What a stuppid law???????????

@ Winky

IME - it brings the scroungers out and under agers asking you to go in the shop for em on passing every minute? Where i live it's littered with em. Obviously i say no but only to end up being verbally abused!!

I'm fed up with it.

Utter bollocks. Apart from the well known health issues have you no sense of smell or taste?

Sorry you'll have to explain.

If I had the power I would double the tax on cigarettes every month for a year then I would ban them completely.  I don't give a toss what anyone else thinks. Next I would set about the tobacco companies and make them pay every penny of their ill-gotten gains to treat the victims of smoking related diseases. The tobacco companies know that smoking kills and generally educated people know this so they target the third world. They are totally evil. I would ban any alcohol dressed up as a soft drink and make it as hard as I could for anyone under 18 to buy any. The parents of children admitted to hospitals for being legless should pay the costs. People bragging about how drunk they got over the weekend are stupid and childish. 

You would probably end up being assassinated (excuse the irony) by some drunk smoke craving sniper.

Nah, if he was drunk and high on a nicotine fix he's probably gonna miss...

Oh my, PLENTY of hot buttons here....

Smoke => There is no safe amount of cigarette smoke, either directly inhaled or second hand.  It is poison, and people who smoke in a public space, or who willfully expose non-smokers to their filthy habit are contemptible IMO.

Perfume => I hate the smells, and wish more women (ditto for men's cologne) were immune to the absurd advertising campaigns.   But my biggest gripe about perfume is the use of animals for testing.  Let's splash a bunch of this noxious crap in a dog's eyes and see what happens.  Disgusting stuff.

Annoying kids => Well, until you have your own (or until you are, say, a close Uncle or Godfather), it is all too easy to generalize here.   I used to like the dog analogy -- there are no bad dogs, only bad owners.   There are plenty of people who should never have become parents, and their kids reflect this truth.  Thing is, I know of many wonderful parents whose kids, for no reason, still have melt-downs.   It is just part of being a kid, and honestly, even at their worst moments, I do not kids annoying at all.

A huge carbon footprint => As time goes on, this ranks right up there with second hand smoke.  Selfishness and greed will lead to a premature end to this planet's habitability and yet, so many still have there head in the sand!   I believe we are well past the point of needing a carbon tax, or cap-and-trade.  But if the right-wing wackos have their way here in the US, we will have 8 more years of ignoring this "inconvenient" truth.

Business you may own that poisons our water => Republican Presidential candidates here in the US are now pledging to dismantle the EPA as a "job killing bureaucracy".  Just what we need, a return to the smelly ol' 1950's.  What's next...I know, how we bring back DDT for another try?

Your disgusting body odor => Well, it's better than perfume IMO.

Hook

There  were 2 main factors driving all the moves against tobacco;

1. The damage it does to those who themselves smoke. Don't believe any of the arguments that the revenue from tobacco pays for the cost of treating people from smoking related diseases on the NHS; it doesn't so we all pay.

2. Secondary smoking. Once the full extent of the effects of secondary smoking became apparent, the case for eliminating smoking from public indoor environments was incontrovertible.

Alongside this are strenuous efforts to help people quit with clinics, helplines, nicotine replacement therapy etc etc.

Seconded with Richard.

My view is they should ban all exposure from somoking not just in drips and drabs.

The way the law is now is IMHO like a patchwork quilt and does nothing to hide exposure from the young ones. It's all a bit of a mess really . . .

People stood outside of public enclosed areas is doing nothing apart from making our streets filthy and uncouth and the kids thinking, i know...let's ask them? if not we'll raid those outside ashtrays.

regards,

Steve

Achievement-wise, it's a slightly depressing thought, but I think that stopping smoking is the best single thing I have ever done.

No-one has ever regretted stopping smoking. There cannot be many things in life of which that is true.

AH, but you're missing the very reason that cigarettes are not banned by your politicians, irrespective of which parties they are from - the tax revenue is just too enticing.  Their trick is to raise it just high enough to get the maximum revenue - you actually think they give a flip about anyone's health? (unless of course the attitude is connected to getting a vote or two.)

Dunno, I saw some figures which said excise on tobacco in 2009 was £8bn and estimated cost to NHS was £5bn in the same year - given there's bound to be a number of illnesses and deaths caused indirectly through smoking or directly through passive smoking, I wonder if it's about parity? No idea as to current facts though.

Trouble is, even if they banned smoking and ceased collecting revenue from it, existing smokers would still be needing care etc. and thereby be a financial burden for years yet. Maybe smokers should pay higher NI and pay for an enforced annual health check too, prevention being better than cure and all that...Or just nail 'em to a cross?