yes richard & we can also take into account the pollution cause by major industry!
i can't see the what the issue is if people want to smoke in the park, street or anywhere else in the open. the suggestion of passive smoking/pollution in these areas is completely unrealistic & quite frankly ridiculous.
if the government want to stop smoking totally then they should close down the factories that make them & ban the sale of cigarettes.
thats not gonna happen with £8.5 billion a year in cigarette tax revenue!!
Remember, no one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Heard that in California you cannot smoke on the beach. Instant thought was - take a plastic bag with your smokes and lighter and go for a paddle. Apparently the rule applies to 5 kms out from the shoreline
Now there's a business opportunity for a man with a boat. 'Smoke cruises inc!!)
redzonerocker wrote:are you sure the pollution was from the smokers or from the millions cars/buses?
i'm all for the smoking ban in public enclosed spaces such as pubs & restaurants.
but outside in the open air? lets get it in perspective. smoking outside causes little or no air pollution compared to the crap expelled from motor vehicles.
clean london air??
Whilst I admit the 'regular' pollution has been there for years - we are all used to it, and don't smell it. The smell outside of the rather large office complex that houses thousands of workers, was distinctly one of cigarette smoke.
However, it wasn't just the foul smell that I disliked, it was the image my co-workers were presenting to both the general public and those fortunate enough to be visiting the UK on holiday.
There must be a better way that is acceptable to all. However, I'm not clever enough to think of it.
The City of Fremantle today went a step further and introduced a smoking ban on the footpath. A very popular area where patrons had their coffee read the paper and had a cig.
Not much fun if you had to walk through the haze though.
Fremantle's a lovely town - Parahandy and I spent a day there last April. The (Little Critters') brewery there is superb, and we could drink some of their fine beer outside and smoke at the same time - heaven. Never really saw a haze of smoke, a nice breeze wafted it away...
I agree about closed areas, but when you're outside it drifts away, better than all the other pollutants from car/bus/truck exhausts.
I smoke here (Parahandy has since given up) in non-airconditioned, open-air areas. The only time both of us end up coughing is when some idiot in their badly serviced diesel pick-up leaves the engine running while he goes into the shop to buy his little brown bottle of 'pick-me-up' and has a ten minute conversation with the shop owner (or when the daughter is frying garlic!).
Let smokers smoke outside, here in the land of not so many rules.
VS
"Properly trained, man can be a dog's best friend"
BB,
I couldn't agree with you more.
After my old company did that that referendum thing, I used to go out of the side door and have a smoke. It's difficult to convey and I don't want to sound too big, but I was out there with other staff who were a lot more junior than me. They were scared of me.
So, I went into my car, put some music on, had my ciggie and didn't join in with any conversations that were happening at smokers' corner. I was a boss, but nevertheless ostracised by my fellow smokers.
But if ever a big client was visiting our offices, I would tell everyone that it didn't look good if there were a lot staff outside smoking, including myself - hence the car.
When I took that company car back I had it cleaned. I doubt the grime from cigarettes ever came off the inside of the windows.
The City of Fremantle today went a step further and introduced a smoking ban on the footpath. A very popular area where patrons had their coffee read the paper and had a cig.
Not much fun if you had to walk through the haze though.
Fremantle's a lovely town - Parahandy and I spent a day there last April. The (Little Critters') brewery there is superb, and we could drink some of their fine beer outside and smoke at the same time - heaven. Never really saw a haze of smoke, a nice breeze wafted it away...
I agree about closed areas, but when you're outside it drifts away, better than all the other pollutants from car/bus/truck exhausts.
I smoke here (Parahandy has since given up) in non-airconditioned, open-air areas. The only time both of us end up coughing is when some idiot in their badly serviced diesel pick-up leaves the engine running while he goes into the shop to buy his little brown bottle of 'pick-me-up' and has a ten minute conversation with the shop owner (or when the daughter is frying garlic!).
Let smokers smoke outside, here in the land of not so many rules.
VS
And on that note, one of my neighbours starts her truck up and leaves it running as I'm sitting outside. After 2 minutes I've had enough of the fumes. After 4 minutes, I get a bit upset and start to mumble. After 10 mins, I get my wife to speak to her.
