Smoking Ban

[kazbah]

Kazbah, I think the company that you work for is a discrace.

WorkED - past tense thank God.
they introduced the new policy while I was there and it was the nail in the coffin.

I like to think I'm a well-mannered, polite individual. I don't blow smoke into peoples' faces but yes I am a smoker. I don't try to antagonize people or act in a deliberately anti-social manner but it really gets on my wick if I am enjoying a cigarette outdoors that pious non-smokers feel they can tut and sigh and outright ask me to stop. If I was obese would they act the same if I was eating. It's rude. I am perfectly entitled to smoke outdoors.

 

[DrMoriarty]

I hope the tone is going to remain nice and harmonious around here — no name-calling, please!

[broken link removed]

 

[Janet]

If I was obese would they act the same if I was eating. It's rude. .

I think the whole point though (and one I don't want to get too caught up in because it's been done to death before on here and it's one of those issues some people will never see eye to eye on) is that an obese person eating is not damaging your health. Someone smoking near you is inflicting their smoke on you. Someone eating near you is not forcing you to eat their food too and become obese too.

Being the nice person that I am if someone is smoking near me and it's enough to bother me (depends on the way the wind is, what kind of a mood I'm in etc.) then I don't ask them to stop, I may cough to clear my throat and if it's bad I move away. However, what I find really annoying is the insulted or sneering look I sometimes encounter if I do this. It hasn't happened that often but it does happen.

 

[kazbah]

Being the nice person that I am if someone is smoking near me and it's enough to bother me (depends on the way the wind is, what kind of a mood I'm in etc.) then I don't ask them to stop, I may cough to clear my throat and if it's bad I move away.

There is some insinuation here that if the smoker were also "a nice person" they would put out the cigarette when you clear your throat. I would probably look rather irate myself if I was enjoying a €3 latte outside which is my only refuge as a smoker and someone was alongside me coughing theatically.

Surely you understand particularily in January that people who chosse to sit outside cafes and eateries are probably smokers and I can't see much incentive for non-smokers to sit outside in Cork. You will have to accept this I'm afraid. You have all of indoors should you want a asmoke free environment. Fair enough in warm weather if they have the place maybe places could have smoking and non smoking areas outside.

 

[Janet]

No such insinuation meant at all. I'm talking more about waiting for the bus etc. If I clear my throat, I do so to clear my throat and not in a theatrical way to try and make someone put out their cigarette. As I said above I've become less tolerant of smoke since the ban was introduced and there is simply less I can inhale without coughing. If it's bothering me enough I move away. I don't expect a smoker to move away. Nor do I expect to be subjected to dirty looks for having the cheek to cough or move away. I also cough if a particularly dirty bus passes by expelling fumes around me and feel that I've become less tolerant to that as well - probably as a result of having lived most of my life in the city.

With regard to cafes etc, I rarely choose to sit outside anyway because, living in Dublin, far too many outside areas are beside busy roads and the traffic noise and fumes tend to take away from any pleasure that might be had.

 

[demoivre]

I think the whole point though (and one I don't want to get too caught up in because it's been done to death before on here and it's one of those issues some people will never see eye to eye on) is that an obese person eating is not damaging your health. Someone smoking near you is inflicting their smoke on you. Someone eating near you is not forcing you to eat their food too and become obese too.

Being the nice person that I am if someone is smoking near me and it's enough to bother me (depends on the way the wind is, what kind of a mood I'm in etc.) then I don't ask them to stop, I may cough to clear my throat and if it's bad I move away. However, what I find really annoying is the insulted or sneering look I sometimes encounter if I do this. It hasn't happened that often but it does happen.

I'm a non smoker and hate the things tbh but given that smokers are entitled to smoke outside when at pubs and the like I wouldn't even consider suggesting that they put out their ciggies because I don't think i have any right to do so .

 

[podgerodge]

Being the nice person that I am if someone is smoking near me and it's enough to bother me (depends on the way the wind is, what kind of a mood I'm in etc.) then I don't ask them to stop, I may cough to clear my throat and if it's bad I move away. However, what I find really annoying is the insulted or sneering look I sometimes encounter if I do this.

I'd be insulted! You even admit it's down to your mood! Have you become physically intolerant of smoke or mentally intolerant of smoke? I don't have much sympathy for a mental intolerance given that there is a fair amount of fresh air outside to move to.

Anyway, could you not move away and then cough to clear your throat rather than the other way around and spare the poor smoker another guilty feeling!

 

[stuart]

I am a non-smoker and would go as far as saying I have the smell or sight of someone smoking
I believe it should be banned as it serves no purpose but to alleviate someones withdrawal symptoms
As to a breach of civil liberties, heroin is banned, is that a breach of civil liberties?

