Rules are for everyone!!

I think I shall take up a pipe!

Simply because smokers ( maybe patients, staff, visitors) want a cigarette in the grounds of a hospital, they are banned because of leaving cig butts ?Bins can be provided.This doesn't seem reasonable to me at all.If they are desperate for a smoke(this could particularly apply to visitors, who are staying all day with relatives who are patients) why not smoke out in the fresh air, it's not harming anyone else.
Am not a smoker, but it seems that along with sensible measures ( banning smoking inside hospitals, schools, cinemas, pubs etc) we have become too draconian, in banning smoking outside.

Lived in Oslo for a while and I was shocked at the number of smokers there. I don't think I knew anyone who smoked in Oxford and I lived there for twenty years. Re the people can always move away thing... not always, not if you're down wind of a smoker and s/he's at the windward end of the platform. This happened a few times. I'm perfectly mobile (some people are not) but the smoker needed to be at the leeward end of the platform not to inconvenience non-smokers. Just saying. Consideration for others and all that.

Whitewave, I was not advocating that smoking should be allowed on the wards or near to hospital staff, only that the hospitals should have catered for the needs of smokers (some of whom are hospital staff themselves anyway), by providing somewhere where the smoke was not a danger to anyone else and which would alleviate the stress of ill patients. Why not a room with a powerful extractor fan? My point is that a blanket ban has caused unnecessary stress in situations where stress should be alleviated.

My reaction too !!

oh dear I shouldn't laugh!!!

If it just affected the smoker it would be bad enough , but it is everyone round them that suffers too , I know all about the addiction side of things , but surely the offer of patches or whatever should help with that ? I do remember reading about smokers blowing themselves to Kingdom Come by smoking through their Oxygen Mask !!

I know antonia I gave up smoking in 1981 New Years Eve 20 a day habit. I still very occasionally dream of smoking. But I would never encourage a single soul or be sympathetic to someone who wants to smoke in a hospital.

Whitewave, I am sorry for your loss and I can quite see why you have your point of view. However, for many people the stress of stopping smoking doesn't ever go away. I have heard of people still getting withdrawal symptoms ten or more years after giving up. I, for one, would not have been able to cope with that. Giving up smoking is not a process that lasts a few hours and then goes away.

My father smoked since he was 14 and eventually died from COPD. I have suffered from chronic lung disease since I was 21, partly as a result of living in a smoked filled home and being subjected to the poisonous fumes on a daily basis. Even after I spent six weeks in intensive care with lung problems, he continued to smoke in front of me. Either he didn't understand the consequences or was so addicted he couldn't give up, despite the fact he was dying. No-one should be exposed to this poison and certainly not outside a hospital. It is totally selfish. I have had to pass people sneaking a sly fag on the way to a respiratory clinic and had to use my inhaler as a result.

I don't know what other areas do, but our hospital offers help with smoking cessation for inpatients and issues free nicotine patches. It has to be all or nothing, you can't say it's acceptable to smoke when you're already ill. Stress of not smoking isn't going to kill you-smoking can.

Phoenix, I find it interesting that you still crave a 'real' cigarette. For myself, I have no wish to go back to smoking and I suspect that if I were to try one I would find it horrible. I have been on 18 nicotine for 3 years now and have only just this week reduced it to 12. My aim is to eventually get to zero. If, but whether I will achieve that I'm not sure. For me, I am just so pleased to have given up the analogues.

My father and mother in law died from the affects of smoking. If it meant that they had to suffer stress whilst stopping smoking, but had been given extra years of life I know exactly what I would have chosen for them.
What a chance too to stop!! I say bring it on.

Nicotine itself is not the killer in cigarettes, it is the tar and other carciogenics. This is why millions of ex smokers, like myself, have been able to quit smoking by changing to an e-cig. We get the nicotine fix without the carciogenics.
I am not saying that the medical profession should encourage smoking, only that they should take human nature into account, and not force people into a situation where they are already ill and feeling terrible, and then put them through the agony of withdrawal symptoms on top of that. They should at least allow them to smoke somewhere, as stress itself is a huge factor in illness. To deliberately add to stress is counter productive.

Why on earth would the medical profession, who see the end result of nicotine addiction, and watch people die painful and often long drawn out deaths encourage it anywhere on the premises?

Are you saying that smokers can't wait 10 minutes for a fag Ana? Surely that's not too long a wait? Just looked up some stats-our area had 5000 hospital admissions last year for smoking related issues at a cost of £46 million. 1000 of these admissions resulted in deaths. Surely if we're trying to improve the health of the population the NHS has to lead from the front?

It is now a year since I last had a cigarette.

I still use a vape thing, and could happily mug any of the students smoking outside for a "proper" cigarette!

I even have dreams about smoking and cigarettes, I could go back to it tomorrow, but I won't.

I have to add that I've only ever met one person who had a portable ashtray which they carried around.

Because they are messy buggers and drop their fag ends where they stand. I was married to one and used to feel the blood pressure rise when an dead cigar was thrown away.

I am not a smoker but don't understand why smokers can't smoke in the grounds, what is the logic behind it?

So many hospitals have the 'no smoking' rule within the grounds of the building, even though it might take you at least 10 minutes to walk from the entrance to your car, or the outside road.

Nicotine is a deadly poison. People exposed to it die. If you choose to expose yourself , you should do so where it affects no one else. Hospitals are not the place for nicotine.

Was the smoking ban introduced as a penance ? or a punishment ? or to protect the health of the staff .............

I can quite understand that it was her attitude that you found annoying Katek, I was putting across the point of view of a smoker. I think that hospitals should have addressed the problem of where people could smoke, without inconveniencing non smokers, instead of introducing a blanket ban that was always going to cause problems and lead to disputes. Look at the number of pubs that have now closed because their former clientele couldn't enjoy a drink and a smoke at the same time. Sledgehammer to crack a nut comes to mind.

On the contrary Antonia I understand the desperation of the smoker only too well. I smoked until I was 50 and smoking is part of the reason I have chest problems now. Thank god I stopped, I may not have been here if I hadn't. I also saw DH going through the torments of the damned when he was forced into going cold turkey after his heart attack. I hope I was a considerate smoker and I certainly wouldn't have smoked in a no smoking area. (Too law abiding!) The lady in question was within 2 minutes of the gates-she couid surely have waited until she was out of the grounds. It was her 'couldn't care less' attitude that got me, not any kind of desperation.