Poll: Dying for a smoke?

[Jamash]

I hope for the day when its outright banned to smoke in public. Smoke in your own house and wallow in that disgusting stench, don't bring it outside.

I feel exactly the same way about poor people, you know, the ones who don't wash very often & when you walk past them on the street you can smell their stench. I think they should be locked in their houses to wallow in their filth & not bring their stench outside.

It's even worse when you're waiting at a bus stop and one of them waits next to you, stinking out your space with their unwashed bodies, I mean it's bad enough that bus stops are next to main roads & you're forced to breath in traffic fumes, then when a bus pulls up you're getting all these diesel fumes spilling out of it, it's like working in a coal mine, but then you get people with body odour standing next to you,or even worse sitting near you on the bus.

Why can't people be healthy & just walk everywhere, scrapping public transport altogether?

It's not just poor people who reek stench too, what about people who eat a lot of curry? I hate that smell. If they want to stink like that then they should stay in their own house (or even better, country), but how dare they come outside into my public space with their curry poppadom stench-filth.

Then there's people who drink, I can't stand the smell of ethanol on a drinkers breath when they talk to me. If you want to be an idiot & poison your liver then ok, but don't poison my nasal liver with you cirrhotic breath.

I can't wait for the day we ban odours in public outright & round up smelly people into camps to be shot, which would also include people who eat cheese & onion crisps in public & parents with shitting babies. I mean if you want to let your child shit itself at home & stink out you filth hole, then fine, but don't bring your shit-spewing-spawn out into the pure public spaces reserved for the master race of people who actually treat their bodies like a temple.

EDIT: What the hell just happened? My unsubtle attempt at parody just got blown out of the water & shot out the sky on the way down by Snowplow's following post. I'm going to have to smoke a extra fat roll-up just to calm my nerves!

 

[chronobreak]

I live in the city, and walk by filthy, smelly homeless people all the time. Probably with diseases. So what should I do, ask them to move their camps, or maybe just DEAL with it. Look, arguing about the smell of smoking is bunk. Yeah, it smells. So do lots of things. The viable argument non-smokers have is the health issues, stick to that.

 

[Stevato]

I've been smoking for atleast 2 years now, and whilst these images are rather frightening and graphic, i dnt think they would be enough to stop me smoking simply because i am chemically addicted. I have some days when i hate smoking, but i stil do it, welcome to the world of nicotine i suppose

I will say though, any non smokers here, well done. Don't start smoking because you may regret it

 

[Logan Westbrook]

I don't mind going outside for a cigarette, but could I please just be left alone when I get there?

If smoke went straight up into the air it would be fine, but it doesn't, especially if there's wind or you're in motion. Since smoking is allowed outside, I have to suffer and inhale the crap smokers exhale. That or I have to walk ahead of them or several meters behind. Waiting at bus/tram stops is like working in a coal mine since at least several people smoke.

You're kind of making my point for me. It's not enough that I have to go outside, I have to make sure I'm far away from anyone so that passers-by don't inhale a small amount of smoke? I'm not saying that you should have to breathe in what I exhale, but try and see it from my point of view. Short of criminalising smoking altogether, there is very little else the government can do to make me feel like I am doing something wrong.

I can't see it from your point of view because you enjoy smoking. What I can do, however, is give an example so you can perhaps see why its not discrimination but common courtesy to smoke at least 10 meters away from living creatures.

Lets say I like eating nasty rotting limburger cheese and smear it all over myself. Also lets say I have an issue with uncontrollable flatulence. So I go somewhere where there are people and stand there, smelling like rotting eggs and decomposing garbage while eating moldy cheese and farting.
I'm not breaking the law and nobody is losing their health (unlike in the case of smoking), but its really quite unpleasant for people around me. Screw them though, I like my limburger cheese nasty and my clothes unwashed.

Also lets say there are many people like me, and they're all over the world, sometimes several in clusters. The stench is overpowering and burns your nostrils.

So tell me honestly, do you like sniffing garbage and farts?
Do you think unwashed limburger cheese lovers should be free to ruin your sense of smell?
Will you inhale limburger cheese aromas for the rest of your life every time you stumble upon one of these people?

Give me a satisfying answer why you should suffer with the stench of rotting limburger cheese and garbage smell.

Ok, now you're just being ridiculous. Firstly, do you have any concept of how far ten metres actually is? Maybe you live in Brobdingnag [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brobdingnag], but the rest of us are going to be hard pressed to find anywhere that is "10 meters away from living creatures", unless we're standing in a bloody field.

