Forum Topic

should smoking be banned in public places?

This is the current debate for those who have not been following the news.I am in favour of banning smoking in public places.My reasons as followsI am sitting on a bench in the park just enjoying the natural smells of grass and breathing when suddenly someone comes and sits next to me and lights up a cigarette. I do not want to inhale their fumes especially as i have ashtma. Many times i have got up and left but why should i have to leave.Also, i am going to work and as i go up the steps to enter my workplace, all the smokers are gathered outside the entrance smoking so again i have to inhale the fumes. Security have put up signs and constantly told them not to smoke here but go to the back, but they take no notice.You go to hospital for an appointment and all the smokers are standing outside the entrance so again you have to inhale the fumes.You sit outside a coffee shop and everyone is smoking.There is just no escaping. That is why i am in favour of banning.

Asha Smith ● 4129d24 Comments

Hit them with a fire extinguisher.  :-)Or, if it's too heavy to lift that high, simply discharge it at them.I once did this with a CO2 extinguisher.The cigarette concerned was surprisingly difficult to put out though...  I had to nearly exhaust the extinguisher before the damn thing would call it a day and go out.

Tony Colliver ● 4127d

Something that really annoys me about smokers is their moronic blowing of the last puff of smoke into a bus/building etc . Is this a power thing. Look out for it and you will see what I mean.

Simon Wycombe ● 4127d

Sorry to hear about your late ladyfriend. I can't help feeling that people who willingly chose life threatening lifestyles like smoking and drinking too much and those feckless ones doing high mountain climbing and speed-car racing and dangerous contact sport should be penalised should they have to be hospitalised. I realise its difficult to monitor those feckless individuals, but something should be done about them imo.

Gerry Tan ● 4127d

There's probably not a fag paper's width between the two arguments...;-)

Keith Iddon ● 4127d

Ah but what about the benefits for people unable to work through chest related problems and also the less income tax they pay by not being able to work as long. the list for true calculation is endless. My late girlfriend had lung problems. Both her parents smoked and when a baby they lived in a single room. She never smoked but the cost of her treatment and subsequent benefits for 10 years when unable to work before she died probably would not be currently counted. The bit between not being able to contribute income tax and a slow decline. I would guess that the figure promoted is a very crude measure.

Peter Chadburn ● 4127d

I would think that smokers cost the nhs and state less than none smokers if you factor in the extra tax that they pay and the likelyhood of them dying younger so their pension payment would stop much earlier.

Keith Iddon ● 4127d

yep - Ebola definitely trumps passive smoking - no doubt about it!

Tony Colliver ● 4127d

Yes attitudes do change. The NHS costs related to smoking may be a bit spurious depending upon who collated them. Obesity and smoking probably combine in many cases  of ill health. so a very difficult thing to gauge. but for me I would like to see open dining/drinking areas having a no smoking/smoking section. Trafalgar square with fumes, smoke and all kinds of smells is probably not going be sensible to police. Surely our public health has more important things to think about. Surely EBOLA needs to be the top priority!!

Peter Chadburn ● 4127d

Illogical.We ban the taking of other drugs in public (or anywhere for that matter) and yet many, possibly even me, would disagree with that law.Mind you, when they've done with the smokers the next target that will hove into view is the drinkers, and, as a drinker myself (though not on park benches obviously) that may not be at all so comfortable...Just to be clear - my problem with smoking is, well, the smoke.  It is not the nicotine, or even the fact that for some this is their drug of choice. It is the fact that indulging in it is unique in the imposition that it places on others in the vicinity against their will.  It is only this aspect which I object to personally.Do unto others etc...I have oft compared the actions of ignorant and selfish smokers in days gone by to me standing on the table in the pub and urinating all over them.  Naturally they find such a suggestion offensive and yet night after night they condemned me and all the other non-smokers to going home with our hair and clothes stinking like stale ashtrays.I can't begin to explain how overjoyed I was at the introduction of a ban on smoking in pubs and, especially, restaurants.

Tony Colliver ● 4127d

All of those arguments were deployed prior to the ban on smoking inside.None of them came to pass.once upon a time many people found drinking and driving acceptable.Not so now.Societal attitudes can and do change.

Tony Colliver ● 4127d

Interesting.I rather enjoy a drink myself, but would be be first to acknowledge that the smell of stale alcohol in a person's breath is not at all nice.OTOH, it is an altogether different scale of problem - both in terms of the numbers of people visiting it upon others unbidden and in the diameter of the area of influence as one has to get pretty close to be troubled by alcohol on somebody's breath.Certainly the other end of a park bench (all things being equal) would usually be (just about) far enough away.It's all about degree isn't it.I for instance find a woman wearing perfume to such an overpowering extent that she taints the food in a restaurant just as annoying as smokers' effluent.(I was up a three storey scaffold the other day and the "scent" that a young lady, obviously on the way out for the evening, was wearing hit me like sledgehammer and stayed with me until she was a good 50 metres further on down the road.  Maybe she was planning to gas her date into submission.  :-) )

Tony Colliver ● 4127d

I agree with Penny Crocker as her point about littering is spot on. There should be an all out war on people who drop litter. As Tony Purton may recall from one of my previous musings, it costs approximately £1 billion to clear up. ( Note to self: dropping litter is done by far more people than the number of people who cycle on pavements!)We do live in a society. Tobacco is a legal product - which as has already been pointed out - that  contributes to the economy. 95% of smoking related deaths happen at home than outside. I hate people eating greasy takeaways such as KFC, Burger King etc, so can I be the first to table a motion to get a ban on this too. Followed by farting. Recognise that being in a public place means losing control of what you wouldn't do at home. Therefore,  you have guessed it,  no to banning smoking in public places.

