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'

Any way I find it too cold to be smoking outside, plus i can't be bothered to roll 1 up.

winterbabythistime
I'm fed up with things being banned, but I think the default position in hospitality venues and public venues should be that there's no smoking indoors or in outdoor seating areas.
In my opinion people should be able to sit in a cafe without being subjected to other people's smoke.

I doubt anything will change just yet, but in future it may well do.

There are already places where smokers are not allowed to congregate outside because the smoke will affect others- hospital entrances for a start.

I think if you go to a pub or cafe and are affected by this, it would be reasonable to take it up with the owner and suggest they divide the outside space into smoking and non-smoking areas.

Given only 1 in 4 people smoke, non smokers are a minority, so why should their behaviour affect 75% of the population?

I do think that in another 10 or 20 years time we will see more restrictions and the only place they can smoke are their own homes and gardens.

Why don't you stay at home in your smoke free home? Smokers are smoking where we have been told to smoke for years. Outside in the cold and rain, but we got on with it. Now that you have to come outside too you think you can change the rules to suit you? Jog on.
As an aside, I am a smoker but wouldn't smoke where people were eating or around children, only outside bars.

@TeeniefaeTroon

Why don't you stay at home in your smoke free home? Smokers are smoking where we have been told to smoke for years. Outside in the cold and rain, but we got on with it. Now that you have to come outside too you think you can change the rules to suit you? Jog on. As an aside, I am a smoker but wouldn't smoke where people were eating or around children, only outside bars.

so you feel that as you are 25% of the population (smokers) the rest of us should be condemned to stay inside and not go to a cafe or pub?

Your post is unbelievable. No one is telling you to smoke. You CHOOSE to kill yourself with smoking. It's only fair that you don't inflict that slow death on other people.

Why don't you stop then you won't have to go out in the cold and rain? Poor little snowflake.

I wish it was banned or further restricted in public places but just because it’s horrible, nothing to do with COVID. Pre-pandemic when I commuted I hated people who were smoking as they walked along, and having to fight through a cloud of smoke outside the stations and my office entrance. People can smoke on their own land but not where it interferes with the rest of us IMO.

12 billion pounds a year in revenue for the treasury says you can demand a ban all you like but......just saying!

It’s far far worse to breathe in pollution from cars - exhaust fumes, microplastics from tyres, metal from brakes etc than it is to walk near a smoker.

If you truly cared about public health op you’d be campaigning for city centres to be car-free. But no, you’re just being goady for the sake of it.

I smoke but will not smoke by people.though if you get annoying kids just light up and parents will soon move them

Smoking in public spaces should be banned because it's fucking awful.

I absolutely cannot get my knickers in a twist about people smoking outside, ffs.

@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

@wimhoffbreather

To all the ‘I don’t want to breath your gross smoker smoke’ (I don’t smoke btw) - what about air pollution? Cars? Industrial fumes? Even things like micro plastics in our water...all things casually poisoning us. Where is your rage for that? Oh I forgot, you wouldn’t be able to judge people for those things

Er yes I have written to my MP about local air pollution and I don’t have a car because I can’t afford electric and don’t want to contribute to air pollution. I have a green energy supplier, recycle, compost, avoid plastic etc. It is possible to care about more than one thing, especially when those things are both causes of the same problem I do judge people who don’t care about the environment anyway so you’re wrong on both counts

Our children and grandchildren will be as baffled at our generation's tolerance of smoking as we are at our parents and grandparents leaving us in the car outside the pub/putting brandy in baby bottles/being content for teachers to hit their children in school.

We know how dangerous it is and we know how many people find second-hand smoke unpleasant or downright deleterious to their health, yet it's still held up as some kind of civil liberty.

.... or what, you'll call the Police ?

@NiceLegsShameAboutTheFace

No, I don't think it should. Life's getting quite tedious: people need their vices.

But then, others need to be able to have their coffee without smoke being blown in their faces. And, as OP says, it's no longer an option to say they should just go inside the café.

[quote 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 [/quote]
Hah. This.

I'm pretty sure the only 'snowflakes' are the ones moaning about possibly having to walk by a smoker.

Breathing a known carcinogen into other people’s faces, while doing yourself harm, is not a Liberty I’d choose to defend.
If people could smoke with a helmet on, or with a silent extractor fan that kept the miasma of fumes swirling round their head, then I’d be all for it,
Otherwise f. off
Also covid attacks the respiratory system. Why encourage a habit that weakens the lungs... and the lungs of passive smokers.
This is from a former two pack a day smoker.

Only if you ban vapes too. From everywhere, because I find the billowing wafts of vape smoke (or whatever crap it is they blow out) nauseating and far more vomit-inducing then cigarette smoke.

But actually no, I draw the line in personal choice here. Smokers already have to be outside all weathers, its only because of the current (temporary 🤞) pandemic situation that the rest of us are outside in the cold too.

I do. Public smoking is anti-social. I'd like to see us moving towards banning smacking altogether. Even low to moderate smoking causes harm, why is it allowed?

I quit smoking about 8 years ago, so I think it would probably be hypocritical of me to say it would be banned and to be honest it doesn't really bother me when others have to smoke (although now most will go off to do it elsewhere).
I do think that maybe there should be more areas where smoking is prohibited though. I hate ppl smoking on the beach because more often than not they use the sand as some sort of ashtray.
Maybe public spaces should work like an airport, where you cant smoke apart from in designated araeas

@InglouriousBasterd

No. They’re already outside! I don’t think it’s a great idea to remove yet more liberties and free will.

What about the freedom of others not to breathe in smoke, and not to get the smell on their clothes and in their hair?

.

Smacking = smoking.

If I don’t want to sit by them then I have the choice to go somewhere else.

But nowadays the chances are that you don't. If I want to have meal or a drink in my local pub, I have to sit outside, and the pub is a bit funny about people walking off with their plates, glasses and cutlery. And it's no better in other pubs.