So what do we all think about the proposed smoking bans?

[KateandtheGirls]

Interesting thread...

I dont go t o pubs becasue of hte smell

what sit he link with smoking and drinking? why does one have to lead to another?

But nobody has explained to me yet why smoking has to be banned in all restaurants and food-serving pubs.

Think the whole thing is the worst kind of nanny-stateism.

Great to ban smoking in public places. Feel sorry for children & pregnant mums stuck in houses where family members & friends smoke.

It's great news for us! Dp is an ex smoker and finds it very difficult to go into pubs. When exposed to smoke, he gets short of breath and gets asthmatic type symptons. He's also frightened of being tempted to another fag and start again.

It's rare we do go out together socially. We went for lunch on Saturday in a pub which had a non-smoking area but just as we were finishing our meal, we smelt smoke and looked around to see a woman smoking who was near the door to the room where we were. It wasn't anyone's fault because she was in the right area for her and we thought we'd be OK but the pub was an old building and didn't have adequate ventilation.

May I reply to Badhair? I've worked behind the bar for Wetherspoons twice. 'Spoonies are (in)famous for the 'no smoking at the bar' policy but I got thick skinned towards getting abuse from smokers whom I'd politely asked not to smoke at the bar. So after getting peed off with the abuse, the staff developed the following:

Bar person: Excuse me, can you put your cigarette out please.

Smoking customer (hiding the ciggie behind the back and trying to get money out with other hand):I'm not smoking love.

Bar person: Well if you're not, your arse must be on fire!

Mr

But why should it be viewed as nanny-stateism.

Surely, banning wouldn't have to happen if smokers understood that their choices affect other people. Fair enough, if someone wants to smoke - let them, but they should do it in the privacy of their own home.

Smokers make a decision to light up, non-smokers can't decide not to inhale other peoples fumes, otherwise we'd all have to sit indoors permanently.

Used to be a publican, used to be a smoker. I think pubs should be free to serve food in 'smoking' & 'non-smoking' rooms.

BUT from a purely selfish POV, I was at a Motorhead gig on Sunday & it was full of lousy smokers - causing dh & I to have an 'aaaaah...fag smoke!' nostalgia moment before sternly admonishing each other not to give in...it'll make pubs & band venues far pleasanter places for us ex-smokers when NO bugger's puffing away!

yep, agree its a great idea. have a little sympathy for smoking areas in pub, none for smoking areas in restaurants. am far more aware of smoking now because of DS than I was before babies. am looking forward to not having smelly clothes after night out at pub (well I can dream of night out at pub anyway!)

wWHY do you have to smoke when you fdrink tho?

Another way of getting the customer to put the ciggie out was by saying, 'Can you put your cigarette out because I'm dying for a fag myself'. That used to get an excellent response of, 'oh sorry love'.

BTW I don't smoke.

TwoifbySea - PMSL at your post!! 'Pumps' - we call it that too! Ha ha!

Like you, dh says he was picked on a bit at school cos his clothes smelled of smoke from his parents house.

If MIL ever sends something in the post, even the envelope stinks just from being in her house! Bleurgh!

DH's nan also knitted loads of baby stuff when ds1 was born and posted it up wrapped in a carrier back and jiffy bag - bloody hell, you would not have believed the smell coming out of the envelope! The clothes STANK!! Even after washing they were bad - never used them

Can't get over parents smoking round their children - SIL and MIL go out the patio doors to smoke but even so, when they come in and pick up the baby they are breathing horrid faggy breath on them. Eeeew!

Ban it everywhere. It's disgusting!

codswallop - when you smoke you only really relxa with or after a fag (because if you don´t have a fag you have withdrawal symptoms).

Gobbledigook - I was gonna make some comment about parents who smoke around their kids, so I totally agree with what you've said.

I'm sure that I read something a few years ago about a family in the US having their children taken away from them because they were severely asthmatic, always being hospitalised and the parents refused to give up smoking around them - now that's a scary thought!!!

SenoraPostrophe - there is absolutely no doubt that smoking is one of the root causes of Scotland's record of poor health. I was at a conference recently where the real need to improve the nation's health was highlighted. One of the things that had to be done is to encourage people to stop smoking. There was a scary graph of the projected population shown for 2031 to demonstrate how the demography is changing. The projected population in Scotland is dropping (Germany is the only other country with a projected population drop). By 2031, 1 in 4 people will be over 65. If the rate of disease continues to rise (many smoking related), how are we going to be able to care for people in the health service. Where people used to die of heart attacks, strokes etc., they are now surviving because of technology. If yound people could be convinced to stop smoking, their health would be improved. There were obviously lots of other issues discussed as well which have an impact such as poverty, housing etc. etc.
If smoking became socially unacceptable, people are less likely to do it. Passive smoking is also a major concern. No matter how you try to extract smoke form smoking areas it still goes somewhere. Smoke always manages to waft it's way over to non-smoking areas. Hence the smoking legislation for Scotland.

