So, this smoking ban............how many of you are for it, and how many against?

[VeniVidiVickiQV]

If you are against it - why are you?

For.

After a meal out when pregnant with DS and 90% of the group I was with smoking through it - anti-public smoking all the way.

Im sure mismanagement and misappropriation of funds is a huge factor too. But, the simple fact is, that there is a multitude of conditions, illnesses and diseases that are solely attributed to smoking. These take up time, funds, bed spaces, appointments, diagnostic equipment etc and are completely preventable.

There are many studies and reports that have come to the same conclusion.

WRT new drugs - most PCT's dont use new drugs simply because of the high cost. Hence the media term "postcode lottery".

I am agreeing with you, VVVQV. As ever.

white paper

FOR, deffo. I may begin to go out again in the eveinings...

FOR!!! I am in Scotland and love being able to go out for a drink and not come home stinking of smoke. I also worked in quite a lot of smoky places and it makes such a difference not having to work in smokey atmospheres.

It has supposedly contributed to a number of bars and clubs closing, but how many of these were on the decline anyway, I don't htinkit is the sole factor in many cases. The places I know up here are just as busy, from family eating pubs to student nightclubs and music venues.

Can we still ban cheap produce in China though as the pollution is still affecting your 'world'.

Ponces!

I don't drive, either. My kid's far more likely to get killed by one of you than by my 'secondary' rather pathetic roll-up cigarette smoke.

Well ......... it's that time of night!

Doesn't depression take up a lot of time & resources as well. Lots of people need a good kick up the arse, but they take up appointments as well. Before you slag off all smokers for using the NHS, you have to start at the beginning.

A packet of ordinary cigarettes costs nearly £6.00.

Nearly £5.00 of that goes to the gov.

Should I die of lung cancer, I'm pretty comfortable with my maths. I reckon I've paid for it.

I reckon I've paid for you, too

For having watched FIL die of lung cancer.
SOme restaurnts and bars here ( Italy) have smoking areas with these huge vents / extraction fans so people can smoke . Costly to install I imagine.

yes am pro

its very kind of you smokers
to pay for my and my kids lung cancer treatment but i think i'd rather not get it in the first place thanks.

car fumes, China etc are fairly common reactions when this is debated, rather erroneously IMO -it's a feature of the addictive nature of nicotine to 'defend' it's use - we CAN reduce the impact of smoking on all, whether initial or secondary, and take entirely separate action (or not) on cars and China....

I'm very jealous of your smoking ban. I reckon hell will freeze over before there's one introduced in Switzerland. I don't smoke, but I am aware it's MUCH cheaper - more like £2 per pack here.

Luckily I have no social life, so it's few and far between the times I'm sitting in a smokey bar, but i hate so much the thick stinky smoke that clings to everything. It really is a horrible horrible habit.

I spent yesterday afternnon in an oncology day unit. As NHS clinics go, it is excellent, nice chair, carpets, nice pictures on the walls. The seats in the treatment room are great, they recline, which is good , because many of the people having treatment can't really sit up in comfort.

While we were waiting we sat opposite a man who is being treated for throat cancer. He is on oxygen amd has a traceotomy tube in place. Every now and the he made the mose gut churning coughing noise, as he couched mucus out of the hole in his neck. Statistically he is most likely to have this cancer through coughing.

However much money your smoking habit has raised, however nice the room, however wonderful the staff that you have paid for (and they are first rate), you don't want to end up being tracheotomy man, or to be sitting with him.

However ghastly the pain, however mind numbing the fear when they tell you that you are going to die, it is NOTHING, to the hurt that you feel when you have to tell your children that daddy isn't going to live.

DH has a cancer out of sheer bad luck. He did nothing to increase the risk. Smokers do. And they are bloody fools. Half of all smokers die early as a result. And you can come up with all the fancy arguments about toy production in China, and car fumes that you like. The reality of the situation is that you are putting yourself in danger, every time that you light up. And you all need to stop. Because you don't want to see the look on your kids faces when you tell them you have cancer.

You can have all the bravado in the world, it doesn't help you a damn once you are coughing mucus out of a hole in your throat.

this cancer through smoking Note to self, proof read!

Most definately for a ban

Gulp.

So long as folk smoke, the greater your chance of having to have that tragic conversation with your children along the lines of 'I will be leaving you sooner, because....'

On two separate occasions I've shared a bay in hospital with ladies suffering from the effects of smoking.

The first one died, and it was agonizing to hear her struggling for breath in the days before she died.

The second had to be on oxygen 24/7 and had to be placed next to the toilets so her line could stretch to allow her to reach the toilet. Again it was almost painful to have to hear her struggling to breathe.

Realise that the 'bloody fool' line was rude, not meant to be. I do realise that nicyine is the most addictive, honestly feel that smokers should get all the help in the world to quite etc etc,

I just find the 'all the most intersting people' type quips tough to cope with. And somehow I don't think that the man with throat cancer is having an interesting life at the moment.

Dhs illnes is hard enough for us to cope with, without having the added grief of knowing that is self inflicted. God knows how he would cope if he had caused it.

I find the whole argument about how smokers shouldn't be entitiled to nhs treament a big sham. I think they just get used as a scape goat because they are an easy target, just like obese people are. I believe that a big part of the reason for the nhs being in crisis is because there are too many pen pushers working in offices and not enough doctors and nurses.

I'm sorry i find this whole 'nicotine is highly addictive be grateful you are not struggling with it' victim line faintly ridiculous. I smoked, about ten to twenty a day, for just over a year sparked by the break up of a long relationship and mini breakdown. A year and many fags later, when I had a miscarriage, it made me wake up and realise what i was doing- that and the fact my asthma was worse than ever and i was so short of breath. I was addicted and it was very hard to stop. But I did, as have so many people. It is possible, and it is not as hard as say, getting a degree or giving birth or any number of things. No one is a victim to it, no one. And in the end you do smoke because you choose to.

i didn't know i was pregnant when i was smoking, unfortunately.

I am for the ban especially in places that serve food. I would really like to be able to take my children into a cafe/coffee shop without having to wade through a fog of smoke.

Ditto with pubs that have been making most of their money out of serving food.