Rules are for everyone!!

I bet the pigs were unimpressed.

I remember that well Elegran as I was 12 and in a pig sty at the time ( t'pigs were gambolling about in the field) and I was with two friends.One of them had a Woodbine and a box of matches, and we were all very excited by our naughtiness.Good grief, it was disgusting but we all pretended to enjoy it while feeling sick.

Perhaps you should have given one ladylike gasp and passed out gracefully at the feet of the smokers, Katek. Fighting for breath, coughing, and trying to dispel the gases that were choking you is SO theatrical and melodramatic!

Smokers would do well to remember their very first ciggie before they allow their smoke into the lungs of non-smokers - you know, the one that made you splutter and gasp as your throat burned and your eyes watered, and you felt sick and maybe even threw up. That was before your body became addicted, stopped reacting and accepted the effects as normal.

f77ms - I can assure you that I do not 'hand flap' or over exaggerate coughing. Regardless of the rights/wrongs of smokers/non smokers the fact remains that smoking is prohibited in the area in which I was standing. I should not have felt I had to move or comment. Rules is rules.

I am so glad I have never smoked as I don't know how anyone could possibly afford it. I can totally appreciate that it is an addiction and must be very hard to give up, even when you might desperately want to.

I've also noticed the tendency for smokers to hold the cigarette away from themselves sunseeker (presumably so the smoke doesn't go all over them or waft in their faces) with no consideration whatsoever for the people sitting/standing beside them

I am an x smoker , 3 years since I had a ciggy . Vaping is not harmful , only emits water vapour etc but sometimes has a flavour included which has a smell . The hand fanning , over exaggerated coughing brigade really get on my nerves , car exhausts emit much nastier , cough inducing vapours than cigarettes which never seem to affect those people in the same way .

Last weekend we stayed in a Premier Inn. The notice in the rooms which previously said Strictly no smoking now says Strictly no smoking or vaping. They must have their reasons. The smoke detectors will detect either. They wouldn't detect water vapour surely?

Argh I'm so fed up of people saying that passive vaping is just water vapour

It's not! if it was people wouldn't do it!
It doesn't smell like water vapour
It doesn't feel like water vapour when I pass someone vaping and it catches me right at the back of my throat
it doesn't smell like water vapour

What annoys me about vaping is that people do it in situations where it would be rude to smoke, and if you move away they bark "it's just water vapour"

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.

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 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 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 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.

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."

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.

Good post Katek

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.