As for your second point, I'm not sure where to begin. I'll never be able to give you a satisfying answer to your question because you're clearly so self-righteous about it that anything I say will be met with scorn.

You don't want to have to smell cigarette smoke for the few seconds it takes you to walk past a smoker? Then breathe through your damn mouth.

I've gone out of my way to be conscientious about this discussion, I've been apologetic and I've not attacked anyone, but you have pissed me off. You don't like smokers? Well that's unfortunate because there are a lot of us and your snide little attitude is not going to encourage many of us to take you into consideration.

 

[Anton P. Nym]

Canadian cigarette packages have had images in the warnings for years now; indeed, one of our American clients would buy packs of Canadian cigarettes just for the "hilarious" photos. So I'd have to say that the labels probably won't work.

I'm a non-smoker, but I don't claim that as a virtue; I'm allergic to cigarette smoke. If I ever tried to take up smoking it wouldn't be emphyzema or cancer that'd kill me, it'd be from drowning in my own phlegm or stumbling into traffic because my eyes were swollen shut. As such I have to admit a terribly steep bias in favour of banning smoking in public places, and yes I'm one of those giving you the Evil Eye if you light up while upwind of me... not out of moral outrage, but because I'm fighting down the "kill them before they kill you" reflex.

I'm vastly more in favour of smokers' rights when I don't have to suffer for your addiction.

-- Steve

 

[magicmonkeybars]

I used to smoke and this sort of thing makes me want to start all over again.

 

[Saskwach]

Amongst all this hysteria it should be noted that only after years - sometimes decades - of sucking these deadly chemicals directly into their mouth and lungs should a smoker be worried about their health. People are being a bit precious if they can't handle being in the same room with one for a few minutes, even hours. Remember that a room allows those deadly chemicals to be spread so thin you're probably inhaling worse air on the street next to all those gas spewing monstrosities we call cars.

 

[DannyDamage]

I can't see it from your point of view because you enjoy smoking. What I can do, however, is give an example so you can perhaps see why its not discrimination but common courtesy to smoke at least 10 meters away from living creatures.

Lets say I like eating nasty rotting limburger cheese and smear it all over myself. Also lets say I have an issue with uncontrollable flatulence. So I go somewhere where there are people and stand there, smelling like rotting eggs and decomposing garbage while eating moldy cheese and farting.
I'm not breaking the law and nobody is losing their health (unlike in the case of smoking), but its really quite unpleasant for people around me. Screw them though, I like my limburger cheese nasty and my clothes unwashed.

Also lets say there are many people like me, and they're all over the world, sometimes several in clusters. The stench is overpowering and burns your nostrils.

So tell me honestly, do you like sniffing garbage and farts?
Do you think unwashed limburger cheese lovers should be free to ruin your sense of smell?
Will you inhale limburger cheese aromas for the rest of your life every time you stumble upon one of these people?

Give me a satisfying answer why you should suffer with the stench of rotting limburger cheese and garbage smell.

This is just hatred, through and through. You personally don't like smoking so you see it upon yourself to spew this hate upon anyone that disagrees with you until everyone has the same opinion as you. This isn't going to happen, ever.

Apart from the fact that your point and cases are about as useful as marketing Elton John (sexually) to straight women, there are too many people in the world with different lifestyles and beliefs. There is no possible way for everyone to jump onto one side on this issue - Except of course for photoshop-fuelled brain washing.

Even if it was made illegal. People would still choose to smoke. You might just smell in general, be painful to my eyes or maybe you're the sort of guy that eyeballs other people's partners. For one reason or another you will annoy some people as much as smokers annoy you. Deal with it.

 

[Anton P. Nym]

Amongst all this hysteria it should be noted that only after years - sometimes decades - of sucking these deadly chemicals directly into their mouth and lungs should a smoker be worried about their health. People are being a bit precious if they can't handle being in the same room with one for a few minutes, even hours. Remember that a room allows those deadly chemicals to be spread so thin you're probably inhaling worse air on the street next to all those gas spewing monstrosities we call cars.

Firstly, a confined space allows the smoke to concentrate... cars run in the open, and the exhaust dispersess. (Or they don't, and then you die; suicide by idling in the garage, for instance. Cigarette smoke contains carbon monoxide too, but it's output at a much lower volume because lungs aren't nearly as powerful as a 2-stroke engine, let alone a 3.8L V6.)

Secondly, I do react much differently to tobacco smoke than I do to even a smog alert; ozone and nitrous oxides don't trigger a histamine response, for instance.

