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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be fed up of some smokers' inconsiderate behaviour

107 replies

Wantcleanair · 12/09/2023 09:57

Why do some insist on smoking right outside the doorway of supermarkets, restaurants etc. so that you have no way of avoiding walking through the disgusting second hand smoke when walking past them? Our local supermarket has a designated smoking area away from the doorway but it appears only the staff use it. Are people so desperate for a cigarette that they cannot walk a few metres to keep entrance and exit ways clear?

OP posts:
Nevermind202020 · 12/09/2023 10:44

I agree.
It's also slightly worrying that so far 50% of people actually think you are being unreasonable! Smoking stinks and the smell clings to clothes, hair etc even just walking through it!
I am not against people smoking at all, as that's a tad OTT, but please not in entranceways or places people have no choice but to walk through!

dearanon · 12/09/2023 10:45

Do you say to them to move to the designated smoking area?

Personally, I think they're already outside so they can smoke there if they like

msbevvy · 12/09/2023 10:49

This is the bane of my life, especially around the entrances to hospitals. Cigarette smoke triggers my asthma. I sometimes have to wait for the smoker to finish before I can enter or exit the building.

Nevermind202020 · 12/09/2023 10:50

dearanon · 12/09/2023 10:45

Do you say to them to move to the designated smoking area?

Personally, I think they're already outside so they can smoke there if they like

Surely anyone with any decency wouldn't need to be asked to move to the actual smoking area and would consider others? The fact that they are just outside suggests they don't really care too much about other folk?

vodkaredbullgirl · 12/09/2023 10:53

As a smoker I don't understand too. I wait till I get to my car.

Nevermind202020 · 12/09/2023 10:55

vodkaredbullgirl · 12/09/2023 10:53

As a smoker I don't understand too. I wait till I get to my car.

I think the inconsiderate smokers are like the dog walkers who let their dogs poop everywhere - they give everyone a bad name! Thanks for being a considerate smoker!

Original poster
Wantcleanair · 12/09/2023 10:57

dearanon · 12/09/2023 10:45

Do you say to them to move to the designated smoking area?

Personally, I think they're already outside so they can smoke there if they like

No as I would anticipate that the people who think it is OK to do this would take no notice anyway .... just as they have already ignored the obvious smoking shelter away from the doorway. I imagine the shelter was placed away from the entrance for a very good reason!
They may well be outside but when smoking right in a doorway, the smoke and smell often carries inside. I am speaking from experience here when I had the misfortune recently to be allocated a table near to the door in a restaurant.
Smoke if they choose but so sad that some are just so selfish in their actions.

OP posts:
ManateeFair · 12/09/2023 10:58

I don't smoke, but a brief whiff of smoke for a second as I walk through the door of a supermarket honestly doesn't bother me at all.

VeridicalVagabond · 12/09/2023 11:01

dearanon · 12/09/2023 10:45

Do you say to them to move to the designated smoking area?

Personally, I think they're already outside so they can smoke there if they like

Would you shit on the floor just because no one politely asked you to please not shit on the floor and go and use the toilet?

You shouldn't have to tell people to do something gross in the designated area for that gross thing. It should be common sense and common decency.

Imogensmumma · 12/09/2023 11:01

Drives me nuts!!! I’m often walking with my baby in the pram and have to walk my child through the smoke past the adult who was too self-centred to take an extra 10 steps away from the door!!

SaulHudsonDavidJones · 12/09/2023 11:03

ManateeFair · 12/09/2023 10:58

I don't smoke, but a brief whiff of smoke for a second as I walk through the door of a supermarket honestly doesn't bother me at all.

Good for you, it is horrid for a lot of other people. But as long as you don't mind...

Original poster
Wantcleanair · 12/09/2023 11:03

@msbevvy

This is the bane of my life, especially around the entrances to hospitals. Cigarette smoke triggers my asthma. I sometimes have to wait for the smoker to finish before I can enter or exit the building.

I know, it is absolute madness! Our local hospital also has a smoking shelter just a few metres from the entrance to A and E but still smokers stand right beside the entrance.

