New possibility of a total smoking ban in England

SB said:

quote:

The health and safety laws should protect all workers regardless of their own particular fallibilities.

According to your logic they wouldn't need to have radiation protection in nuclear power stations - they would just employ suicidal people.

Now I get it. You are comparing smokers who want to smoke - with the protection of workers from stuff that they don't want exposure to.

A fatuous comparison, that. Nobody is suggesting that anyone gets exposed to smoke if they do not wish to be there.

quote:

Originally posted by Steve S1:
You are comparing smokers who want to smoke

It's not about stopping smokers from enjoying their poison, it's about the protection of employees. I cannot understand why some people aren't capable of accepting that.

It seems strange that when smoking is banned from an office complex the smokers use the production area for their filthy habit. Yet smoking is banned by environmental regulations in areas where welding and machining of stainless steels takes place. Work that one out.

Steve G said:

quote:

It's not about stopping smokers from enjoying their poison, it's about the protection of employees. I cannot understand why some people aren't capable of accepting that.

Read back. We are not talking out protecting non-smokers.

we have a total smoking ban in the permises where i am based -there is a designated area about 40 metres away - but thats too far for some to walk! There is another area where smokers go, but being a supervisor i have to enforce the policy - in this inctance i am happy to do so as the stench of the smell wafts up the stairs - yuk

andy c!

I still miss being allowed to smoke in an airoplane. I am apparently more and more out of my time. Christ I wish I was eighty!

Fredrik

quote:

Originally posted by Fredrik_Fiske:
Christ I wish I was eighty!
Fredrik

Keep praying like that and he might just let you stay on.

Will it be banned on ferries. I like the DFDS ferry to Christiansand, and there was absolutely no hint of any disapproval there, even though obviously I did not strike up in the dining room. It is just one thing thing that made me think shipping so much more civilised than airliners.

I hope to go again this summer. All the best from Fredrik

If you started smoking at 20 and made it to 80 that would be nearly half a million fags at a packet a day.

That's alot of fags!

Spock

Dear Spock,

I started at my thirty-fifth birthday. I figured that if it took me early I would not be an old oxygen thief, and if not then the tax over the years would keep the exchequer in good heart for the state pension. I almost missed the main reason. I enjoy being with a good few smoking friends, and even before I started I would always be sure to sit in the smoking part of an airoplane! I also intensely enjoy it, so long as I am not feeling I am intruding on other people. Thus I never smoke in a restaurant or in a house with children resident...

When I first stayed with my Norwegian Aunt ( immediately after my grandmother had died) I asked ever so meekly if she minded. She pointed to my late grandfather's collection of ash-trays on a shelf in the kitchen and smiled. Next morning I was up at six and made breadfast and coffee followed a by a cigarette. Then my Aunt came down and said it was so nice to have that smell in her house again - it reminded her of her of my grandfather staying and that must have been a fond memory. For a non-smoker to be the gracious speaks of a another generation, and another older attitude. As I say I am too young for the time...

Fredrik

Fredrik

I stared at about 16 years old and smoked for the next 30 years. I have abstained completely for the last 14 months, something I am enormously proud of. Never thought I could do it but I’m glad I did.

I used to smoke in the house with children present but only now have I realised just how selfish I was being, so good on you for that, you are a gent.

You mention that you intensely enjoy smoking. That was also true for me for a long while. This view changed in the last few years when I started coughing and spluttering , smoking was just becoming a pain and I didn’t like being in it’s power or under it’s control.

Ultimately I quit for the sake of my children and hopefully will never go back. I’ve just seen another chap who’s been clean for over 3 years return to the fags so I will always need to be on my guard.

Good luck and best wishes to you Fredrik

Spock

I wonder why when drinking ruins so many people's lives you never hear the politicians calling for a liquor ban. Strange.
M

quote:

Originally posted by Moss:
I wonder why when drinking ruins so many people's lives you never hear the politicians calling for a liquor ban. Strange.
M

When the vast majority of people down their pint in the pub it has no effect on the rest of the people in the pub, including the staff. Every single time someone lights up in a pub it's detrimentally affecting those around them.

The government advocates considerate and responsible drinking, and as far as I can see this ban is advocating considerate and responsible smoking - i.e. so that people who don't want to inhale smoke don't have to.

If part of drinking meant forcing your drink down non-drinkers throats then I'm pretty sure the government would be looking at a drinking ban as well.

quote:

I wonder why when drinking ruins so many people's lives you never hear the politicians calling for a liquor ban. Strange.

