Rules are for everyone!!

Rules are indeed for everyone and that includes speed limits - but many seem to regard it as OK to ignore those.

I am still a smoker 2/3 a day not a 20+ smoker but after a stressful Hospital Appointment I can feel the need for a cigarette. I do use e-cigarettes as I do not smoke in my own home or DD's Home (or any-one else's for that matter).

I am hoping to have another go at giving up soon (have to be in the right frame of mind).

I have been advised not to use patches for smoking cessation as I can go several hours without a cigarette, they actually make me dizzy so that would not help me if I was an in-patient. I do agree smoking outside a Hospital Entrance is unacceptable but as I have limited mobility if I'm waiting transport it's difficult to move too far away although I do move as far from doors as I can.

Asthma means you cannot breathe. You struggle for breath. You fear you will never be able to fill your lungs again and will die of suffocation. Asthma sounds like a nothingy little thing, a minor, fussy little condition. It is not. It kills. People genuinely die of asthma from not being able to inhale enough oxygen to live.
Asthma attacks can be triggered by many things - including cigarette smoke. My son, in his thirties, has had to fight for breath because of smokers lighting up where he could not get away in time. It is terrifying. Not just for him, but for anyone who loves him, because one day my fine and lovely son may not be able to draw that vital breath due to the selfish, self-justifying stupidity of people who feel their freedom is being limited by being expected to be considerate of others.
I smoked in my youth. Years ago I got fed up with the addiction running my life and timetable and ditched it. But I was NEVER the sort of smoker who would have lit a fag at the doorway of a hospital!

I have seen people at hospitals outside for a cigarette attached to drips and often also in wheelchairs.
I used to smoke and when my first DC was born I was unable to get out of bed so I was wheeled bed and all into the smoking room.
I have people in my family who are asthmatics and other breathing problems who have been in dire trouble.
I feel that smoking is blamed for far too much. More domestic violence results from alcohol. If you go to the Dr or hospital and admit to smoking every health problem is blamed on smoking. Smokers are not perfect, nor are other annoying types like the devotees to wooden flooring who don't care that they are making so much more noise (starting at 5 a.m.) than those who like carpets or those who go out to work at 6 a.m. and start cars while the retirees just want to sleep till 8 a.m.
Life is about coping with living your own life while others live theirs. I don't like drinkers or drug takers. I cant say much about smoking as I used to smoke myself. I hate noise in the early morning but cant ask my neighbours to go unemployed to allow me to sleep.
Hospitals have a lot more to be concerned about than smokers, they need to stop failed discharges and leaving people in corridors to die and they really need to do something about Hospital Acquired Infections.
It all depends on what is important to each individual
SPF

some of those on trolleys. are literally dying for a fag

Interestingly, the people who complain about not being able to smoke outside hospitals can be the same people who are happy to go on long haul flights and not smoke. I have treated many smokers, and yes it is an addiction, but you don't die of not smoking, and unfair to blame anyone who does not want to inhale your smoke. I used to smoke many years ago, so I know what cravings are, but also know you can get over it within few weeks. I have treated medical staff to help them stop smoking and they say they know they are crazy to smoke when they see the results of smoking. In a few years we will see more evidence of vaping including the 'popcorn' lung. Sounds horrific. Smokers do need to respect non smokers who just don't want second hand smoke. There is plenty of help out there to stop smoking and have a healthier life. Stop defending cigarettes and the real harm they do. Life is more important that a carcinogenic.

I haven't seen any posts on here 'defending cigarettes' Joyfully.

Perhaps some posters, having been long-term smokers themselves, are more aware of how hard it is to give up, but no one has said 'fags are wonderful and stop moaning about them and their toxic fumes'!

I often had to accompany my DM to her Oncology appointments, and was always stunned by the number of in-patients standing outside the main doors, wearing nightwear and dressing gowns, with their oxygen supplies on a trolley next to them, their face mask hanging from it, whilst they filled their lungs with smoke!
I feel the oncologists would have been completely within their rights to refuse treatment to such people. What is the point of trying to cure their cancer if they're going to go outside and poison themselves,
I say this as an ex-smoker, I smoked from the age of sixteen until I was thirty four, so gave up (went cold turkey) almost twenty six years ago!

I gave up smoking 18 years ago. Occasionally I dream I am smoking and wake up horrified. My complaint about smokers is that they don't seem to think cigarette ends are litter and drop them anywhere.

I am at present an ex-smoker who has "lapsed" on too many occasions to count.

I can remember leaving my office one evening and lighting a cigarette on the pavement outside. A second or so later the HR mnanager also left the office (on a busy street in Central London) and ranted about me polluting her air. I think it's totally ridiculous that people make such a fuss about smokers in the street when they are surrounded by cars, vans, lorries and all manner of other pollutants.

I do understand why hospitals do not wish to facilitate smokers, but I also feel sorry for those whose way of coping with stress is to light up.

You were outside right? so not sure why you are making such a big deal about this. Do you know that fumes from one car is more damaging to your lungs. Think I'd tell you what to do too.

Oh and i also smoke, its my choice and will continue to as long as I like. Did you actually know that the amount of tax I pay on my fags amounts to paying for my treatment on the NHS and another non smoker?

So in actual fact Im paying for you to moan at me in a non enclosed environment. I would actually tell you to get lost and move away if you didn't like it.

