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."

Violet, forced to light up in their homes, I said, which sounds like what you are hoping for.

That is if an person wants to exercise a right to do something perfectly legal, they sell cigarettes in shops, you know, the government take a nice wad of tax for each packet sold. Just in case you thought it was illegal already.

Where did you get the idea that I am 'hoping for' anything?!

I do find some of these arguments totally bizarre.

I couldn't give a flying fuck if people want to support the tobacco industry by buying and smoking cigarettes - I just don't see why non-smoking people -the majority of people!- should be affected by it!

yes there is a choice, but banning it public places denies smokers of that choice.

I dont smoke whilst pregnant
I dont smoke in the home
I dont smoke in my car
I dont EVER smoke around my children

But I do enjoy a cigarette, so by your rules Id be lighting up in my own home and putting my children at risk which I am not prepared to do.
I think there should be dedicated areas, I think the smoking ban was ill-thought out, and that had they have had smoking and non smoking pubs then that would really have been a 'choice' and also have no problem with designated smoking areas either, but forcing people to stand in doorways was never going to be a good idea.

If government closed down cigarette companies then it would stop 99% of smokers.

What would people do..

Unless you can see tobacco plantations springing up on Hackney Marshes then people would have no alternative exsept for very highly priced imported stuff..

Are the governments of this word going to continue to allow the human race to poison itself..?

Sorry to get on a soap box here.. I just think government is so hypocritical to allow it but ban other things that are far less dangerous..

because they make so much money out of it, and yes it is hypocritical, but then since when has the government been 'fair'?

Oh, right so nobody takes heroin or any oter illegal substance because the govt. banned it?

The govt. makes far more money from smokers than the cost the state.

Even though there are signs all around our hospital that is is a 'non smoking site' people are continually just outside the front doors lighting up and smoking. They have even put ash trays there. When my father was recovering from being on a ventilator for two months, I used to take him outside to get some sunshine. He still had the tracheostomy pipe in his throat, and coughing was dangerous and painful. Every single time I took him out in the wheelchair there was somebody there with a cigarette, causing him great discomfort. When I asked the staff they said they could not enforce the non smoking policy as people became abusive.

Also when we want to eat outside, we often have to sit next to people who have just finished their meal as ours arrives, and who light up. They don't want to smoke when they are eating, but we have to eat when they are smoking.

Ban the fuckers.

True nobody is forced into smoking but that was not what i was saying, i was saying that IF someone smokes then you seem to be saying that the only place that they should smoke is in their own home yes? Some people just wont give up and if that is the case and they cannot smoke anywhere but in their own home then that as far as i can see is ostensibly forcing them to smoke in one place and one place only. Their own home. Or of course just don't smoke at all but where is the fairness in that? Where are the choices in that scenario?

I am not saying that smokers don't have free will what i am saying is that from what i can glean from your posts that you think it would be a good idea if smoking (if someone chose to smoke) was limited to peoples own homes thereby giving them the choice to smoke or not smoke around their family but i am saying that doesn't seem to be much of a choice if they are die hard smokers who don't want to give up but also don't want to inflict it on their families.

Its true that this will probably never happen, the revenue from smoking is just too high for the manufacturers and the government so its all hypothetical anyway.

Violet, what do you want to see happen then?

'Even as a severe asthmatic, walking past a group of smokers doesn't affect me, I don't believe people who say it does.'

As it doesn't affect you it can't possibly affect someone else? Oh your science is watertight.

If you have such strong feelings about not smoking in your own home, own car, while pregnant, around your own children etc.... maybe just give up! Or accept that you are in a minority in wanting to smoke at all, and accept that other people don't like it in public places.

There is a lot of evidence that children of smokers are more likely to smoke themselves, whether you smoke while pregnant, or in front of them, or not. And cigarette smoke stays on your body and clothes for quite a while. I can't see why anyone with strong views about protecting their children would want to smoke at all quite frankly!

But there you go.

heroin or other illegal substances were never sold in newsagents and down at Tescos now though were they.

Ridiculous to use them as an analogy..

Yes if tobacco companieswere forced to close there's be a black market.. but instead of their being 15 million smokers in this country there may be 150,000 illegal smokers.

Do yo uwant our children to smoke..?

Then why do we want our future to encourage future generations to keep on smoking.

It;s fab that smoking is now banned in indoor public places, much better. But you know what? If I'm eating outside and someone next to me lights up I think they are just exercising their right to do something perfectly LEGAL.

Christ on a bike, smokers are so vilified nowadays aren't they?

You still haven't answered my question properly, just suggested that everyone give up, that's not going to happen, unless they ban production and the sale cigarettes, even then it will be smuggled in and used illegally albeit to a lesser degree. Is that what you want, if not then what do you want to happen?

It is an addictive substance. Stopping is hard but possible, and when you do, you feel loads better. It is not rocket science.

If it were banned, I reckon most of them sould dtill smoke. They could grow their own and people would bring them back from abroad. There would be a HUGE black market. Plus how would it be policed FFS? pOlice have bigger fish to fry then someone having a sneakly ilegal Marlbrough LIght in a beer garden. Actually, it might be self policed, I'm sure most of you on here would pelt any offenders with sones.....

Why don't they smoke whilst they eat then DrNortherner? And smoking inside pubs used to be legal but you think that is fab that it is no longer so odd logic.

DrNortherner , possibly a non smoker with a bit of sense.

It's quite difficult to smoke and eat at the same time......

when i next take my inhaler because I have dared to eat outside and now can't breathe because of the person smoking next to me I must remember I can't possibly be wheezing as someone else doesn't believe me.

And I am looking forward to each and every one.

STONE ME.

Yes darling but some of us do have a life outside of our children, and if I choose to have a cigarette on a night out with friends then I will, I dont make every decision based on my children (most of them, but not all).

Id love to see the research that suggests parents who smoke away from the home and the children are actually more likely to bring up smokers???? WTF??

Smokers might be in the minority, but irresponsible drinkers are not! I dont like what I see at work (hospital) or on the streets, but I dont think all drinking should be banned.
Does minority = no voice and no choice, i certainly hope not or we are on a bad road

no it is not that difficult to smoke and eat at the same time. They don't smoke and eat at the same time as it ruins the enjoyment of eating.

Oh no, eating ruins teh enjoyment of smoking actually. Hard to get a deep drag with food fragments rolling around in your gob.

Strawman argument dear, the stone me thing. Sure you'd love to be so heroic but you're not.