Stubbing out smokers
It’s jazz festival time and a good day to relax in the sun soaking up the sounds and the rays. Trying to find somewhere nice to sit by the lake today, I had to wade through a sea of cigarette butts on the shoreline. Which got me thinking.
One of the pleasures of living in New Zealand is its recently introduced smoking laws. Smoking is not allowed in bars and restaurants, and there’s none of this foolish ’smokers room’ nonsense proposed for England. After a night out in Queenstown clothes still smell fresh, or at least of beer rather than fags, and passive smoking is history.
But… I wonder if things are the wrong way round. As a non-smoker – and as somebody who has trouble understanding why you’d want to start smoking when all the evidence points to its downsides, perhaps I’m just not cool enough – the places where I find smoking most annoying and intrusive are outside. Walking down the street behind a smoker and smelling their second hand smoke is foul, those who leave cigarete butts on the beach or next to the lake are dirty and socially irresponsible. (What a bloody whinger I am.)
On the other hand, I choose to go into a pub and sit in the company of smokers, and most places provide non-smoking areas if serving food. Banning smoking in pubs will probably have public health benefits but it won’t stop littering and my quickened step past that unfit smoker dawdling along the pavement.
Shouldn’t smoking be banned outside rather than in?
4 Responses to “Stubbing out smokers”
1 Chris 22 October 2005 @ 1:21 pm
It should not be banned at all!
I am not a smoker, either, with the odd Cuban exception, but this whole banning business is a limitation on personal freedom. Next thing, not washing or using the wrong brand of deodorant will be banned as well, right?
2 Gareth 22 November 2005 @ 3:34 am
Aeroplanes should be banned, particularly outside. Nothing more annoying than them flying around the sky all day.
3 Joel 23 November 2005 @ 5:15 am
I’ve just seen Chris’s comment. Yes, I think both not washing up and the wrong brand of deoderant should also be banned as they each negatively affect my life in different but significant ways!
But seriously, smoking is a health issue and I don’t see why I should suffer from the addictions of others. Bloody libertarians.
4 Rob Allison 12 January 2006 @ 3:16 pm
Does this now mean the consumption of foodstuffs eg. sweets, chewing gum, pies etc. should also be confined to indoor spaces. Littering is littering, it just happens cigarettes are deemed more damaging to our health than the artery clogging delights we all enjoy!
On the same subject, following countries such as Brazil, the government is considering increasing the gravity of the warning on cigarette packets to include pictures of cancerous tongues and lungs. It must then follow that frozen chip packets, and fat ridden ready meals should display images of clogged arteries, gall stones, and poisoned livers! Illness directly connected to being overweight is the single greatest strain on the NHS, meaning your quality of healthcare is being undermined by these fatties! (sorry little over the top!)
I agree smoking is bad, eating fatty foods is bad – i do both. But it is our choice, it is governments’ responsibility to eductate, and trust the poplulation.
Leave a Reply