Smoking outside in populated public places.

[Readytoevolve]

It was a beautiful day as I sat outside my local coffee shop with my 2 children, drinking smoothies and soaking up the sunshine.
Then BOOM, the table next to us lights up a cigarette and it blows our way.

The day before we were lining the streets for a tractor run…. We had a front view and the kids are at the front. Then BOOM, a man behind us lights up just as it’s beginning and is breathing the smoke down on us.

Why oh why is smoking allowed outside, and not just in designated smoking areas, where they can all sit and smoke together. It happens us all the time.

Yes they’re entitled to do it, but is it right? Hell no.

AIBU?

Why are you fairly certain of that?

I kind of think it depends.

If the cafe had ashtrays on the table - YABU. But personally I wouldn’t smoke near children - however if it did have ashtrays, you essentially sat in the smoking area.

Designated smoking areas are just paying lip service. No one can control the way the smoke blows on a breeze. Smoking inside has been banned and people are still not happy. Sit inside. You know the “rules” 🤷‍♀️

They might not like sitting next to your kids...

(I'm not a smoker and when I was, wouldn't smoke near children)

I don't smoke/vape and never have done. However on this issue I'll defend the smokers.
The none smokers demanded that the smokers being removed to outside to smoke, creating a smoke free environment for us none smokers, so outside they went in all weathers.
Then when the weather turns nicer, the none smokers want to invade the smokers space and demand that they move yet again, only to be nowhere to be seen when the cooler or wet weather returns.
Then they call smokers selfish.
You can't have it both ways.

And YOU (person telling me vapes are recommended as an alternative...! Dear oh dear.) do realise that the same services offer the same old things to help you now quit the vapes?! Honestly! Quick-mist (very effective tbh) now have a TV ad to say the same things they said about cigarettes.
Don't try to patronise tired and jaded people, it's all bad for you, the verdict is still out cos there's still money tied up in the lack of confirmation but it's hardly rocket science, the information is out there. British Medical Journal and Medscape are very good publications. Not 100% peer reviewed, nothing is these days at that level. Tobacco companies have revenue to protect.

applause didn't have time this rve to search for that!

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

🤢🤢🤢

You took your children to a tractor run and let them inhale all those fumes, no doubt you walk down roads where there are exhaust fumes. If you didn't like it then you should have moved. Smokers are already banned from smoking everywhere inside so they now smoke outside and your still moaning! Just move if you don't like it!

Well said!

I hate sitting outside breathing in various assorted vehicle fumes, but it’s legal, so nothing I can do. 🤷‍♀️

I completely agree. Smokers shouldn’t be allowed to disturb and affect others’ health with their disgusting habit. I’ve lost track of the amount of times I’ve been sat at a bus stop with my baby son and someone has started smoking right next to him. Why should he have to breathe that in? It amazes me how incredibly selfish some people are. If they want to smoke that’s up to them but they have absolutely no right to force me and my child to breathe it in.

You're right, I do a very good job of that myself, thanks, but it is your job to be a responsible smoker and not inflict your toxic fumes on people just trying to go about their day just because you fancy a fag.
My son nearly died from an asthma attack as a little kid, he was in icu for 3 days, so it boils my piss just that little bit more when someone is blowing fag smoke all over him.

That isn't actually the smoker's job though - you've just arbitrarily assigned them that.

Research from The Johns Hopkins University on vape ingredients published in October 2021 reveals thousands of chemical ingredients in vape products, most of which are not yet identified. Among those the team could identify were several potentially harmful substances, including caffeine, three chemicals never previously found in e-cigarettes, a pesticide and two flavorings linked with possible toxic effects and respiratory irritation.
“Emerging data suggests links to chronic lung disease and asthma -The substance at the center of investigation is vitamin E. It’s often used as a thickening and delivery agent in e-liquid. And, while it’s safe when taken orally as a supplement or used on the skin, it’s likely an irritant when inhaled. It’s been found in the lungs of people with severe, vaping-related damage.
aping-related lipoid pneumonia is the result of inhaling oily substances found in e-liquid, which sparks an inflammatory response in the lungs. Symptoms of lipoid pneumonia include:

• Chronic cough
• Shortness of breath
• Coughing up blood or blood-tinged mucus

It’s a myth that secondhand emissions from e-cigarettes are harmless. Many people think the secondhand vapor is just water, but this couldn’t be farther from the truth. The vapor emitted when someone exhales contains a variety of dangerous substances, which may include:

• Nicotine
• Ultrafine particles
• Diacetyl
• Benzene (a chemical found in car exhaust)

The above is all from the John Hopkins Medicine website.

Anecdotally, my Dr husband is a respiratory toxicologist by training and confirms vaping is not safe.

It's called being responsible. If I was a smoker, ( and I'm not), I wouldn't just light up near a crowd of kids or right near someone sitting outside with kids. But then, I'm not a selfish twat.
Smoke all you want, I really couldn't give a shite, just don't do it near my kid. It's not too much to ask someone to be a thoughtful decent human is it?

Maybe you could move your child out of the way.

I'd rather be left to use my judgment. I don't smoke in queues, I don't randomly walk through crowds smoking and if I'm sat at a cafe terrace I only smoke if there are people smoking at other tables (if not, DH and I take turns leaving the terrace to smoke). I do miss living in France where you didn't need to care if people were sitting out in cafes or not. It was accepted that if you were sat on a terrace you were consenting to people smoking around you. There are few things better than a coffee and a cigarette while sitting in the sun.

If you're going to insist on it, can you at least put some proper seats in these designated smoking areas? A random bus shelter with nowhere to sit is crap.

Then "BOOM" someone started up a tractor!

@PenguinCounter

Yes the attitude in other parts of Europe is completely different isn't it.

I was in Belgium recently. Sat outside at a cafe, the ashtray and my cigarettes and lighter clearly on the table for all to see. A couple with a toddler sat down at the next table, even though there were other tables available.

I did wait until the toddler kind of went off to the other side where his dad was before lighting up and blew my smoke in the other direction, but they didn't even blink. Even then I felt a bit guilty! But they genuinely didn't care. They'd chosen to sit there when there were free tables not next to smokers.

I do wonder how some of these MNers cope when they go on holiday in Europe and the attitude is so different.

Oh do piss off.

I'm not a smoker and detest the habit.
However you could of sat inside?,the place smoker's were banned from and been smoke free.

I remember DD's first outdoor breaths leaving the maternity hospital were full of cigarette smoke because of all the twats surrounding the entrance puffing away. Wish the hospitals would clamp down on their so called smoke free sites!

Yanbu. And I feel the same way about vaping too. Revolting, anti social habits