They have to quit, or they have to say they quit?
If they continue to smoke they risk all sorts of complications up to and including death, so if they just say “I quit” and don’t really… well, that’s truly foolish behavior.
All of which is why it took my body almost 6 months to recover from my foot surgery last year.
I was given “the patch” gratis along with bandages, etc., upon leaving the hospital in the hopes that it’d curb my smoking during the first few weeks. Turned out that having a cigarette during that period wasn’t even a glimmer because of the post anethesia stuff. I knew I was starting to feel better when I suddenly started craving one.
The patch didn’t work on me. I evidently don’t inhale enough to warrant even the lowest dose. For me it’s more of a nervous habit and the ritual of having one has always calmed me in some weird way.
Well, smoking killed my mother and crippled-and eventually killed-my father. So I harbor negative feelings about the habit.
Deep-seated hate-no it is a personal, if negative, choice by others and as long as I don’t have to be downwind of them for too long I leave them alone and hope they leave me alone.
No argument from me, I’m just curious about the surgical “rule”. They could state that they will not perform surgery if you are smoking and do it by the honor system. Alternatively they could include a blood nicotine level (but then who pays for the test, does insurance cover it, etc).
When I broke my foot (5th metatarsal), I was told that non-smokers would heal without surgery, but because of the many fine capillaries in the area, smokers simply would not be able to heal without surgery. Since I am neither a smoker nor a medical doctor, I may not have understood properly, but it was the first time I had encountered the idea that smoking interfered with healing.
They did a spit test to check for nicotine on everyone at the seminar. People were informed well in advance that there would be a test, so they had something like three months to quit. More if they needed-- after all, it’s elective surgery, albeit, done for health reasons, generally, so insurance usually pays for it.
At least they took spit samples. Maybe they didn’t really test them-- just tried to scare people into quitting with the threat of a test.
The main problem really, we were told, was not so much getting people to quit in preparation for the surgery, but getting them to not start again afterwards. Apparently there is a very specific kind of ulcer that can occur in bariatric post-surgery patients who smoke.
For me it’s not hate, just pity. To allow yourself to be controlled that way by an addiction is pretty fucking sad.
I grew up in a home where both my parents smoked. Never realized how bad our house and the things in it, including our clothes, reeked, until I moved away to go to college and then came home on my first break.
As a non-smoker, I only hate smokers because they’re so damned rude. They know they stink, and that some people (including my best friend) literally cannot breathe in their presence, and yet they still stand around in public areas emitting clouds of aerosol fecal matter.
Now, you might say, “But I’m a smoker and I don’t do that! I make sure my toxic exhalations never come within a hundred yards of innocent lungs!”
To which I would respond that in that case I don’t hate you - I just hate the smokers I notice. (Presuming of course you’re being honest about your successful efforts in containing your pollution.)
It is interesting what you said. My doctor is convinced that it is statins that are making the heart disease rate plummet. If you read this zombie, I would be interested in your reaction to that.
As for the OP, I am an ex-smoker and when I see people—especially teens—smoke, I mainly feel sorry for them. I certainly don’t hate them, although I dislike being around smoke.
My parents both smoked and I suffered constantly from clogged sinuses. Then I smoked for about a dozen years until that day 53 years ago I suffered a heart attack and have not held a cigarette since. And my sinuses mysteriously cleared.
I was a bar-n-beer smoker for a few years in my 20s (this was the late '80s, before it was a moral sin). I’ve not smoked in 30 years and Y’know what I really miss?
-The aroma of cigarette smoke during breakfast service at Denny’s and greasy spoons.
-Smoking inside bars and dance clubs (intermingled with the scent of spilled beer).
I wouldn’t like living with a heavy smoker who smokes inside, and I of course get the reasons smoking is banned inside public places, but I miss the scent in some places.
My only hate is for smokers who litter their butts, especially from moving cars. That’s nasty. But for goshsakes, let smokers smoke outside (with a butt disposal can).
For acquaintances, I find myself mildly disappointed when I find out they smoke. It would be a dealbreaker for romantic relationship material. I don’t “hate” smokers though.
Yeah, I remember when smokey bars were the norm. I never smoked tobacco, and I hated when I left and my clothes and hair smelled of smoke, but the actual odor/haze was part of the mystique, especially of day drinking. I miss that.
Interesting point on the smell being one of the reasons to be so “down” on smokers. I can’t disagree.
Me: I’m an adult child of two parents who smoked - Dad smoked pipes and occasionally cigars (I think he smoked cigarattes at some point but quit when I was too young to be aware); Mom’s last cigarette was the morning she went to have her cancerous left lung removed.
So yeah, my opinion of smoking is not the highest. As a lifelong asthmatic, the idea of deliberately inhaling anything is, well, horrifying!
I dislike having to sit near a smoker, because they tend to smell of it.
I roll my eyes at their needing to pop out for a smoke break.
I guess in general I feel a combination of contempt and bafflement. Thinking of two smokers I work with: one is older than I am, and presumably took it up before it was frowned upon. The other is quite a bit younger than I am, so it’s puzzling, except that he was born in India and maybe smoking is more common among younger people there than in the US?
My wife and I despise cigarette smoke, but the issue almost never comes up anymore. Our businesses are non-smoking (have been for 20 years), no one smokes in front of us or in our home. I can’t think of a friend who smokes, and all public places are non-smoking, including airports and airplanes.
It will be interesting once pot is legalized if smoking will become more prevalent again. There are bylaws being put in place that treat it the same as cigarettes, but the odor can be much stronger.
Our son smokes, believe it or not, but if he comes over after a cigarette, but before he has had a shower and put on fresh clothes, he runs the very real risk of being told to go home.
OFFICIAL RETRACTION!
I just spent three hours in Caesar’s Palace* eating dinner and playing slots. I’m wheezing and sneezing and I don’t have (known) smoke allergies.
Vast sympathies to the hotel and casino employees. Gak and yuck!** and ***
*For you wags: the Las Vegas one.
** I did win $400 on a 50 cent slot bet, so there’s that.
*** You know what’s no fun? The demise of actual quarter slots. A shitty printed coupon just ain’t the same. It would have been glorious to schlepp 1,600 quarters around in plastic cups (for about ten minutes).
Still discussing this, 6 years on.
Is it that smokers really don’t know how they affect the rest of the world, or is it that they don’t care?
I would never discuss my religious or political beliefs with my FIL, because I know he hates them. He, on the other hand, has no problem lighting up near my when I have asthma and allergies.
I had many other things to say, but they have already been said.
Myself, I would have no problem refusing to go anywhere near my FIL until he cut that out. And to hell with him if he didn’t. I have zero time to spare for the Archie Bunkers of the world.
I was a heavy smoker for many years, before I quit. But after I quit, I would put myself in situations where others were smoking, just to get some second-hand smoke. That need wore off after a couple of years, and now I can’t stand any smoke. I can even become irritated while waiting for a red light if someone in the car in front of me is smoking.
My father was also a heavy smoker. All through my childhood I was exposed to his smoke… cigarettes, cigars or pipes. I wonder how it has affected my health.
As a non-smoker, I’ve never minded the smell of secondhand smoke; even somewhat liked the acrid, bitter scent of it. But that may be because I rarely encountered it.
As a side note I have still never yet encountered marijuana and still never smelled it yet.