Smoking in outdoor dining areas should be banned - AIBU?

[Circlesandtriangles]

Sat outside a lovely cafe by the canal in the sun, lovely except for the wafting of some ladies cigarette smoke across the table. i probably am a bit unreasonable but I just hate smoke when eating. Seems a shame that to enjoy outdoor dining I need to suffer smokers second hand smoke. So...

YABU - Suck that second hand smoke up
YANBU - There should be no smoking where food is being enjoyed outdoors

If I want to sit outside an establishment and have a drink and a smoke I 100 percent will, no I don't care if it bothers anyone. I would move if I was near a baby/toddler but that's about it. Maybe it comes from living abroad where people aren't this pathetic and up their own arses about everything.
Let's just ban everything just in case someone doesn't like it then we can all just sit in our houses and go nowhere.

We are becoming a crabbed and intolerant little society, that's true

I’m a bit torn here as I don’t like the smell of smoke while I’m eating but at the same time the smoker may well be thinking that it’s a shame that they can’t enjoy a drink and a smoke outside without someone sitting there tutting at them. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Smoking near others is selfish. We all know smoking is harmful so not sure why anyone thinks it’s acceptable to subject others to it.

At restaurants and other outdoor areas it would be courteous if people smoked away from others not just food. Maybe more designated smoking areas would be a good start? TBF it should be banned full stop.

It’s not just about not liking it though is it? It’s about second hand smoke being harmful in a similar way that first hand smoke is. People aren’t up their own areas for having genuine concerns about their health. Would argue that selfish ignorant smokers are the issue here and the complete disregard they have for others.

’arses’ not ‘areas’

Secondary smoke isn't really a health issue outdoors. It requires concentration and repeated exposure over time to have anything more than a trivial/temporary effect.

Vehicle exhaust is vastly more of a problem in that regard. But even there, it's high consistent concentrations in particular environments over time which begins to have an effect.

I avoid smoking near people in public everywhere (unless I can see they are also smokers) except pub gardens. You can't take my pub garden away from me.

I agree.

I know but they don't want to hear about that. Might make them feel guilty about driving. Don't tell them what those fashionable wood-burning stoves do to pink little lungs either.

Not unreasonable. I was recently sat with my child eating out at a restaurant and had to ask to be moved twice due to smokers ruining it for us.

Eating isn't a health concern though or a lifestyle choice. It's non comparable

Why didn’t you sit inside?

I only smoke when I drink these days and the outside tables at the pubs I go to aren't particularly close together since covid

If a family sat at the next table I'd move to the other end of mine to smoke so further away from the children

Other than that no, I'm not going to stop having a drink and a fag outside in the sun while sat at a table with an ashtray because someone's decided to eat outside or because they have their kids at the pub

Even as a child, I loved the smell of a cigarette being lit outdoors. Still do.

Just me I suspect.

No, me too.

Personally I don’t have a problem with people smoking outdoors. It’s way down on my own list of pet hates, providing they dispose of their cigarette butts responsibly.
It’s bad for you, that’s indisputable but so are many other things that we do.

Glad to see that I’m not the only one who rather likes the smell of cigarette smoke

Since when is smoking cannabis a thing in a pub garden? I was in a city centre bar outside a few days ago and a guy came sat opposite me, dh and ds and started smoking. There were no other smokers there. Who the fuck did he think he was? 4pm in broad daylight. Dickhead.

we finished our drinks and left.

Passive smoking (inhaling others' smoke) literally DOES cause harm to those inhaling it. So it's not just unpleasant, it's harmful. Why should non smokers and children suffer?

Passive smoking (inhaling others' smoke) literally DOES cause harm to those inhaling it

Not in the circumstances being described here though. Occasionally sitting on a cafe terrace or in a pub garden where someone is smoking will have no impact on your health - the dangers of secondary smoke are widely misunderstood. But if you are worried, the inside space is smoke-free.

Smoking is revolting. I’d like to see it banned in all public spaces.

It’s not just cigarettes..I don’t understand why some vapes leave a billowing cloud of lychee flavoured chemicals, yet some don’t??

Just a thought that MIL is the only person I know who still smokes. She’s also the only person I know who hasn’t had covid… I think her tar-filled lungs make an inhospitable environment for the virus to spawn. She’ll probably live longer than anyone else. As long as there’s red wine and coffee too, I bet she wouldn’t even need food 😂

@SunnySwirl my MIL was like that. Smoked from the age of 12, 20 a day, hacking cough but nothing got to her. She fell and broke her hip, we called the paramedics and they came. She demanded a fag before being moved into the ambulance so they let her. They probably knew it would be her last one as she died 3 weeks later age 89.

Wasnt the brightest spark but probably explains why she thought smoking was ok as she was too well after years of abuse to her lungs.