BUT it isn't banned and I don't see why someone would find it a problem if someone else is smoking outside
If you don't like it you can move away, it is not an enclosed space trapping the smoke

 

[RainyDay]

BUT it isn't banned and I don't see why someone would find it a problem if someone else is smoking outside
If you don't like it you can move away, it is not an enclosed space trapping the smoke

It's a bit difficult to move away when you're stuck in the Luas ticket queue, or on a crowded Luas platform, or even when walking on the path behind a smoker - Should I speed up (taking in their smoke all the time until I pass them) or slow down and delay my journey, just to get some fresh air?

 

[Sarah]

Cross the road!!!!
Im a smoker and very pleased with the outcome of the smoking ban.It has helped me cut down and prehaps eventually ill give up but my one vice at the mo is smoking the few i do smoke. I can understand non smokers opnions on it as all of my friends are non smokers and one in particular hates it so much that if theres an ashtray in a room she wont go into it until its removed! My partner is a non smoker and i have to go outside to the garden to smoke, smokers since the ban have had to leave resturants, pubs ect which is no bad thing but seeing as we have only one option which is to smoke outside i think its a little unfair for anyone else to begrudge us that.Just like its our choice to smoke, its a non smokers choice to either move away to another spot if outside or to sit inside.Least ye have more choices!

 

[RainyDay]

Cross the road!!!!

It's actually not that simple. My daily walking commute to/from the Luas station is along a very busy major route (Wyckham Bypass, beside new Dundrum centre), and I genuinely haven't got a hope in hell of crossing the road without taking my life in my hands.

If I was obese would they act the same if I was eating. It's rude. I am perfectly entitled to smoke outdoors.

If you shoved your half-chewed food up their nostrils and mashed it into their hair, then yes, they might well object. That's what you do when you smoke beside a non-smoker. It's not a question of 'entitled' - it's a question of good manners.

WorkED - past tense thank God.
they introduced the new policy while I was there and it was the nail in the coffin.

There are companies which have no-smoking rules for good reasons, in particular to avoid contamination - I've come across this on pharmaceutical manufacturers and disk manufacturers.

 

[kazbah]

It's not a question of 'entitled' - it's a question of good manners.

Meaning what? Smoking in public is bad manners?

 

[RainyDay]

Meaning what? Smoking in public is bad manners?

Meaning that smoking where your smoke will impact other people is bad manners.

 

[kazbah]

Meaning that smoking where your smoke will impact other people is bad manners.

Well seemingly from various posters on this thread smoking anywhere will upset someone - so therefore all smokers are ill-mannered then?

 

[stuart]

It's actually not that simple. My daily walking commute to/from the Luas station is along a very busy major route (Wyckham Bypass, beside new Dundrum centre), and I genuinely haven't got a hope in hell of crossing the road without taking my life in my hands.

What are they smoking? A rolled up forest

 

[kazbah]

What are they smoking? A rolled up forest

 

[Janet]

I'd be insulted! You even admit it's down to your mood! Have you become physically intolerant of smoke or mentally intolerant of smoke? I don't have much sympathy for a mental intolerance given that there is a fair amount of fresh air outside to move to.

Anyway, could you not move away and then cough to clear your throat rather than the other way around and spare the poor smoker another guilty feeling!

It's possible I could move away first but as Rainyday mentions, that's not always possible or practical.

I mean physically intolerant. I'm far more aware since the ban of when someone is smoking and can take far less of it before I start coughing and in bad cases, for example if visiting someone who smokes at home, start developing a headache. I have to say that most of the smokers I know even go outside to smoke at home so it's not often a huge problem. I'm also not the only person I know who has become more sensitive to smoke since the ban.

The remark about my mood was simply to admit that sometimes I just don't have the patience to put up with someone polluting the air around me just for the sake of my not being rude. I'm generally polite and try to be considerate of others but hey, nobody's perfect and if I'm having a bad day then trying to make a smoker not feel guilty isn't very high on my list of priorities.

 

[podgerodge]

I mean physically intolerant. I'm far more aware since the ban of when someone is smoking and can take far less of it before I start coughing

I'll stop arguing but I can't see how being more aware of someone smoking can contribute to a greater physical intolerance!

I will go on believing that the potential damaging effects of a whiff of smoke in the outside air are negligible compared to the rest of contaminants in the city.

 

[kazbah]

I will go on believing that the potential damaging effects of a whiff of smoke in the outside air are negligible compared to the rest of contaminants in the city.

Most certainly.

 

[Janet]

I'll stop arguing but I can't see how being more aware of someone smoking can contribute to a greater physical intolerance!

You'll just have to take my word on it so - but please see the second half of my sentence too, I did say that I'm far less able to take it and not just that I'm more aware of it.

I will go on believing that the potential damaging effects of a whiff of smoke in the outside air are negligible compared to the rest of contaminants in the city.

I'm sure there's some fable or parable to make the point I have difficulty articulating. Perhaps the straw that broke the camel's back or two wrongs not making a right? Just because there are other, possibly worse contaminants doesn't mean that removing cigarette smoke isn't worth it or wouldn't contribute to an improvment in air quality. Any improvment regardless of how small should be seen as a good thing.