I wasn’t 18 when smokings was banned in bars and pubs e.t.c, and have no memory of people smoking indoors. But I came across this article (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest/contributers/article1913299.ece ) recently. To quote “In 15 months the smoking ban has tilted society completely the other way. Where once there was an acceptance of fug, there is intolerance of anything but clean air …. So clean is the air now, that being exposed to the smell of cigarettes is a physical shock. I do not exaggerate … without protest these [smoking] shelters have subsequently been banned at all hospitals. Councils have stopped staff smoking outside offices, depots and schools”. Another source quotes cancer council NSW (Australia) tobacco control manager Wendy Oakes saying “when I first started working on smoke-free pubs … people use to say ‘oh, the smokers need somewhere to go’ but now they say ‘can’t you stop them smoking outside as well because that’s where I want to sit’”
In Australia and New Zealand, smoking is now banned everywhere inddors (bar your own home) and in some beaches and parks, and outside the entrances to some buildings, and there are calls to ban it in outdoor dining and drinking areas.
Do you agree with the above saying the ban has changed the social acceptability of, and public attitudes towards smoking?
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
smoking is getting out of style
when they banned it it didnt stop my parents from stopping, or me from starting
we just had to go on vaction to places that aloud smoking, like las vegas
i quit though its stupid, expensive, and unattractive
Here in the USA, the smoking ban in public places has not changed peoples’ views.. It changed BECAUSE OF people’s views…
We all voted on it. So many people die of cancer and secondhand smoke, that it was only inevitable that change was going to happen. There is a loophole in the law here in Florida that says if club/pub owners can prove a significant damaged business income, then they can allow smoking in their clubs. These days, smoking is getting impossible just based on the price of the taxes placed on tobacco. One pack of 20 cigarettes now costs over $10.00 in Florida! The increased cost is supposedly to collect funds to support the rising toll on the healthcare system from people suffering tobacco-related illnesses like cancer, emphysema, heart disease, etc. I don’t know of a single club where the owner has gone to court to fight the law change. There may be some, but they’re not making the news. Majority rules a democracy, and the People have spoken. Smelling like an old ashtray does not make meals more enjoyable, and it’s kind of pointless and extremely hypocritical for smokers to go outside the door of the CHEMOTHERAPY CENTER to try to puff their cancer sticks in peace!
I’ve heard it said that there is also a proposed ban on smoking in your own automobiles with any children present inside. As a mother, a nonsmoker, a healthcare worker, and someone who has watched a loved one die of cancer, I wholeheartedly support that as well.
i would say yes
Yes and it drives me crazy!
As a smoker I was obviously a bit put out having to go outside in the cold to have a fag. However I also understand that it’s not nice to go home from a night out stinking of stale smoke.
At work we used to have a smoking room which was attached to the main break room but was closed off from everyone else. If anyone who didn’t smoke came to sit in there, that was their choice.
Now we have a shelter outside and the same people who came to sit in the room are now complaining that they have to walk past us and it smells. It takes about 3 seconds to walk past!
These people complain that they have to breathe in our smoke and yet in the summer they’re all dying to come and sit in the shelter to get some sun.
I understand the ban, I don’t want people smoking in a restaurant whilst I’m eating. But if smokers get a separate enclosed room then I don’t see that it matters. There should be a choice.
And the way some people have changed their attitude towards smokers is that they have simply become more hypocritical as far as I’m concerned.
I understand the dangers of smoking but it’s my choice. As long as smoking is legal there needs to be somewhere for smokers to be. We pay our taxes like everyone else and the tax on cigs is massive so we contribute a lot. What would happen if we all quit? People would complain that they had to pay more tax on other stuff.
We have pubs for people to drink in and I’ll bet that more people get hurt in drunken fights than by passive smoking in a night. There is no limit on the amount of drinks you can have in this country and every night people are taken to hospital for binging. Where’s the health ban for that?
*Edit* After reading one of the other answers I wanted to add that smoking around children is completely unforgivable. I always try to be considerate of others and if I’m waiting for a bus or something and someone stands near me with a child I will put my cigarette out. When I see parents smoking over pushchairs or women smoking whilst pregnant it disgusts me.
Children have no choice in that situation and smoking is all about choice.
amen wendy oates. its seems like you have to leave the fuckin earth to smoke a damn cigarette. its like we’ve become second class citizens. in west Virginia where i went to school for awhile they were tryin to make it illegal to smoke in your car! that thing about in your own home in new zealand and Australia, ridiculous. i can understand not smoking indoors at public places, but private properties and out side? c’mon.
I am a smoker, it doesn’t bother me that I have to smoke outside.. it makes you smoke less. it saves me money coz I dont go out as often anymore…