OP posts:
Annaishere · 12/09/2023 11:05

I used to smoke and you don’t know how bad it smells till you quit

TheFlis12345 · 12/09/2023 11:06

It’s the ones who drop their fag ends on the floor instead of walking a few metres to a bin that piss me off the most. I once asked a guy I saw drop a cigarette end if he would drop the coke can he was drinking from on the floor when he finished with it and he said no as that would be littering. He somehow hadn’t connected dropping fag butts a the floor as actually littering and I don’t think that’s uncommon from what I have seen.

ActDottie · 12/09/2023 11:18

Yep I agree, I’m pregnant and the other day someone just lit a cigarette right in front of me and started puffing the smoke out!

ActDottie · 12/09/2023 11:20

ActDottie · 12/09/2023 11:18

Yep I agree, I’m pregnant and the other day someone just lit a cigarette right in front of me and started puffing the smoke out!

Should add in obviously pregnant with a bump as well

saymynamesaymy · 12/09/2023 11:20

Annaishere · 12/09/2023 11:05

I used to smoke and you don’t know how bad it smells till you quit

Agree. You honestly can't smell it it's so strange ! Now I'm shocked I ever went around smelling like that, it really is rank

ValerieGoldberg · 12/09/2023 11:23

100% with you OP. I can’t stand it. It’s really inconsiderate. It happens all the time outside our local supermarket, the hospital, the one I hate the most is standing next to the park gates smoking when it’s full of kids. Would it be that difficult to move a bit further away. I say this as an occasional smoker too!

RoseRows · 12/09/2023 11:25

Totally agree. I’m heavily pregnant with complications and was at the hospital yesterday for a couple of procedures, I went out for a breath of fresh air in between and could barely get out of the door for smokers. There were so many of them and all crowded round the entrance/exit not using the actual smoking shelter. It’s incredibly anti-social behaviour.

Original poster
Wantcleanair · 12/09/2023 11:31

@RoseRows

It is so gross! Such a pity that hospitals can't or won't adopt the same rules as schools in making their grounds, or at least a perimeter around the hospital, a no smoking zone. The use of smoking shelters in hospitals should be enforced IMO. Don't know who'd take on that poison chalice though! 😩

OP posts:
Catsafterme · 12/09/2023 11:31

People are inconsiderate arseholes, basically.

I smoke and I have always moved myself away from people, go to my car or anywhere furthest away where the smoke won't bother people.

If I am smoking and someone is heading my way I'll hold off until we pass each other, lots of people, pregnant or a pram I will move away. Similarly if there are any children, I'll hide it in my hand until I am away, so they don't see it or breathe anything.

Screwballs · 12/09/2023 11:33

ActDottie · 12/09/2023 11:20

Should add in obviously pregnant with a bump as well

Show quote history

how absolutely horrendous, you mean to tell me that the world doesnt stop for pregnant woman? Who'd have thought. I do hope you whinge about people driving near you too, with all those exhaust fumes.

Thelittleweasel · 12/09/2023 11:33

@Wantcleanair

Local hospital says "we are a smokefree hospital". If only! All around the doors to out patients are smokers. Some in wheelchairs having been pushed there by staff! Some even smoking cannabis! I have tried to take it up with Patient Liaison [PALS] but no success

OurChristmasMiracle · 12/09/2023 11:37

I think it’s very inconsiderate - there are people out in public with lung diseases etc and they are then given no choice but to walk through smoke.

i respect smokers rights to smoke however I don’t feel that I should be forced to walk through clouds of smoke. I also feel the same way about the clouds of vape too.

Original poster
Wantcleanair · 12/09/2023 11:55

@Screwballs

I do hope you whinge about people driving near you too, with all those exhaust fumes.

Not the same thing at all! I would personally whinge if a car was parked right in the doorway (and I mean right with its bumper touching the glass) of a hospital, supermarket or restaurant with its engine running and emitting vile smoke that I had no choice but to walk through. Oddly enough, I have never encountered that in the way I do constantly with smokers. The poster who was pregnant has every right to feel annoyed at someone's choice to deliberately light up right next to her, I would have been too. Fortunately, some of the smokers on this thread seem really considerate.

OP posts: