So by extension, should I have to live on a mountaintop in Nepal because I, along with an estimated 10% (and climbing) of Americans, have a significant, immediate, and potentially life-threatening problem when I breathe crap? Crap which I could avoid much more effectively if the people producing it would make reasonable accomodations, ones which would improve EVERYONE’s health, not just that of the significant minority who are significantly and immediately affected by said toxic crap? I already take measures which I feel I shouldn’t have to take (avoiding most public places where smoking is allowed, most of the time)…and I don’t kvetch at people who take advantage of the environments where smoking is allowed, no matter how much I detest it. But I need to use public transport, I need to go to work, I need to buy food and clothes, and as the places where those things happen are currently off-limits to smokers in America the huge majority of the time, they should respect the arenas where I can be smoke-free.
Again, if you have to go outside to smoke anyway, is it really that much trouble to move a few feet away from the entrance, whch I have to pass through in order to be a functioning member of society?
I fully agree with you, Eva. I don’t mind sitting in the smoking section, I don’t mind standing X number of feet from an entranceway, if it’s marked as such.
I’ll give you an example of what I have a problem with:
My workplace has 8 entrances. One of these entrances opens into a patio with about 10 tables on it. This used to be the smoking patio. There is another entrance 10 feet from this one where non-smokers could enter and leave if they didnt feel like walking through the smoking area. There are also 6 other entrances on various sides of the building. Because a non-smoker complained that they’d like to use this patio to sit and take in sunshine or whatever (Right. In Phoenix. In August. They wanted to sit outside on their lunch. scoff), the smokers were then given 3 tables about 40 ft from this exit and around the corner.
Now we have 30+ smokers who congregate around those three tables to smoke and – you guessed it – NO ONE sitting at the other tables.
In the year and 3 months since this went into effect, I’ve seen a grand total of 5 people sitting at those tables. Three of them would sit there to eat and then walk to our area to smoke afterward because it was too crowded in the smoking area when they got outside.
But on two seperate occasions, I did see two seperate individuals sitting outside talking with one another. I do believe they were non-smokers.
It’s these kinds of restrictions that make me wrinkle my nose at militant non-smokers and it really does suck that it tends to give the rest of you a bad name. (With the exception of the few of you who really have earned a bad name for yourselves.)
I’d also like to address the “I make jabs at my friend for smoking, but he/she doesn’t mind.”
How the hell do you know?
I have some friends who kid me about my weight and while I don’t want to be a jerk or seem like I’m completely devoid of a sense of humor, I most certainly DO mind.
Because in California, i’m telling you, you can’t smoke anywhere. Not in resteraunts, not on outside resteraunt patios, not in bars, not outside of buildings (the majority of the time), i’m talking nowhere. Maybe the reason that it’s not like that in other states, is because there more smokers there than non-smokers. I’ll check it out and try to get a cite on this.
I think that’s why I have a hard time comphrehending why so many non-smokers here still manage to make smokers out to be these evil trouble-makers that go out of their way to make a non-smokers life miserable. Some of you here are making it out to seem like smokers are chasing you down the street, blowing smoke into your faces. Maybe it’s different in other parts of the country, but here at least, non-smokers really have no right to complain. They’ve driven smokers out of every concievable indoor or partially indoor place, it *is * still legal people.
I’m no smokers rights advocate or anything, but some of the smoking backlash has gotten really out of hand. You’d think us smokers were in the back ally shooting up herion or smoking crack from the reactions you get from people.
I just don’t understand what it is about smoking that makes people think it’s okay to bust open their soapbox and start lecturing not only their friends and family, but at times, complete strangers about their personal habit. I’m talking about when this happens to considerate smokers, mind you. Like Yosemitebabe said, if I see an overweight person scarfing down a BigMac, and I were to walk over and start lecturing them about it, I would be looked at as being increadibly rude and it would be socially unacceptable. Even if I was **Yosemitebabe’s ** friend or family member. It would still be rude as hell. So why is it socially acceptable to walk up to someone that is being considerate about you not wanting to be around smoke and is therefore far away from you and start telling them about your Aunt Flo who just died of lung cancer. Is it their fault she died? No. Are they aware that smoking causes lung cancer? Yes. So what are you trying to achieve?
Like many have said before, smokers will quit when they’re ready. You can’t force someone to quit. They might quit for awhile but they will most likely start again *because they weren’t ready *
When you are around people smoking cigarettes, the smell gets in your clothes. The same thing happens if you spend time around a campfire. But the smells are different (at least to me).
Stale cigarette smoke can be pretty nasty. Campfire smoke, although I still wanna get the smell out of my clothes, isn’t nearly as bad.
I don’t live in Quebec. If you’d read my post again, I stated repeatedly that I was referring to people “here” (that would be California)
How many people smoke has nothing to do with somone’s percieved right to bust open their soapbox and lecture smokers on the dangers of smoking.
How many people smoke also has nothing to do with someone’s percieved right to personally insult someone they don’t even know solely on the basis of the fact that they smoke.
Read my posts again, I think you missed the entire point.
I’m well aware you don’t live in Quebec. You mentioned that maybe other areas had more smokers, so I contributed my statistics. And no, that doesn’t give people a right to be rude (which I, personally, tend not to be, I think) but it does illustrate my situation a little better.