No Smoking in Pubs, Clubs, Restaurants and the Workplace
Hypocrisy: It is most hypocritical for society to condemn consenting adults for the voluntary use of social and recreational drugs, where they are harming no others in the process, and yet force children and adults alike to have to involuntarily breathe cigarette smoke in pubs, clubs and restaurants. In this instance, people are not choosing to smoke of their own freewill, they are being forced to by the current law, or lack of it. This is a form of abuse and it can hardly be seen as fair that consenting adults are penalised on the one hand for taking drugs when it is their choice, when on the other hand society is forcing people to breathe poisons in the form of tobacco smoke against their will. It is way past time that the situation was managed to the fairness of everyone. Nobody is saying don't smoke if you want to, but go outside and have a puff, you never know, it may even help you cut down. Nowadays there are many more non-smokers than smokers. I know for a fact that many non-smokers avoid going into pubs because they don't like the smoky atmosphere. After all, you can go into a pub and choose not to drink alcohol, why should you then be forced to smoke. To say nothing of being made to smell awful. People pay out considerable amounts of money for perfumes and aftershaves and then end up smelling of stale cigarette smoke.
A General Viewpoint: I have no problem with people smoking whatsoever, however, it would be nice to think that in this day and age that non-smoking people could work, play, eat and drink in a smoke free environment. I know for a fact that, when I was a smoker, I did not mind in the least keeping my smoking to myself and to other smokers and not subjecting children and non-smokers to unnecessary discomfort and health risk. This should really be the fashion now.
Trying To Give Up? It's not easy to give up smoking, that's for sure! However, it is certainly not made any easier by the fact that everyone around you is still smoking when you go in the pub. People who are trying to quit don't stand a chance when they are forced to breathe in everyone else's smoke and people are offering them cigarettes.
Bad Wind: You still get some people travelling on trains that insist on smoking in the non-smoking carriage. I just wonder what they would have to say if somebody with a case of really bad wind and sat next to them, expelling it in their space. Presumably they would just sit there and put up with it, just like they expect everyone else to. Although perhaps unpleasant, the irony is that breathing in someone else's bad wind is far less poisonous and damaging to a person than breathing in somebody else's tobacco smoke. Even when you're trying to eat in a restaurant you have to suffer it. You get a person coming in and having a smoke while they are waiting for their food and then they have another one afterwards, and you're trying to enjoy your meal and getting fogged out in the process. Likewise, I wonder what their reaction would be if you sat next to them blowing off and making a foul smell all through their meal? Sound familiar? Because that's what smokers do to non-smokers all the time!
A Musician's Viewpoint: I work in pubs as a musician at the weekends and I no longer smoke. I smoked tobacco for many years of my life, since I was a boy in fact. I gave it up in my early thirties after experiencing chest pain, which came on every time I had a smoke. Giving up smoking was the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life. Nevertheless, the heart pain then cleared and all the time I am breathing relatively fresh air I have no problem. However, after a long weekend of working in the pubs the chest pain can come back, this is not my doing and not of my choice, it is because, while I am at work, I am forced to breathe other people's smoke. The irony is, that although I personally gave up smoking in time, the fact that others still smoke around me means that I could still pop my clogs as a result! Would that be any form of crime? Manslaughter perhaps? I personally have no objection to people enjoying a smoke, I've had my time of it, and I don't have to work in the pubs, I choose to, however, it would be nice to think that in this day and age we can start getting it right! Sometimes the air is so bad when you go into a pub that it can make you reach if you are not used to it. A few years ago I developed problems with my vocal chords that adversely affected my singing ability, some people think that the smoky environments were a considerable contributory factor. I don't know, neither does my doctor, but I don't suppose it helped. Did Roy Castle die for nothing?
Finally Implemented 1st July 2007