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

I feel like I haven’t seen somebody smoking in ages, come to think of it

But it isn't just the smell is it. It's smoke full of carcinogens and I don't want it anywhere near me.

Smoking should be banned in ALL public and private places except indoors in your own home with the windows shut.

Absolutely, I smoked 30 a day for years and had no idea how disgusting I smelt until I gave up. I cringe thinking about it now 🤮

@Arbesque but outdoors is smokers' "territory". I put it in quotation marks because it's everyone's territory really. But most of the year most people don't want to sit or stand outside restaurants and pubs. Only smokers do. Do you regularly sit outside restaurants in the UK from November to April? I don't.

Places are free to ban smoking in the outside areas they own. Some of them do and some of them decide it is profitable to cater for their smoking customers and let them smoke outside. That is a business decision. Go to one of the places that smoking in any part of their premises if you want to sit outside.

The average smoking rate in the UK is 14 per cent. I was surprised to find that out. I guessed it was 20 per cent. That's an average so in some places it will be higher and some places will be lower.

Air pollution from non-smoking related sources is much higher. Outside it's mostly traffic fumes and inside it's traffic fumes that permeate from the outside and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) from things like fire retardant finishes to furniture and paint.. We need those things for safety but poor ventilation means indoor pollution builds up and threatens our health.

It's a serious public health issue because your home contains VOCs unless you don't have any furniture and leave the windows open a lot. It's not worth panicking about but it is worth thinking about and ventilating your home properly which is more than most people do espec9ially when it's cold. Sometimes people can't do that adequately even if they want to because they live in older dwellings or because builders of houses and public buildings are still not legally required to address it in any meaningful way.

It's much easier to blame smokers because you can see them.

Even as a smoker I don't think you're being unreasonable. Don't get me wrong I love to sit outside with a glass of wine and a cigarette but if people are eating on surrounding tables, unless they are very obviously also smokers, I will get up and go elsewhere. I did this when I was out for lunch a few weeks ago and was thanked by the people who were at the next table eating when I came back. A little give and take and respect both ways costs nothing.

@maranella same, it’s absolutely rank

Should be banned anyway at the moment because of the fire risk. And BBQs. Everywhere is tinder-dry (in my part of southern England).

Me neither, it tends to be vaping. Which is worse. I can cope with the smell of smoke outside (not inside!). But vaping is vile.

YANBU

I agree smokers should not smoke near people who are eating because its rude, selfish and absalutely digusting.

Their lungs must be riddled with tarmac.

Same goes for smokers.

All the smokers live in Essex unfortunately.

Well hospitality is on its knees, as a non smoker I can't see it happening they're customers too helping to pay the overheads. I'd be upset to see more places shut down because they banned smoking and lost those customers

The smokers I've come across always take themselves away from people eating
better manners would make a difference

That's because we are hiding, in case there is thread on here about us.

And ban smoking on the beach. GRIM.

True @justasking111 look how many pubs shut after the smoking ban

We have this regulation in Australia. In NSW at least. I’m a smoker and I agree it should be banned in dining spaces

I would've said the same about 5 or 6 years ago but since then, my area has become very popular with Eastern Europeans and they have a very high number of smokers in their community.

After lockdown ended, we went to a very expensive gastro pub and had booked a garden "pod" aka glorified shed outside. We were so excited to be out again, and the food was incredible but the experience was completely marred by the amount of people smoking around us as the pods were in the same area as the outdoor seating.

To be honest, I don't think it's acceptable in public areas full stop especially where people are sat eating.

Couldn’t agree more. DH and I were eating outside a pub last month and someone came and sat at our table and lit up! Couldn’t believe it. When challenged they said there was no where else to sit (true) and it was “fucking tough” if we didn’t like it.

YANBU, l absolutely cannot stand the smell of smoke, it is selfish and bad manners to smoke around people who are eating, why can' t they just stop selling cigerettes and tobacco full stop ?

Dogs don’t cause cancer or other lung diseases

The indoor smoking ban crippled a lot of traditional pubs. I can't see the hospitality industry being happy to countenance an outdoor smoking ban, let alone enforce it.

I think non-smokers will just have to accept that people are allowed to smoke out in the open air, just as we all have to accept that people have a right to use their cars as much as they like and for frivolous reasons. We're all poisoning one another's air in one way or another.

Smoke carries so far
One person's fag is being inhaled by so many others.
Stayed on caravan sight recently and even with a good amount of space between Vans,someone smoking Infront and behind smoked us out.

Yes, I wish smoking and vaping were banned in any public place, especially anywhere food is being served, but also in parks/beaches/streets,
etc.