Smoking Ban

[Marmora Man]

As a life long non smoker but also libertarian I was in two minds about the ban. Good to enjoy a quiet pint / meal in a smoke free atmosphere but bad that it needed a new, repressive law to make it happen.

In practice it seems to be going well except that instead of stopping smoking, smokers instead filled the pub gardens and attractive outside tables in restaurants. A neat illustration of the law of unintended consequences.

Now that autumn is here, and winter not far away, how will smokers cope and will the ban start to affect smoking habits and prevalence?

[SeanMacGabhann]

I'm not sure about unintended consequence MM - enough countries had done it for the effects to be foreseen.

I know the forum birthday drinks would have been very different if smoking was still allowed. In other countries the onset of colder weather has meant increased use of gas heaters (which is another argument but not one for here maybe) but in Ireland for example where several years have passed since the introducion of the ban, my family of heavy smokers continue to go to pubs but smoke far less.

The pub trade in Ireland is in decline generally and while many publicans would lay the blame at the door of the smoking-ban, the trend had been downward for some time

[citizenED]

Rather like you, MM, I was in two minds re the ban. In the past the equation was rather easy - something like this "i don't exactly like you puffing smoke in my face, but you're a interesting person and I will stick around to hear what you say despite it." Now I don't have that option. When interesting smoker leaves for fag and I'm left wondering whether I go outside to join them.

citizen

[Jah Lush]

In a few places in Europe, where a ban was installed and clearly didn't work I've heard it's been said that they have introduced a choice for publicans whether their bar/restaurants is a smoking or no smoking, which I think is much fairer than having it forced upon you.

In some places like Turkey for instance, where my sister and brother-in-law have just returned they have a smoking room set aside. Needless to say the smokers filled the places out.

Being a regular barfly and someone who enjoys smoking I am dreading the winter where I will have to slip out into the pouring rain and freezing cold just so I can indulge in one of life's little luxuries.

Where I work in Canary Wharf you can't even smoke on the Canada Square lawn and they have security guards to enforce this. To enforce what? Clean air in the outdoors!

I'm find it absolutely reprehensible and quite ridiculous that I can now get arrested and gain a criminal record for smoking a cigarette in public.

[BarryRoad]

I quit on June 1st, a month before the ban.

CitizenED makes an interesting point, and I'd like to let you all know that I still take smokers' breaks at work (I just don't do any smoking, why should I lose that break just because I don't smoke?!) and go outside with my smoker friends at the pub when they go out for one.

I don't think it'll be a massive issue for people when winter really rolls around. Lots of pubs and bars have awnings to keep the rain away, and when I was a smoker and visited Norway in the dead of winter I didn't have any problem going out for 5 minutes to smoke. I guess you're already kind of used to the cold and a few minutes of shivering isn't all too bad.

If you were the only one going out for a cigarette, it might be different, because being really cold AND lonely is another story altogether.

That's what I reckon :-)

Bazzer.

[lozzyloz]

Jah if you're happy to clog up your lungs, fill your body with carcinogens and choke up your arteries then surely flirting with pneumonia and sudden hypothermia can only heighten the pleasure!

I worked in a non smoking building in Moscow and having a cig in -30c was just heaven.

[Jah Lush]

I'm happy to put into my body just what I damned well please and f**k the consequences. I may well fill up my arteries with nictotine but then I empty them again with alcohol. Also, it's very windy where I work and when I pop out for a cigarette by the time I've had a few drags the damned thing has withered away down to the tip.