On 29/08/2011 00:46, The Medway Handyman wrote:
On 28/08/2011 23:24, Steve Walker wrote:
On 27/08/2011 17:20, The Medway Handyman wrote:
On 27/08/2011 16:18, Interloper wrote:
"The Medway Handyman" mocked:

Why don't you try getting a life?

Most likely Dave has already got a life and he is trying to hang on
to it
and his health by avoiding passive smoking.

Could you name someone who as died from passive smoking? Anywhere in the
world will do.

Roy Castle?

Alas not. Lung cancer yes. 10% of lung cancer deaths occur in non smokers.

Most of the people I know who don't want anyone smoking near them are
not overly concerned about passive smoking, they just can't stand the
odour, the sore eyes, the sore throat and the smelly clothes they end up
with from being around smokers.

An entirely reasonable view.

I have no wish to inflict the by products of smoking on others.

Equally, I can't see why non smokers should inflict their views on smokers.

Because smokers are the ones carrying out an action and inflicting their
smoke on non-smokers, whereas non-smokers simply want them to stop doing
so. We don't care whether you smoke or not, we simply want you not to
inflict that smoke on us. If I kept squirting water around in a pub,
everyone near me would rightly want me to stop, they would however have
no objection to me watering my garden plants, as that wouldn't affect them.

As a smoker you won't have the experience, but I frequently recoil from
the smell of tobacco smoke and look round to find someone smoking 20 or
30 feet away! It's a foul odour that travels considerable distances.

As are many things, but we don't ban cheap perfume, body odour, farting,
fried onions, McDonalds, diesel fuel, rape seed etc.

I certainly wouldn't smell most of those from 30 feet away and those
that I might, are serving useful purposes, except possibly the fried
onions Funnily enough I did some work for a curry factory once - we
installed an odour reduction system, as the smell of onions coming from
their vents was irritating the nearby residents and the council were
threatening to close them down.

My wife is an ex-smoker (she promised her father a month before he was
diagnosed with terminal liver cancer and other than one lapse, she has
stuck to it), she frequently comments that she's amazed how she could
ever have smoked, as she too can't stand the smell.

I personally love the smell of secondhand smoke YMMY.

Your choice, but the difference is that if someone is not smoking, you
wouldn't find the clean air annoying, whereas I would find smoke in the
air annoying.

During the summer when it is hot we naturally like our patio door and
windows open to get a breeze. At night we sleep with our bedroom window
open. Our neighbours have a young child so they go outside to smoke and
we end up suffering their smoke. We either have to put up with it or
close the windows and struggle to sleep 'cos of the heat.

Interesting point that. Smoking has been deliberately demonised over the
years to the point of stupdity. Were it not for that, your neighbours
would smoke indoors with no adverse affects to their child, in fact,
according to many (supressed) studies, it would promote a resistance to
smoking related illness..

Come on! My grandparents were heavy smokers, within weeks of
redecorating their living room, their walls were thick with the
polutants from cigarettes, with clear patches behind the pictures. With
or without evidence, that kind of coating is going to be bad for the
delicate tubes of a childs immature lungs!

The selfishness of smokers has always amazed me. I have worked with and
been friends with a number and two things stick out. Firstly, in the
days when you could smoke in pubs, the whole group had to sit and suffer
in the smoking area, even if there was only one smoker with us,
otherwise they'd whinge and moan so much that they'd ruin the evening.

The selfessness of non smokers amazes me. I'd suppot 'smoking' and 'non
smoking' areas. Majority rule?

As I've said, it doesn't work, the smokers are too selfish to follow the
wishes of the majority, they just ruin the evening for everyone unless
they get their way. Amongst my various groups of friends (ex school, ex
university, ex work) no group had more than two smokers out of eight to
ten people out for the night, yet everyone ended up stuck in the
smokers' areas. If the non-smokers insisted on sitting in the
non-smoking area, the smokers would reluctantly sit with us and then
moan continually.

My youngest daughter doesn't smoke. When she goes out with her mates,
most of them disappear outside for a fag & leave her on her own. Now she
goes out with them.

In other words, her friends have reached the point where the addiction
is calling and that is more important that staying chatting with her, so
she has to fall in with their wishes or be abandoned.

Secondly, every time one of the smokers tried to give up, the others
would smoke in front of them and each time they lit up, they'd offer
them one - as if they couldn't stand letting one get away!

However, I do think that the coucils that are trying to ban smokers from
lighting up in the street, parks, etc. are going too far; similarly with
the existing ban on smoking in company vehicles; and also the hospitals
and companies that ban employees from smoking in their own cars in their
car-parks.

Thank you for a reasoned view. :-)

I have nothing against people smoking, I just don't want to have to put
up with their smoke.

SteveW