All she's doing is cooling the cab down before she drives it.
Now that's selfish.
On the other side there's a really good family with a small son. My wife was going to light up this evening, but as we were talking to the mother and son the smoke would have blown over them. "So, don't smoke yet,missus. Wait until the little boy goes to bed".
Now then, who's considerate?
I’m a non-smoker but some of these laws are getting a bit silly. For instance here in Luxembourg it is now illegal to smoke at a bus stop. That is all well and good when there is a bus shelter as it is clear where you can’t smoke, but when there is just a sign at the side of the road it all gets a bit muddy. If the pavement is narrow are passers-by expected to extinguish their fag whilst passing the sign, who knows?
I too am a non-smoker - never even tried it, absolutely detest it. However, I tolerate others who smoke.
We all have vices (I assume that's the right word). If a smoker comes to my house to visit, I wouldn't dream of denying them their pleasure by saying they can't smoke, or making them stand in the garden. What I do try to impose is that smokers restrict themselves to the conservatory.
As I said on a thread at the beginning of the year, my wife tried to stop smoking. That time she failed after 17 weeks and 1 day. She's trying again now, and is 11 hours 45 minutes off of her 3 week anniversary. Last time when she tried, she wouldn't have cigarette smoke anywhere near her - when the inevitable happened, she gave in. This time she is permitting her friends to smoke when they visit, and I think she will be able to tolerate it more, and will hopefully succeed.
It has to be live and let live, but as I said in an earlier posting somebody cleverer than me has to find a better way of restricting the fall out from smoking. You won't stop all of the people smoking, so a way of smoking without unacceptable side effects has to be found. Crowds of workers polluting public footpaths, or people turning public areas such as pub gardens in to smoking zones isn't an acceptable answer.
Surely, the government needs to protect its cigarette tax revenue, so why don't they commission some clever people to come up with a brilliant solution that's acceptable to everybody?
Certainly for offices and workspaces it would surely be better to provide a smoking room, like they provide at some airports, with extraction and filtering equipment rather than having a clump of people puffing away on the doorstep all day long.
Incidentally, those of us that work on airliners for a living have been grateful for the ban on smoking on flights, as it used to be disgusting to have to work on the ventilation systems when everything was gunked up with a tarry nicotine residue. When you see the chemicals required to dissolve that stuff it’s hardly surprising that smoking is bad for your lungs.
Heard that in California you cannot smoke on the beach
Do not think this will not happen, the Freemantle council and my local Northern Suburb council are getting smoking banned on all of their beaches, as they have already got it banned in all al fresco aeras in Freemantle the beaches will not be far behind it.
Also someone mentioned 'Little Creatures Brewery" in Freemantle in an earlier post, it is well worth a visit is any of you are in Freemantle at any time.
Is a boutiqe brewery that was built (I Think) in the old boat shed where they built the boat that Australia won the America's Cup with.
The beer is well worth a taste, and is now exported all over the world. The Pale Ale and Pilsner comes well recommended.
I will take a well deserved wrist slap for going of post
Always Borrow Money from a Pesimist. "They Never Expect it Back"
Gooze, I just looked this up and apparently the road safety people are pushing for a ban on smoking while driving in the UK on the flimsy grounds that if making a phone call is distracting so is smoking.
On another point komfortablynumb made, apparently from July next year a smoking ban in the Netherlands will apply to the dope smoking coffee shops as well, but they are going to allow separated smoking areas as long as they have no staff in them.
SteveG, I was listening to the UK radio a few weeks ago and all the taxi drivers were moaning about the ban. It even applies to black cabs where you can close off the cab from the passengers.
Is a huge fine everytime you get caught, and passengers are being told to report any smell of smoke that they detect in the cabs at any time.
Also on the same show, there were stories of some contract workers refusing to work in peoples houses where people smoke inside. Apparently they are well within their rights now to do so, because they are supposed to work in a smoke free workplace.
Always Borrow Money from a Pesimist. "They Never Expect it Back"
