# On Asking Smokers Not To **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 25, 2010, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709 "2010-05-25T15:48:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/181 "2010-05-31T16:38:16Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > Totally lost me mate, I was joking. > > If you look at another thread,which I can’t recall right now as I’ve been drinking, but its totally current , I posted as an ex smoker that I’m not one of these holier then thou ex smokers and that I believe that no one should use government to stop smokers enjoying their past time. > > Actually check my posts. > > But as to people trying to stop me masturbating in bus stops while I’m waiting > for the fucking bus!for hour after hour ? > > Boris fuck off bring back Ken Livingstone! > > Yep still drunk. I got the joke, and was agreeing with you, in so much that you also object to the “anti’s”. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/182 "2010-05-31T18:39:50Z")
> [@SteveG1](#): > > I got the joke, and was agreeing with you, in so much that you also object to the “anti’s”. No worries mate, am still incredibly drunk. Have a good one. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/183 "2010-05-31T18:46:12Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > No worries mate, am still incredibly drunk. > > Have a good one. Enjoy. I’d partake of a nip myself, but in my case, a drink and a smoke have always gone together. I’m hoping that staying away from both for a while will make the quitting easier. ---
**Author:** ![Zaphod\_Beeblebrox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/0ea827/32.png) [@Zaphod\_Beeblebrox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zaphod_Beeblebrox)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/184 "2010-05-31T19:57:36Z")
Quick disclaimers: 1- I am a former smoker. I stopped in 2005. 2- The smell of cigarette smoke does not bother me. 3- I would never ask someone not to smoke, even if they _were_ smoking in a place where it’s strictly forbidden (with the exception of anything that could put my life in immediate danger, like smoking while putting gas in your car). 4- My wife is one of those hardcore ex-smokers who now claims that she’s allergic and immediately goes into uberdrama mode if someone in another apartment lights up a cigarette. This annoys me to no end. With that out of the way, I’d like to point out that the smokers and smoking apologists in this thread are making me laugh. Posters who usually seem perfectly reasonable apparently resort to hyperbole and hyper-defensiveness in a (possibly irregular) heartbeat. I’ll summarize with a few quick points: 1- Smokers smell. They still smell when they’re fresh out of the shower. Since their sense of smell is shot, they typically won’t notice it - even on other smokers. That’s just a reality. Please deal with it. 2- There was a post here that likened bothering someone with smoke to eating a peanut butter sandwich around someone who’s allergic. Unless peanut butter is now airborne and can cause allergic reactions through its mere smell, that was the most absurd leap of reasoning I’ve seen in this thread. 3- Comparing cigarette smoke to exhaust fumes is just stupid. I’ll admit that I would have made the same comparison when I was a smoker, but I’m starting to think that smokers automatically earn black belts in rationalizing. As unfortunate as it may be, our society is now very dependent on transport, which in turn is unfortunately still highly dependent on burning fossil fuels. Yes, car and truck exhaust fumes are highly unhealthy and arguably worse than cigarette smoke, but you can argue that they are a necessary evil. Cigarettes are not. Consequently, there is no plan at this point in time to ban driving, but that does not make smoking in public places a de-facto right for anyone. At the risk of taking a trip down Cliché Avenue, two wrongs don’t make a right (double-entendre intended). 4- Are smokers automatically given an ability to exaggerate the opposing viewpoint, just so that they can then make fun of it? I’m seeing an awful lot of that here. Anyway, I just thought I’d chime in. Please carry on. I’d answer the OP more directly, but I don’t know how to answer the question, since asking someone not to smoke is not in my nature. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2010, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/185 "2010-06-01T05:35:58Z")
> [@villa](#): > > Actually, it really isn’t if it is in an area designated as a farting area. The fact that **you** don’t want there to be a farting area doesn’t mean that others don’t. But there you go again, showing your self centered nature, I think this is irony. There’s no group of people more selfish than smokers. > [@villa](#): > > I am finding it more than a little annoying that in responding to me, you repeatedly talk about what smokers think in general, when it doesn’t apply to me. It is a completely dishonest technique. I don’t think smoke magically stays in the smoking section. Then your rudeness is deliberate. > [@villa](#): > > It doesn’t matter to my argument. The casino owner, within the law, decided to allow a smoking section. Again, this doesn’t mean it isn’t rude to smoke there. Doing something that has such a negative effect on the people around you is rude, whether it’s allowed or not. You have no qualms about polluting the local air in order to feed your addiction, but I’m the self centered one. Right. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2010, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/186 "2010-06-01T06:06:31Z")
> [@DianaG](#): > > Smugness is about as necessary as smoke, and I know which one I’d prefer to surround myself with. > [@DianaG](#): > > As cancer goes, better the lungs than the soul. > [@DianaG](#): > > That’s the problem with smugness, it fills up the part of you where a sense of humor is supposed to live. For someone who hates smugness, your posts sure are dripping with it. Look, there’s people who get a bug up their ass about a little smoke, and there’s people who smoke partially because it pisses people off. It’s a vicious chicken-and-egg cycle, and it’s not smokers or anti-smokers that are the problem; like with so many other social issues, it’s assholes that are the problem. It doesn’t help that a lot of people in these online discussions either mistake a non-asshole on the other side for an asshole or think someone on the other side thinks they’re one of the assholes. ---
**Author:** ![DragonAsh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DragonAsh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DragonAsh)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2010, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/187 "2010-06-01T12:20:36Z")
> [@Candyman74](#): > > Nonsense. Utter nonsense. > > Unless you’re engaging in very close carnal relations with every smoker near you, this is not true. In fact, in my experience, not even then. > > You’re making stuff up. Peoples’ pores do not emit smoke smell. If you can smell smoke smell from peoples’ pores, then please see a doctor; they say the imagined smell of burning rubber is a sign of a tumor - maybe this is a similar thing? > > No, I don’t smoke. Yes, I know lots of smokers. I have slept with several, and never once have I detected smoke smell emanating form their pores. Bovine manure. By all accounts, my sense of smell is no more or less acute compared to others around me, and I can most definitely tell which of my co-workers either smoke or live with a bunch of smokers just by talking to them. And I’ve smelt ciggy smoke on people I was doing very naughty things with, even after they had been in the shower. Although I think that was from their hair, not necessarily oozing from their pores. Smoke all you want in your home. But just because you were stupid enough to start and are too weak-willed to stop, don’t expect anyone else to put up with your disgusting, unhealthy addiction. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2010, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/188 "2010-06-01T14:40:52Z")
I was once a smoker. This would have worked if I had somewhere else I could easily go in order to smoke: “Hello! I have no right to tell you not to smoke here, this is not a no smoking zone or anything like that. But I have to be here for {the reason you can’t be somewhere else} and cigarette smoke really bothers me. Would you be willing to smoke {over there} instead?” BONUS where applicable: “I’ll hold your spot for you here on this line until you get back” Note that if I don’t have any real options of somewhere else to smoke except around yet OTHER people who ask me to not smoke around them either, I probably won’t be able to accomodate you. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709.md?page=9)