Ben Owen ● 4127d

I'm not generally in favour of banning things but find second hand smoke increasingly unpleasant.  I think I've lost any "tolerance" I used to have to it when I couldn't escape in pubs, restaurants etc.I think it important, though, that we don't talk of "non-smoking" zones in public places.  I would prefer to think in terms of smoking zones - designated places where one can smoke.  This gives half a chance that any future policies may be enforceable.Donald says: BTW if every smoker gave up it would really hurt public finances.  Tobacco excise duty WAY exceeds NHS costsI haven't heard that argument for ages!  We used to use it years ago to try to gauge whether the government would ever impose an initial smoking ban.  IMO the political capital to be made from any further restrictiions will, as always, FAR outweigh any financial argument.

Phil Kay ● 4128d

Firstly I have to state I am a smoker and a considerate one, I would not "light up" sitting next to someone in a park who was not smoking, nor would I smoke in the entrance to any building/restaurant/pub etc.  However, I have been verbally abused and called disgusting by people who think they  have the right to do so when I have been smoking in my front garden. Yes there are inconsiderate smokers just as there are inconsiderate people who push the elderly aside to get on a bus or spit in the streets or allow their dogs to foul and don't pick it up. I actually agree with the smoking ban as it stands at the moment, but this proposal is a step too far.

Carol Atkinson ● 4128d

But where do we draw the line Tony? I find alcohol fumes extremely offensive but we can't ban (or maybe we can) drinking in public. I detest the smell of diesel and so on .

Penny Crocker ● 4128d

I'm not qualified to judge whether the car fumes etc. mentioned are better or worse for you but this argument is not really about what is good or not for you but what in unpleasant when one person imposes it on another without there consent.It seems to me that relatively few people go around complaining about the unpleasantness of road fumes but many do about second-hand smoke.I saw a quote on the BBC news website today (I think it was from a Forrest spokesman) along the lines of "if you don't like it then move away" with reference to the distinctly unpleasant experience of having somebody strike up a fag at the other end of the same park bench that you might up until that point have been enjoying sitting on.The effluent from smoking is *UNPLEASANT*, and non-smokers are sick to the back teeth of being exposed to it without their permission - whether in or out of doors.The traffic fumes argument is entirely spurious in the context of this.

Tony Colliver ● 4128d

In the same report it estimated that 4200 a year were being killed by poor air quality.  That has to be a far greater priority but as it's a difficult one will be brushed aside again.A smoking ban in public open spaces would be unenforceable.  In enclosed places the onus is on the owner/licencee to enforce.  Who in a park would do this?Also those who smoke politely (and cause no problem) may obey; those who currently don't consider others - won't.  So I really don't see the point and I'm rather against the state dictating behaviour unless necessary.BTW if every smoker gave up it would really hurt public finances.  Tobacco excise duty WAY exceeds NHS costs.  Non smoker BTW.

Donald Manley ● 4128d

No. Total over reaction. I'm not a smoker but the car fumes and the aircraft fumes and the general cr*p you're breathing in London or any other city for that matter are far more harmful for you ! For once, I agree with Boris.

Penny Crocker ● 4128d

That is the one downside of the smoking ban. maybe pub gardens should have a smoke free zone!! the problem was that until the law changed no one was interested in non smokers. my late girlfriend suffered from lung disease and you would ask for somewhere no smoking and a lot of restaurants would put smokers next to us. They could not care less. the tapas bar near northfields had lovely food but we had to move twice because of their stupidity. also smokers would light up seeing that there was someone sat on the next table with oxygen on. They could not care less. so why be worried about smokers rights. I could not care less!!

Peter Chadburn ● 4128d

The pub garden is no longer a pleasant place to go.

Martin Geraghty ● 4128d

And another YES here!Another thing that really bugs me is that smokers believe that the litter laws don't apply to them at all and chuck their butts down anywhere they like.The other day I called out a chap that did this as he entered a bookie's opposite Morrisons in West Ealing.His response was to say "sorry" and grimace at me weakly.He seemed to thing that this was enough.I demanded he pick it up and put it in a bin. He ignored me of course.

Tony Colliver ● 4128d

Definitely YES, I am fed up having to get up and move away from bus stops, hospital entrances and so on. I think the worst place is outside train stations, especially Paddington where one has to try and not inhale whilst quickly rushing by a crowd of people smoking!People either don't think or don't care if others are sensitive to their smoke swirling around everyone.

Jean F Fernandez ● 4128d

Just been waiting at the bus stop and suddenly i noticed a man come and stand next to me and light up.The smoke was coming in my direction but he couldnt care less and so i moved far away from him.The problem with these people is that they couldnt care less about anyone else. It is all about them.

Asha Smith ● 4128d

YES

Simon Wycombe ● 4128d