I still don´t like the ban, but the Scottish plan for a total ban strikes me as more sensible than the English one.

The English plan will result in more binge drinking in pubs that don´t serve food. Both plans are likely to result in more drinking at home, where it´s harder to gauge how much you are drinking.

I really don´t think a ban in pubs is the answer. Plus dh says he´ll never move back to the UK if there is one.

In fact what would probably do more to stop young people smoking would be if politicians went on about how cool it is...

Don't get you on the binge drinking in "no food" pubs Senora. The pubs i've been in that are binge-drinker havens (thinking particularly of It's a Scream type places) only serve food until about 8 pm anyway.

i support the ban as separate areas don't work and agree that bus shelters etc. need to be added to the ban.

I used to work for a tobacco control agency, this news is wonderful from my POV. My former colleagues must be thrilled.
Also agree bus shelters should be included, heartily sick of smokers carefully holding their fags so that the secondhand smoke drifts not over them but over my children.
Astonished that John "oh f*ck not Health" Reid has gone through with this, I was under the impression he really didn't back the policy.

I'm pretty thrilled about it too. Fantastic!

Have to say that I'm definitely for the ban in restaurants but the jury's out on pubs.
I don't see why pubs can't be allowed to decide whether they want to be either smoking or totally non-smoking (none of this useless no smoking area) and then let the customers decide where they want to drink and the staff decide where they want to work. Whether they serve food or not really shouldn't come into it.

Can't wait!

I agree that all restaurants should be Non smoking. My MIL is one of the worst if your out for dinner and she's finished eating she'll light up a cigarette even if others at the table are still eating, I find that so rude and it's not nice eating dinner while she's wafting smoke all over the place.

However I'm not sure I agree about pubs. Like Badhair says why don't they let the pubs decide for themsleves if they are going to be smoking pubs or non smoking pubs and then people can decide for themselves where they want to go and drink and decide where they want to work.
But on the other hand I can see it turning into the sort of debate in years to come that will say, well you chose to work/drink in a smoking pub you now need help from the NHS from your smoking related disease we're not helping you/your costing us too much money etc.

Most pubs that serve food only serve until 7/8pm. In my area pubs that serve food and admit children during the day for meals have a non smoking policy during that time. In the evenings when children are not allowed in you can smoke in the pub.

If the government are so hellbent on protecting non smokers they should stop the sale of cigarettes period. But of course they won't do that because they make so much Tax on the smokers.

I think it's great. I see it as making it less likely my own chilren will take up smoking.

I think its great news, it will mean the next generation see it less and less and that the only smokers they do see are sitting in a nice nicotine stained armchair with fag burns and the yellow tinge round the edges of the room and they will might stop to think whether they would like to be like that.
It will mean cleaner air for everyone. I dont think anyone should have the right to pollutre anyone elses air with cancer causing fumes. And I think anyone who defends thier right to puff up other peoples noses sound ridiculus.
I am a struggling non smoker myself currently clean for 1month 1week 2days 21m hours and 45mins......

Not only does this help the non-smokers and most importantly the worked (who 'get' most of the second hand smoke) it will also help the 70% of smokers who say that they want to quit.

I have lost count of the number of smokers who say, 'I was doing well until I went to the pub. I always had a fagwith a pint, and I started to smoke again'.

Not only is nicotine physiologically addictive but there is also a large psychological component to addiction. If you can separate the person trying to quit from the smoking environment then you will increase the liklyhood of them sucessfully quitting the habit.

Just keep thinking 340 smokers dead each day in the UK....they have to be worth something?

think it is brilliant. Particularly pleased that when my parents in law visit and we eat out we will not have to put up with their smoke immediately after they have finished eating (or even between courses - shudder..) blowing the smoke over their shoulder in a sad pretence that this means we won?t be affected (stuff the people on the other tables...) Can?t arrive soon enough for me. Shame they can?t ban it on public streets, bus stops etc. as well but I guess that would be an "infringement on smokers rights blah blah..."