmokinghabitsingreatbritain/2019#characteristics-of-current-cigarette-smokers-in-the-uk

Smokers were more likely to support Brexit

Would you like to link to the study that shows this? Because it’s one of the more ridiculous things I’ve seen posted on MN.

@CherryPavlova

OffredOfjune. Sadly you are right. Children of smokers are not only more likely to die but are also more likely to become young smokers.

It is genuinely a class and intellectual ability issue. Smokers tend to be less well educated and from lower socioeconomic groups. Sadly the legality of smoking allows the ultra rich tobacco company executives to grow richer and more powerful at the cost of the more vulnerable. It exacerbates health inequalities by increasing risks to the poor.

Smokers were more likely to support Brexit, whilst some universities are pushing for smoke free campuses.

It’s also one of the positives of Coronavirus that about 300, 000 people have given up smoking from fear. Maybe now we have ‘control of our borders’ we could stop the import of tobacco and have one good thing come out of leaving the EU.

Well it's not true for me. Child of a smoker (who started due to severe trauma and abuse, btw) and have never smoked.

I definitely see most smokers to be poor and working class. Middle class tend to be wine guzzling, running/spinning non smokers who may indulge in the odd recreational drug few times a year.

Wine, gin or craft beer....

You shouldn’t be able to smoke in places people are seated eating or drinking - even outside. It’s horrible.

I’m not fussed if people are walking about smoking a fag but tbh most people are on vapes now - me included!

God I remember the days you could smoke in a pub and my clothes when I left were awful!

It is genuinely a class and intellectual ability issue. Smokers tend to be less well educated and from lower socioeconomic groups

The royal family smoke!

MN cracks me up! Posters can not wait to turn every thing in to a class issue! Every fucker is middle class on MN

@Thespidersweb

It is genuinely a class and intellectual ability issue. Smokers tend to be less well educated and from lower socioeconomic groups

The royal family smoke!

MN cracks me up! Posters can not wait to turn every thing in to a class issue! Every fucker is middle class on MN

My thoughts exactly

Anything to give the working class a good old bashing though

Then your experiences are outwith the statistical evidence.

Gosh all those nurses that smoke to relieve stress. I'm sure you most be delighted to have these less well educated and from lower socioeconomic groups care for you and your loved ones in your hour of need.

Nah. I'd much rather take the second hand smoke thanks
And that is absolutely fine if you would rather have the smoke.

It doesn't change the fact that a screaming baby doesn't involve byproducts of someone's cigarettes going into the lungs of everyone around them.

I find many things annoying, toddlers who use cafes as personal play areas for example, but someone else allowing their children to run riot doesn't affect my organs and doesn't affect my health.

MN cracks me up! Posters can not wait to turn every thing in to a class issue! Every fucker is middle class on MN grin Whilst I agree with your sentiment, statistically it s true, see the ONS data I linked to... like a stopped clocks MNs resolute MCness is right every now and then!

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthandlifeexpectancies/bulletins/adultsmokinghabitsingreatbritain/2019#characteristics-of-current-cigarette-smokers-in-the-uk

I find many things annoying, toddlers who use cafes as personal play areas for example, but someone else allowing their children to run riot doesn't affect my organs and doesn't affect my health

We'll have to disagree on that. As the mild inconvenience of someone smoking, which is extremely rare in my opinion, is far more palatable than the often screaming child, allowed to run riot, whilst the doting parent looks on adoringly, with no care or consideration for others. Blindly destroying everyone else's peace and calm whilst increasing their levels of stress.

TeeniefaeTroon

@PortraitOfAWoman
You're the snowflake love, I'm not moaning about doing something that I've been doing for years. This is where we've had to go to have a cigarette for a long time and now that you poor non-smokers have to also come out with us, it's now a problem. It wasn't a problem when you were all inside though. Suck it up buttercup

@TeeniefaeTroon, aye wtf. You think it's ok to stink up everywhere because you want a fag. Fuck Off and smoke in yer ain hoose ye mink.

I don't think smoking should be banned outside. Live and let live. But there are some selfish aholes who think nothing of others e.g. in a queue to get in the supermarket when I was pregnant; small pub garden with children around; parent and toddler parking! etc. Astounding that people don't think to move away from others, especially children. Very selfish

What is it with the UK and smoking? You dont get this level of moral piety anywhere else that I've lived, not even america.

Wheres the outrage over the nations fat problem? What is it about smoking that pisses people off so much? It's not about the actual smoke, we all know that: cars on the roads and pollution cause as many breathing problems but nobody's complaining. It's not about the health issue: diabetes and obesity trigger just as many as cigarettes, yet peoples bulging waistlines dont seem to concern them anywhere near as much as the woman standing 20 m away having a fag.

No I think the UK obsession with smoking is all about using it as a.....smoke screen to not have to step away from the swiss roll and prosecco.

Maybe look to france where people smoke more, live as long if not longer, probably because they're not chowing down on multipacks of crisps and feeling their heart rate go up from being surrounded by badly raised children