Both my colleagues smoked and took regular breaks outside, a school, leaving me to cover. How many extra hours I worked I do not know. This went on during all my working life in some form or other.

In Canada you are not allowed to smoke for 6m outside any building, even cafes with outside seats. This allows the rest of us to sit outside it we wish.

I also think it is rude that those on e cigs blow yards of smoke in your face. I thought e cigs were supposed to help you give up but it is just a replacement and the tobacco companies can still earn their profits.

When one of the two colleagues husbands died of lung cancer both of them gave up immediately and never touched them again. I think it takes a serious shock and you have to do it immediately and stick to it.

I would like to ask the O/P , if smoke from one cigarette ,out doors, made you cough do you hive to avoid busy roads because of exhaust fumes?

Marissa, e-cigs do not produce smoke, as I mentioned in one of my previous posts. They produce the same kind of vapour as one gets from boiling water. E-cigs do actually help smokers to give up. It is over 3 years since I had a cigarette, having failed to stop numerous times using other methods. Neither are e-cigs produced by the tobacco companies, they are a different product from actual cigarettes.

Anniebach - yes I do. I live in a seaside village and only go into nearest city occasionally with a reliever inhaler in my bag. (That's after a morning medication regime which includes 2 further inhalers and 2 other asthma related drugs) I also carry a portable nebuliser in the car. Yes, I have a car myself but choose my vehicle carefully. I would be housebound without one. I will suffer for a couple of days after town visits with wheezing, breathlessness and cough. I have just finished my third consecutive course of antibiotics to clear my last infection. I spent all of last autumn into winter fighting an antibiotic resistant bacterial lung colonisation. The amount of steroids I have had to take means I have now developed osteoporosis.

stillaliveandkicking - I presume charitable isn't your middle name, not so much re bringing money into this thread, but your attitude. You also make the assumption that I can/could move away from the smoke. Perhaps a little extra thought wouldn't go amiss??

No, I do not appreciate smoke being blown in my face.

Good post Katek

Someone I know was working recently on the vascular wards of a big hospital. Every single person on those two wards was there because they were/are smokers. Every single one. Imagine how much that was costing the NHS, I bet even the cigarette tax they'd paid would not cover the total cost of their lifetime care.

It's also now know that the effects of smoking is visited upon our grandchildren. It's called epigenetics. Basically, being the child of someone who smoked during pregnancy means that baby's future eggs have been altered adversely and those eggs will develop into babies that have a tendency towards asthma. Hence all four of my children are asthmatic probably because my mother smoked in pregnancy.

I can't blame her because in the early 1950's none of this was known but it's a salutary lesson that we don't know all the long term effects even today. She gave up smoking herself when my DC were small as they didn't like the way she smelt.

Thankfully statistics show that smokers are a dying breed. Fewer people smoke than ever before.

My smoking from age 23 to 56 was probably the main reason for my clogged arteries. Leading to heart problems.
Yet at follow-up talks to those of us who had just had stents put in, about 5 out of 10 people still smoked. They were lectured by the nurse, "in some countries they wouldn't treat you until you stopped."

I have never smoked myself but I am well aware of it being an addiction as both my parents and late husband smoked although they all gave up. My dad gave up immediately after he had a strange turn caused by extremely high blood pressure when he hallucinated and saw his estranged brother as a young boy. He never smoked again after the doctors said it could kill him. He was in his early 50s and smoked since he was 11 up to 40-60 a day. Mum developed COPD and gave up immediately when told and she had smoked for over 40 years about the same a day.
My husband gave up in August 2014 before a major operation. The op caused a heart attack leading to heart failure. He never smoked again but always said he missed smoking. He died last September at 51. Yet my mum and dad have become totally anti-smoking and complain about people who smoke outside buildings.

I have NEVER smoked and hate the smell of it. My parents, however, smoked like chimneys and now my eldest sister (who has never smoked) has COPD and the nurse says it is probably because of our parents bad habits. My dad dies at 58 of a heart attack and my mum died of the same at age 65

I was out recently with a friend who has a life limiting lung disease - it seemed everywhere we went there were smokers, even in enclosed areas (yes I know that's against the law but the smokers seemed to think there was safety in numbers). Can someone tell me why smokers light up and hold the cigarette away from themselves but in such a way as the smoke goes in the face of anyone standing around them. Also, if the OP was already standing in an area why should she be the one to move when some addict arrives and decides to light up next to her.

I have never smoked However I think it is easy to blame smokers for using up NHS resources. Others are addicted to eating too much and obesity causes endless health problems such as diabetes and requirements for new hips and knees. Others take little exercise. None of us are perfect and we need to show more understanding of others weaknesses.

I used to smoke -from the age of about 15 until I was pregnant at 20 (yes a child bride!) This puts me in the same category as all successful people- a very superior one!!! if I can do it why can't you.
Of course people should obey the rules, you can put these ignorant women into the same group that use disabled parking bays and park on pavements so mums with babies and the disabled can't pass. But that's what they are "simply stupid".
In defence of smokers, I do think that any building, that can,should have a smoking shed so smokers can have some respite from our weather.
I am a little wary of complaining about smokers costing us too much. They pay a huge amount of tax on their habit and die early so we save on pensions.
I'm sure one of you out there has the figures.