Thirdly, the smell does permeate everything... smokers often don't notice because the act of smoking significantly reduces the sense of smell (and taste, as a result) but nonsmokers spending as little as an hour in a smoky bar come away with a powerful aroma exhuding from their hair and clothing that lasts often overnight. Now make that exposure cumulative to the upholstery, carpeting, drapes, and even napkins and towels in a public restaurant or club.

Truly, if smoking just was something that smokers did to themselves I wouldn't object... but it hurts me, badly, and others (perhaps less badly) and so I do.

-- Steve

 

[WlknCntrdiction]

I don't mind going outside for a cigarette, but could I please just be left alone when I get there?

If smoke went straight up into the air it would be fine, but it doesn't, especially if there's wind or you're in motion. Since smoking is allowed outside, I have to suffer and inhale the crap smokers exhale. That or I have to walk ahead of them or several meters behind. Waiting at bus/tram stops is like working in a coal mine since at least several people smoke.

You're kind of making my point for me. It's not enough that I have to go outside, I have to make sure I'm far away from anyone so that passers-by don't inhale a small amount of smoke? I'm not saying that you should have to breathe in what I exhale, but try and see it from my point of view. Short of criminalising smoking altogether, there is very little else the government can do to make me feel like I am doing something wrong.

I can't see it from your point of view because you enjoy smoking. What I can do, however, is give an example so you can perhaps see why its not discrimination but common courtesy to smoke at least 10 meters away from living creatures.

Lets say I like eating nasty rotting limburger cheese and smear it all over myself. Also lets say I have an issue with uncontrollable flatulence. So I go somewhere where there are people and stand there, smelling like rotting eggs and decomposing garbage while eating moldy cheese and farting.
I'm not breaking the law and nobody is losing their health (unlike in the case of smoking), but its really quite unpleasant for people around me. Screw them though, I like my limburger cheese nasty and my clothes unwashed.

Also lets say there are many people like me, and they're all over the world, sometimes several in clusters. The stench is overpowering and burns your nostrils.

So tell me honestly, do you like sniffing garbage and farts?
Do you think unwashed limburger cheese lovers should be free to ruin your sense of smell?
Will you inhale limburger cheese aromas for the rest of your life every time you stumble upon one of these people?

Give me a satisfying answer why you should suffer with the stench of rotting limburger cheese and garbage smell.

Ok, now you're just being ridiculous. Firstly, do you have any concept of how far ten metres actually is? Maybe you live in Brobdingnag [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brobdingnag], but the rest of us are going to be hard pressed to find anywhere that is "10 meters away from living creatures", unless we're standing in a bloody field.

As for your second point, I'm not sure where to begin. I'll never be able to give you a satisfying answer to your question because you're clearly so self-righteous about it that anything I say will be met with scorn.

You don't want to have to smell cigarette smoke for the few seconds it takes you to walk past a smoker? Then breathe through your damn mouth.

I've gone out of my way to be conscientious about this discussion, I've been apologetic and I've not attacked anyone, but you have pissed me off. You don't like smokers? Well that's unfortunate because there are a lot of us and your snide little attitude is not going to encourage many of us to take you into consideration.

Wow, short fuse much?

 

[DannyDamage]

**deep breath - Ace Ventura style**

I'm going to be firm with you. My post was 95% composed of an example equivalent to that of a smokers effect on surrounding citizens. Where is this hate you speak of? Its nonexistent. You're posting nonsense. Also your examples are ridiculous. One can't help one's physical appearance. One can, however, not smoke right right into my face.

If one didn't go out of their way to hassle one about one's smoking then one would be okay. It's not like we smokers can go many places now. If I'm outside the pub smoking, GO INSIDE, they've just cleared them out of us smelly smokers. It just smells of sweat and stale ale now, good for all of us.

If I'm in the street smoking, don't follow me or wait for the bus next to me. You don't see me following the rude types that have MP3s blasting out of there phones, just to have something to complain about.

Also "Deal with it" is not a valid method of approaching an issue. Your hypothetical surgery was botched and now you have no legs? Deal with it. Neighbor's dog craps on your lawn everyday? Deal with it.

Actually, if you re-review the structure of my post, you'll notice that I used "deal with it" to end my statement. I'm a smoker, I buy tobacco, pay tax on them, smoke them where I'm told to smoke them and get lectured about it, still. This effects me directly, so yes I do have both legs to stand on. What about you? Is it the fact that something is going on and you have fuck all to do with it? Does that compel you to attempt to feel important by just shouting and agreeing as loud as you can?

