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."

cars have a purpose [though of course there should be further restrictions on car pollution]Smoking doesn't, except for a transitory pleasure that is biologically addictive. slight difference.

Stop talking out of your selfishness dear. If you sit next to someone outside they still inhale your smoke. It is all about proximity. Do you really think that the air just vaccuums up all your exhaled carcinogens? Er, no.

Car just make people lazy and fat. The average journey is less than 2 miles.

I don't smoke or drive. [smug emoticon]

But I'm not sitting next to my neighbours if I stand outside in the garden to have a cig. What about people that live in a farmhouse 2 miles from their neighbours, is that OK?

Talking out of my backside?

Sorry?

To fill you in (you've obv missed my earlier posts) we live next door to an NHS property where the residents are allowed to smoke ONLY in a little shelter outside our front door, next to our garden wall and within about 5ft of my asthmatic son's bedroom window.

I smell and inhale disgusting smoke from there on a daily basis, like it or not.

And unless suddenly cigarteet smoke is non toxic, I am being poisoned by it every time Iinhale it. Needless to say so are my kids.

and yes of course the nurses and doctors were talking out of their backside when they said they were sick to death of people smoking right outside the hospital doors which was the only place patients like my father in wheelchairs could go for a bit of fresh air. Stupid doctors. And my father, when trying not to cough through a tracheostomy pipe in his throat because of the smoker feet away from him in the hospital garden, was stupid. I should have told him he was talking out of his backside. Except he couldn't talk. Ah well. You meet a new idiot every day.

2 miles away would be fab. Go for your life.

abouteve, my neighbours used to smoke in their gardens and the smoke would actually enter my home through the windows. Smoke pervades everything.

P&P I am really sorry about your poor Dad

Horrific situation for you both.

Would you like a photograph, abouteve?

Thanks FA. The worst thing was the rules couldn't be enforced as they were afraid of smokers' abuse. So patients have to suffer. Sickening.

F~rigght have you asked them to move the shelter? OK I can see that this isn't good for you.

The hospitals I've visited recently don't allow smoking in their grounds, which I think is right btw.

No the point is they do not allow it abouteve, but smokers still do it.

And your logic is skewed. If smoking outside is not ok for outside hospitals, why is alright outside elsewhere? you just said you don't believe smoking outside is harmful.

Eh? Of course you can ban a legal substance. Act of Parliament. Problem solved.

Smokers rights make me laugh. What about non-smoker rights? You want to kill yourself, go for it, but keep it to yourself.

And as for this idea that smokers need to smoke outdoors because otherwise they are so selfish and weak willed that they will have no choice but to smoke in front of their kids...fgs really. Its not a smoking ban making smokers inflict tar, nicotine and god knows what pesticides on their children, it is selfishness and stupidity. Grow up.

I was answering the problem about having to wheel a person with cronic problems through a gathering of smoke in a hospital entrance which of course isn't right.

I don't think that I am poisoning my neighbours or harming others by sitting outside a pub having a cig no. I haven't seen any evidence that I am.

Look you all wanted the smoking ban and got it. Everyone adheres to it happily but I'm not not going to smoke outside just because people don't like that now.

It won't get banned either so that's the way it is. Unless they come up with an alternative. I would have opted for smoking or non smoking pubs and cafes but no-one had a say. Then I wouldn't need to smoke outside.

My dad smoked while my mum was pregnant and while I grew up, causing me to be premature and have lung problems now. Passive smoking is probably the reason why I had irregular, painful periods as a teenager.
My dad smoked right up until my (non-smoker) mum died of a brain haemorrage brought on possibly by passive smoking.
My dad is now a non-smoker.
If you want to smoke, then that's fine. Just don't inflict it on me or other people who have no choice, including your own children who are affected by the residues of smoke on your clothing.

So all smokers are stupid and need to grow up. Leaving this now.

Yes smoking cafes an excellent idea. Then you can all poison each other.

Funny how you accept smoking outside bad for hospital patients but fine for babies/children/pregnant women/asthmatic/elderly etc.

abouteve, as a smoker your olfactory capacity has been massively compromised. To put it plainly, your nose is not half as sensitive as a non-smoker's, so you'll have to take our word for it that ciggy smoke gets bloody everywhere and you can smell it from far away.

So actually, yes, you are poisoning your neighbours and spoiling their enjoyment even when you're smoking outside. It's an unpleasant fact of life that you will have to face. We all do crappy things that inconvenience or harm others - I do, you do, even Saint Nelson Mandela does. There's absolutely no benefit to gained had from pretending that we don't. You'd come across much better if you sounded more apologetic and less arsey about it.

Interesting, this topic always goes mental.

In practical terms, this means that many smokers will not be able to leave their houses.

Yes of course smoking is a choice, as is taking heroin, eating fatty food, drinking alcohol.

However for people who are addicted it's not as easy as snapping your fingers and stopping. It is an extremely addictive substance.

I don;t think that effectivle barring people who have not yet managed to give up from leaving their homes is on TBH.

Personally I think that the tobacco companies work very hard to get us addicted when we are very young and silly, they and the government make huge amounts of cash from smokers, to then say that in return they have to stay indoors does nit strike me as right.

If smoking is that offensive, even outdoors, then ban the sale of all tobacco products in the UK.

Plus as others have said, there are more concerning things. Fumes from vehicles which kill stacks of vulnerable people in London every year, for eg. Ban cars from cities, would make a huge difference to people's health, would mean thousands less deaths from crashes every year, and would make for much more clean and friendly environment.

Personally, I think all smokers are stupid. I've never understood why people do something that will kill or incapacitate them in a variety of unpleasant ways.

Of course they would be able to leave their homes. They just couldn't smoke whilst out.

and you remember that time that bloody woman walked down the street smoking next to you the entire way Riven