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."

Tobacco smoke stinks. If you are in a pub garden and someone sitting near you lights up, it smells, it makes your clothes smell etc

That;s an example of an effect it has!

And yes, exhaust fumes stink too. The difference is that vehicles serve a purpose beyond temporary personal pleasure.

I would be pretty hacked off at anyone driving a vehicle around unnecessarily - it contributes to pollution. You can hardly call cigarettes necessary. Oh and btw - the smoke does go somewhere, even if you smoke away from other people, you're polluting the atmosphere!

What is particularly nice is when a smoker in a pub garden holds their cigarette away from their own children and closer to you and your children.

I agree pofaced. But then I think what's really telling is that the smokers don't want to smoke in their own homes or over their own children full stop. Yet still want to claim it has 'no unpleasant effects' for any of the rest of us!

Quite. The hypocrisy is stunning.

Going out on a limb here but I'm not a hyprocrite I do actually smoke inside my house in one room with the windows open. Last time I looked there weren't any little kids lined up outside my window.

I do so because mainly I believe that the passive smoking danger is highly exaggerated, however I bought into it and am happy to have my cigs outside as I've explained before, as the laws dictates.

I have yet to see any evidence that proves smoking outside is poisioning anyone else. Please link if you have. I don't know where my cig smoke goes, but reckon it evaporates into vast space just as industrial fuel, exhaust fumes, compost heaps etc do.

How many of you have ever lit a barbecue outside? I think I would have to smoke 100 fags each and everyday for approx 150 years to give off the same amount of smoke that the average family barbecue produces. Of course I haven't got a link to this.

Goodness abouteve you must submit your rigorously tested theories to the New Scientist immediately.

I will when you submit yours. lol

This may be the link

www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/15/new-york-smoking-ban-outside

It's all just one big red herring to keep us all arguing and stop us picking up on the really important things in the world.

Controlling the masses

Yes hilarious isn't it that my father had to cough through his tracheostomy tube thanks to a smoker in his 10 mins out of intensive care a day. LOL.

Funnily enough there is plenty of hard scientific evidence proving the dangers of passive smoking. I've already linked to some. But hey, don't let that bother you.

That link was from New York, seen it before, say no more.

Keep putting your hands over your ears and singing loudly to yourself, there's a dear.

Hard scientific evidence of passive smoking outside really, don't believe it. If so we should ban it now and definitely the barbecues. My god they are evil. I would never put that much smoke into the air, what about my neighbours, also I always burn the flipping sausages.

Yes dear, of course. Keep on singing.

If you really think I can engage with you in debate when you repeatedly say you don't believe my father was affected by the smoker outside the hospital, or that asthmatics, including children, are not affected by a smoker on an outside table inches away from them, well, I can't.

On cars: they aren't neccessarily (sp?) needed, more people using public transport would cut down emissions a hell of a lot, and yes our public transport systems are crap at the moment, but they would (hypothetically) improve if there were more regular users. Cleaner tech has been 'coming' for a long time now, but again, it's a case of people having to use them, such as electric cars. If more people used them, the need for fossil fuel cars would disipate and the services for electric cars would improve. People only need cars because they don't think of the alternatives.

I notice how you didn't mention anything about alcohol there either, have you any thoughts on it?

Smokers illegally smoking in the hospital should have been stopped. If you are that bothered by the smoker, ask them to move or move yourself. That's what I do when I'm bothered by something. Such as fat greasy burgers from a fast food restaurant. It smells disgusting and I think they're awful, I remove myself from the situation if I am that bothered. The burger itself doesn't effect the environment, but the packages they came in do.

I haven't read the whole thread however so far I haven't seen anyone denying that smoking has an unpleasent effect on others, however it is personal choice. Just as it's your choice to drive about I should assume.

As I said before, people live and die but the world lives on, however it's deteriorating. If we don't save that first then humanity is fucked really. Basically, I'm more worried about the pollution everyone causes in their day to day lives then a few ciggis a day that I smoke in a little corner of a massive green park away from the rest of the world. Or in my parents garden.

abouteve -

Yes of course this thread has shown how thoughtful smokers are, you only have to ask them and they stop And so much sympathy for my father from smokers here, it brings tears to my eyes. Let's LOL again, shall we? I repeat for the sixth time, it is skewed logic to say smokers should not smoke outside hospitals but can smoke outside anywhere else. So asthmatics/babies/children/elderly better not hope to eat outside then.

ROFL that cars aren't needed. Or useful I suppose? Technology is on its way to make cars cleaner, shame the same can't be said for cigarettes.

If someone drinks alcohol to excess then they are drunk and disorderly. Then the police come to take them away. That answer your question?

Po. I would never smoke in a hospital doorway, or a kids playground, and I have always considered people eating outside, because they might not like the smell of it not because I think I'm poisioning them.

Sorry about your dad but those people shouldn't have been smoking in hospital grounds. I wouldn't have been amongst them.

Why shouldn't they have been smoking outside hospitals? You don't believe smoking outside can have a negative effect on health, remember?

Just good manners.

Shame they don't extend beyond the hospital.

christ po: big bee in that very big bonnet of yours! No all smokers are insensitive you know.....like I said earlier. I smoke now and again in my yard. Hardly ever out in public and not in pub gardens or where there are other people. You seem to be putting all smokers in the same bunch and it isnt like that.

Whatever next, no one being allowed to plant flowers incase someone with hayfever is affected by them?

po, sorry, but I'm not going to bother anymore; we're (me and abouteve really, as I haven't read much further) trying to present you with logical arguments and you're just being dismissive. Yes it's personal for you, but as we've acknowledged, they should not have been smoking on hospital grounds, however it was not our responsibility to stop that happening and we could not do anything about it, and taking it out on us would not help the situation.

Cars are useful, however they are not needed in a society which provides provisions such as public transport unless that service isn't provided for it. Cars are a luxury, you can live without them and many many people do.

There are many many ways in which we annoy others, smoking is one thing of many that pisses people off. People don't get taken by police for being drunk and disorderly very often, have you gone to a local town with nightclubs on a student night? Too many being drunk and disorderly for the police to intervene with.

just wanted to say ive been to legoland today and it was clearly marked no smoking except in the 1 designated area......

i only saw 1 person smoking in the park sat on a bench (we were already on the bench next to him) i thought how rude and tactless really he just lit up and the smell and fumes just wafted straight over the baby and my boys,

i said to him "excuse me but are my children harming or putting you of smoking"

he didnt reply just looked very guilty and stubbed it out, was he just plain stupid he knew it was a no smoking place it is for a reason,

it so annoys me.....

Yes they do, in a childrens play park, when people are eating outside, other places.

The effects of passive smoking are exaggerated. I won't go on for fear of really upsetting you and others that will read this thread who blame the death of others on smoking, passive smoking when it's possible it was down to other factors. Too sensitive, sorry. I'm not a bad person and feel I've gone too far already.