No. You smoke cigarettes, you deal with going away from others and not disturbing those around you.

This is stupid! I do deal with it. I've gone alone with the smoking ban and I don't smoke in no-smoking areas. Like someone else mentioned, it's the smokers that get disturbed when smoking, AFTER they've done as their told and gone outside.

Look, if you like smoking, that's fine. I'm not saying otherwise. I don't care about you at all. Drop dead for all I care. Just don't smoke around me or other nonsmokers, because then you're being an inconsiderate self absorbed addict who can't stay off the cigs even if your life depended on it. If you decide to drop dead, don't do it around others so they don't get blamed for it.

See where I'm going with this? I don't care about your hobbies, likes, dislikes, fetishes, etc. Keep them to yourself. Why is that so hard? You don't rape people when you want sex, you don't steal food from the nearest food source because you're hungry. You can control your actions. Why is it that you find it necessary to smoke around others? Can you not wait?

How can you call all smokers selfish and self-absorbed? Is that solely based on the fact that they smoke? How do you know they smoke in public? Not all smokers do. Some people only smoke at home, yet you're happy to sit behind a computer screen and condemn them to death. What a caring, selfless, non-self-absorbed individual you are.

I don't find it necessary to put out people's cigarettes and tell them to go away, although this thread is convincing me otherwise.

Yeah, let me know how that goes. Get someone to film it, stick it on youtube and send me the link. It'd be worth a laugh or two.

Some people insist they shouldn't have to be considerate. Some people think its their right to do whatever they want without consequence. Some people think bothering others is irrelevant.

That's just people. Smokers and non-smokers. Some people care about others, some people don't.

Some people think smoking around other nonsmokers is their mission in life.

I'm going to assume something went wrong with your keyboard or that you don't actually mean this. Surely nobody has even less to do with themselves as you do and proceed to spend time stalking non-smokers.

It is with those people I take issue and who I require rock solid reasoning from as to why they think they are entitled to spreading their unwelcome taint. Wait, replace "unwelcome taint" with "harmless pastime" so I don't sound "snide, hateful" and whatever other bad reasons people give to avoid addressing valid points.

Smokers don't sit around outside smoking all day, waiting for you to come by. The world doesn't revolve around you.

I (as a smoker) don't want any special treatment. I don't want a badge, a hat or a cape. I just want to be left alone. On the rare occasion that I bother going to bars I get sick of people lecturing me about the health problems with smoking whilst their drinking their 8th trendy alcho-pop in the 3rd bar they've been to so far. I'm against the whole binge drinking nation, but I let people get on with what they choose to do to themselves.

The reason why myself and others get pretty annoyed with what you're saying is mainly because non of it's new. You honestly think that you're the first person to bother us with this crap? No chance. The government have been doing that in the UK for over a year now and everywhere else has been doing it longer than that (pretty much).

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

smoking actually speeds up the blood giving the opposite to relaxation, which is what i assume you smoke it for.

That's an often quoted fact, but it fails to deal with the tolerance level. For smokers, your base level of blood is your relaxation level, so as it dips down, you actually feel more stressed. Similar happens with caffeine.

Also, Nicotine is a narcotic, so whilst you're 'high' it alleviates pain in the same way that aspirin or ibuprofen does.

Believe me, after two days without smoking, you can literally feel your lungs scream; which is why so many of us have difficulty giving up.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Waiting at bus/tram stops is like working in a coal mine since at least several people smoke.

The thing is, it's actually illegal to smoke at most bus stops because of the 'three walls' rule.

I also have to suffer at bus-stops from screaming children, abusive teens, unwashed vagrants, over-perfumed:under-dressed tarts, blaring MP3 players, whiskey-breathed winos and exhaust fumes.

Do you wonder why some people smoke?

 

[Corven]

To the original question I don't think scare tactics work all that well, I mean the picture was nasty to look at but most people still have the "it will never happen to me" mentality,

also what are the chances that you'll get a throat tumor, no one really knows, all they do know is that smoking increases the chance of developing one, it doesn't mean if you smoke you'll get one right away, hell I could start to develop one tomorrow and I've never smoked a day in my life.

 

[DannyDamage]

Awesome. Maths Time!

You're oblivious to just how far smoke travels and how long it lingers because you smoke and it doesn't bother you. It goes around 3 meters and lingers for around 4 seconds, less if there's wind, though with wind it also travels further. BTW that's not a scientific study, its my personal smoke detector sensor. Also, you say "don't stand near me." Sidewalks aren't that wide. If they were, I wouldn't be in this thread right now.

