Banning smoking outdoors?

[MrsMerryHenry]

Did anyone else hear about this on R4 (PM programme) this evening? I can't find an article about it anywhere. Is this a serious proposal?

It does make me when smokers complain about infringement of civil liberties over this issue. I don't believe I have ever heard a smoker talk about non-smokers' civil liberties being infringed every time someone lights up. And non-smokers have been putting up with second-hand smoke for about as long as humans have walked the earth. So although a very small part of me feels a wee bit sorry for smokers, that they're being pushed into a corner, the rest of me goes "ROFLROFLROFL it's about time."

plus at £5 for the equivalent of 15-20 cigarettes each cartrdige that costs 3 times the price of my baccy for the same number !

and it doesn't really get rid of the "smoking" thing does it - you're still smoking something and I think most people that want to stop want to stop having something hanging out there mouth/have 2 hands free all the time

'I can't stand cigarettes I can only smoke tobacco these days.'

sorry but couldn't resist chuckling at that.
Reminds me of a mate who used to say he could only smoke roll ups because other cigarettes were full of nasty chemicals ROFL

ermm sorry but it's true - Cigarettes have extra preservatives of some description in them - you can leave a cigarette out on the shelve for a week and pick it up and smoke it and it'll take exactly the same as if you'd just taken it out of a new box.

You leave a roll-up, even for a day and it's immediately obvious that it's not a "new" one.

I can switch between (most) tobacco's no problems, but I can't smoke a cigarette now. They do taste different.

I tried 2 weeks ago when I was in a right bloody state and found 1/2 a box of marlboro lights that DH had bought, and had run out of tobacco, I couldn't smoke them (which made my whole situation feel 100 times worse than it already was).

I know they taste different - it just reminded me of this friend of mine who seemed to think rollups were non-carcinogenic!

oh ok - fair enough - I know they're still carcinogenic - I'm not that daft

here is an article about banning smoking outside in public areas

TBH since the smoking ban indorrs my dd has had her jacket burnt as she walked passed an entrance where there were smokers gathered and bannding there fags about - of course they didn't do it on purpose but the danger is more so as lots of people now smoke outside in public areas and this is where children also walk.

i was vv anti-smoking and pretty outspoken about it too. then i met one of my favourite people in the whole wide world who just sat there chain-smoking in my garden for hours around our children (roll-ups admittedly) - i think that is when i decided to sit on the fence (not my garden fence mind!!)

If they ban smoking outside they may as well ban cars too, that damages your health breathing it in to. But to suggest a ban on cars would be considered outrageous, yet they aren't actually needed in order to live. Whichever way you go about anything these days you're infringing on somebodies rights apparently.

I back the idea completely. Smokers can smoke in their own home.

And I realised that my post made pretty much no sense really, apologies, I've been up since six and have been walking around all day so being awake now is an achievement for me!

I think you can get the gist of what I'm trying to say though

i've just given up smoking and can smell fags a mile off

i really truthfully can hardly smell them at all.

last week though my whole town smelt of cow's muck - ban farmers for interfering with my fresh air.

Well done for staying off them.

Glad you didn't say you could smell them and they smelt good.

Well done SEA!

Zebra - I can identify with that. One of my favourite people ever smoked all the time, and was gorgeous and very funny and I think about him often. Sadly he died at 44

Honestly - not being facetious, I miss him.

The main thing that jumps out at me (an ex-smoker) about this thread is the sheer ugly aggression coming from (some of) the anti-smokers in here.

Almost every non-smoking discussion I've read online is exactly the same. Lame or illogical arguments presented on both sides at some stage, of course, but the 'fucking this' and 'losers' that and other such vitriolic rudeness coming from a considerable chunk of the anti-smokers is always unrivalled.

Know what you mean, good job we are thick skinned. I have actually had something nice said about me on this thread from Friiight, so she is my new besscht friend on mumsnet apart from my other bessies on my usual thread. Makes a change from being insulted.

Friiight sorry to hear that, what did your friend die of, if you don't mind me asking.

You might consider smoking to be rather an albeit passive show of aggression towards the world in general - and I don't see much difference in the levels of nastiness from either side tbh.

Cigarette smoke hurts my throat, makes me feel sick and damages my health. That kind of situation does make me feel angry.

Sorry x posts - abouteve

Cancer.

abouteve - actually I don't like smoking anywhere, whether in the street, in pubs, in my driving instructor's car (particularly nice, that one ) etc etc. However, I did start my OP by saying that I do feel a teensy bit sorry for smokers, and I mean that. Even though I think it's a foul thing to do, I do allow people their freedom of choice but wish that it would not infringe my freedom of choice. Is that so unreasonable? Am I not entitled to voice that opinion?

You, on the other hand, have been saying 'you got what you want and you're not happy; well you can stick it up your whatnot' - and flatly refusing to admit that by smoking you are infringing the rights of people like me. I call that attitude arsey.

Smoking is a surprisingly complex issue because of the pervasiveness of cigarette smoke and I have absolutely no respect for people who try to over-simplify it, in either direction.

'Merry' you are spoiling for a fight now and I'm not interested as I've said my piece and reasoned with more reasonable people on this thread.

Only came back to congratulate Southeast on her sucessful quit.

woah this is a thread and a half. Am an ex smoker for 5 years myself so can understand the 'need for a smoke' but am also very glad that i'm over it.

What really irritates me is when people who smoke have no thought for little ones around them, for example waving their cigarette around at toddler head height and smoke going in their little faces. That really annoys me as i think its ignorant. But that doesnt mean everyone who smokes does that.

pofaced: "if people got the right treatment for mental health I think cigarettes would not be used as a prop for insufficient care." - on the one hand this is quite a simplistic comment about mental health and psychiatric care. But on the other hand it opens another whole separate kettle of worms about why mental health services in this country have such a pitiful track record compared to other countries. Take, for example, schizophrenia: in the UK, the recovery rate is 11%. In the Far East, it's 67%.

I only mention this as a shocking aside, not as part of the discussion on smoking.

Funnily enough, when I did smoke, I found it very very difficult to - I mean it hurt to inhale, made me cough etc - I couldn't understand how people really actually breathed it in.

I never got addicted either - despite wanting to so I would be able to smoke instead of eating chocolate, and get glamorous and skinny. Ha.

I would always have a few puffs then put it back in the packet.

The first whole cigarette (big achievement) I smoked was on the day before I found out I was pregnant! So of course no more after that and surprisingly I did kind of almost fancy one for a while.

I dunno - it takes all sorts.

No squiglet, not everyone would do this, very inconsiderate.

Frrright (get your name half right this time) that's tragic, such a young age. I've lost 2 friends to cancer one 39 one 42, neither if them smoked, one was breast and one cervical.

MrsMerry - isnt the recovery rates also due to how the illness is viewed? I read about in africa (iirc) when people hear voices and see things they are reverred as having contact with the spirits and are rested whilst the community take on their resposnsiblities etc and make sure they are cared for while they commune. Was an interesting article, think it was in my Barker book, will have to look it up.