'cos i dont normally pee on you whilst having a drink!

spock,

well done...

quote:

Originally posted by Steve G:
When the vast majority of people down their pint in the pub it has no effect on the rest of the people in the pub, including the staff. Every single time someone lights up in a pub it's detrimentally affecting those around them.

...until they plough their car into a bus queue of pensioners or beat someone to death over a row in a taxi rank...

quote:

Originally posted by domfjbrown:

quote:

Originally posted by Steve G:
When the vast majority of people down their pint in the pub it has no effect on the rest of the people in the pub, including the staff. Every single time someone lights up in a pub it's detrimentally affecting those around them.

...until they plough their car into a bus queue of pensioners or beat someone to death over a row in a taxi rank...

What an absurd thing to say. I've spent many an evening in a pub not smoking but forced to breathe in other folk's poisonous fumes and never once driven away drunk and never driven into a taxi rank. If anything I'd say a smoker is much more likely to do that because he's already demonstrated he cares little for the welfare of those round about him.

quote:

Originally posted by TomK:
I've spent many an evening in a pub not smoking but forced to breathe in other folk's poisonous fumes

You weren't "forced" to, you could have gone somewhere else or stayed at home.

EW

quote:

Originally posted by Earwicker:
You weren't "forced" to, you could have gone somewhere else or stayed at home.

Just as under the new legislation no-one will be forcing smokers not to smoke - they can still poison themselves should they so wish. They'll just lose the right to poison other people at the same time (although clearly they can still poison their own children in their own homes should they wish).

The new legislation is about protection of employees from poisonous fumes - and to a certain extent about protecting employers from future legal action.

I'm a non-smoker but through my childhood I had to endure my fathers (who's now a non-smoker) 60 a day habit so christ nows how many fags I've actually inhaled without actually smoking any of them.

I heard an article on the Danish radio about Spain where they not only banned fags but stopped supermarkets and other common outlets from selling them. (now that is a clever tactic since it greatly reduces easy access) I believe fags are now only available from specialist tobacconists and (presumably) smugglers.

quote:

Originally posted by Earwicker:

quote:

Originally posted by TomK:
I've spent many an evening in a pub not smoking but forced to breathe in other folk's poisonous fumes

You weren't "forced" to, you could have gone somewhere else or stayed at home.

EW

Yeah, like you could avoid exhaust fumes by moving to the Highlands, or avoid getting mugged by never going out of your house.
Why should we have to?

quote:

Originally posted by Nime:
I heard an article on the Danish radio about Spain where they not only banned fags .

If Spain can do it (where they are born smoking) so can we!

I can imagine England as the last European country where smoking in public places is allowed having 'smoking holidays' where addicts from elsewhere can indulge their desire to poison others.

I went to a gig last night (Pure Reason Revolution). My 'musicians' ear plugs protected me from the noise, but I couldn't be protected from smokers. As usual, my eyes went bright 'Paul Newman' blue (normally green) and I can hardly speak today.



Stephen

quote:

Originally posted by Rasher:
Yeah, like you could avoid exhaust fumes by moving to the Highlands

I intend to...

quote:

Originally posted by TomK:

... I've spent many an evening in a pub not smoking but forced to breathe in other folk's poisonous fumes and never once driven away drunk and never driven into a taxi rank. If anything I'd say a smoker is much more likely to do that because he's already demonstrated he cares little for the welfare of those round about him.

Dear Tom,

Two points, I hope you will forgive.

Firstly, it is still legal to smoke in a pub and going there is a voluntary action on the part of non-smokers.

Secondly, I would like to point out that no one strengthens their case with wild, sweeping generalisation such as I quote from your post. That is a significantly sillier comment than Dom makes! You will see that I posted earlier in the thread [top of this page and one at the bottom of the previous as wel I think], and may wish to ponder what I have quoted in the light of my earlier posting! I could not really care what you think of smokers, but you comments appear at least intemperate...

Fredrik

Fredrik! Are you getting cross about criticism of your habit?

We are talking about a tube of thin paper which is stuffed with the dried, sheredded leaves of a plant and then ignited. The smoke resulting from this miniature bonfire is then inhaled by the user while making strange habitual gestures. Bit odd. No? Just think how many DBLs you could afford over a lifetime of purchasing your stinky weed.

Ah Fred - the truth is out - pubs are in the domain of the smoker and to hell with all others.