PLUS

Here's the thing: cars are much further away from the sidewalk than smokers. Sure exhaust is bad, that's why catalytic converters exist. However, they're far enough. Public buses on the other hand are much worse but there's no real way around that currently.

EQUALS

Magic Sidewalks that stretch depending whether there's a car or a smoker near-by.

*sings* We're......of to the see the wizard......

 

[BlueMage]

Chemical addiction is no excuse - therapy exists to cure you of that as surely as it exists to cure you of a psychological addiction. In this age, if you continue to smoke it is because on some level, you want to, despite knowing the (considerable) drawbacks.

Also, I can only fit into the other category, as I've smoked in my time, but never enough to be called a smoker and as such cannot be an ex-smoker.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Well, looking at this generally.

We smoke because it's our choice. It's your choice not to. We respect that. Please respect our wishes.

If we had somewhere to go to smoke, we'd GLADLY go there and enjoy our cigarettes in peace; but we don't and we can't.

Cars produce poison. No serious research has EVER proved the negative effects of passive smoking ; but I'd say the effects of passive drinking (Getting beaten up by drunk people) can be seen at the hospital every night.

At the moment, someone could quite happily sniff glue at a bus stop and not get as much hassle as someone lighting a cigarette away from the stop, so that's why some of us are quite upset about it. Especially as you can quite clearly see evidence of mainlining, snorting, or sniffing, or drinking on film; but history is airbrushing cigarettes from history.

Only Bhutan has made tobacco illegal, yet alcohol and all the other drugs have been banned in many countries around the world.

I, or you, can breathe tobacco smoke for a good 20 years before it has possibly lethal effects.
Cannabis has never had any one die from the toxic effects of it.

Ecstasy, Cocaine, Amphetamines, Caffeine, Sugar, Meths, Crystal meth, Crack, Glue, Heroin, Carbon Monoxide, Natural Gas, LSD, Magic Mushroom, Ketamine, Viagra, Xanax, Tippex, Nitrous Oxide can kill you in one hit.

Yet people still sneer at smokers because 'it smells'.

Do you see why perhaps we're a little upset that we're being targetted?

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Chemical addiction is no excuse - therapy exists to cure you of that as surely as it exists to cure you of a psychological addiction. In this age, if you continue to smoke it is because on some level, you want to, despite knowing the (considerable) drawbacks.

I've known people who have been through hypnosis, acupuncture, and many other treatments but still can't give up.

I also know some people deathly afraid of spiders that no therapy has ever managed to cure (or crabs )

Also, I can only fit into the other category, as I've smoked in my time, but never enough to be called a smoker and as such cannot be an ex-smoker.

Newsflash: Ex-smoker. ONE cigarette is a smoker.

 

[Anton P. Nym]

All those drugs you mention, Root, don't spread beyond the user. People do get upset with alcohol when imbibers puke it on their clothes or piss it into their carpets, and when they throw empties into the street leaving others to clean up the mess.

Responsible smokers who clean up after themselves and are considerate of others, I have no beef with them. It's the jerks I have trouble with.

-- Steve

 

[Snaggly Pete]

Now, I smoke. I don't particularly like it but I'm chemically addicted; what I'd like to know from people is whether you think this level of 'shock' advertising is seriously questionable, especially considering that said packets will be visible to minors?

Most smokers are fully aware of the fact that smoking shortens their lifespan; but you don't see similar heart warnings on caffeine, liver warnings on alcohol or even nose warnings on cocaine.

First off, I'm an ex-smoker and a physician and this advertising doesn't bother me in the least, nor do I have any problems with minors viewing it. None of these images are going to scar a child for life and who knows it might actually prevent a few of them from starting smoking or maybe get a few to quit. This is gore with a purpose--unlike the 99% of gore and violence they're already being exposed to.

Regarding your second point, this is not an appropriate analogy. Virtually all studies looking at smoking have uncovered only harmful effects. By contrast, that is not the case with caffeine or alcohol. Although numerous studies have linked caffeine and alcohol use to adverse effects, there are also many that have shown no harm and perhaps even beneficial effects. For instance, caffeine intake has been tied to a reduced risk of Parkinson's disease and alcohol use, in moderation, has been associated with a reduced risk of heart disease. As for cocaine, that shouldn't even be in the analogy since, at the street level, it is not a legal substance and doesn't, to my knowledge, have any labelling anyway. Interestingly though, unlike smoking, even cocaine does have a beneficial use--it was and still is used as a topical anesthetic for certain surgical procedures.