Brendan Hughes

Make your views known - other people are!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3638406.stm

imlach

One place they do need to restrict it is outside maternity wards!! At the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh, the chav scum pregnant mothers stand outside with the huge bumps, and smoke outside the assisted fertility department.....ie, where childless couples are getting help, the last thing they need to see is chav scum fagging away!!

It really is pitiful to watch....group of preggers mothers all lighting up for each other etc (some in wheelchairs, some on drips).

A disgrace.

PS Saw a silver Scoob up there the other day with SIDC stickers plastered all over it parked just outside Simpsons....anyone here giving birth?

sti-04!!

Imlach - I agree disgusting !!

OllyK

Wonder if the questionnaire was worded like along the same lines as ones about speed cameras:

1) Would you prefer to:
a) Die of cancer
b) See smoking in public banned

Not much of a choice really.

Brendan Hughes

Now pubs are implementing something voluntarily in England...

http://society.guardian.co.uk/public...=ticker-103704

Geezer

I think they should ban it in public places. However, Gallagher have just announced a big drop in sales in Ireland, so if we follow suit, where do you think HM Treasury is gonna get the extra revenue?

Geezer

sillysi

They could take it from the NHS who will be saving millions not having to treat so many smokers.

Brendan Hughes

<takes out organic popcorn, starts munching>

lightning101

And how do we supplement the income of the thousands of NHS employees who will be made redundant, due to all the healthy non-smoking, safe driving modern members of society.

Jye

I always smoke my grass indoors

Jerome

Ah but a percentage of these ex-smokers will become lard-***** and the cost to the NHS will increase and no-redundancies. The tax drop because of the reduction in revenue from tobacco tax can be made up from fast-food tax. All the bars that haven't closed, due to a drop in business, will have lovely fresh air for both patrons to breath. Utopia!

Jye

As these same patrons destroy their liver and every other organ in their body with alcohol

lightning101

If we can happily let them ban smoking, what about banning fast food and alchohol on the same grounds - i.e. its killing us.


As we are also quite happy to create anough revenue to pay for speed cameras at £30,000 a pop, I doubt anyone will give a toss until we are a completely nannied society.

We live in a free country - "free" to do what we are told.

ozzy

no country is complete "free". We have laws and rules just like everywhere else. They're free to carry arms in the US and look at how quiet their gun-related crimes are

Nanny-society my @rse. No wonder the Ozzies call us whinging poms.

As a non-smoker, I'm all up for banning it in public. Disgusting habit that gives you cancer. People only enjoy it because it's an addictive drug and nothing to do with their personal liberties.

If you can't smoke, you could always try drinking until your liver fails.

sillysi

The NHS will still be busy and the nurses will be needed, they will be able to help all the poor buggers who are on the waiting lists for non-smoking related problems.

Claudius

"The British Beer and Pub Association estimates a ban would see 5,000 pubs across the UK close and the loss of 75,000 jobs.

The price tag? £3.5bn."


Probably not too much for the UK government to handle as they can afford to chase non-existent WOMD in Irak and waste money on all sorts of things anyway.

bigsinky

do i detect a smidgen of cynicism there claudius

King RA

don't you mean EYERACK??

Ringpeas

They are not trying to ban smoking, just smoking in public.

Second hand smoke is discusting, do it at home if you must.

logiclee

You are missing the point.

Drink or eat yourself to death is fine by me as it doesn't affect my health. Smoking affects the health of others as well as the smoker and thats the big issue.

Only 29% of the UK population smoke, why should the vast majority of people have to put up with the disgusting smell and health risks when they go out?
Due to medical advice I can't go out myself other than to non-smoking restraunts and some pubs, the total ban can't come soon enough.

Cheers
Lee

lightning101

I don't smoke though - I'd just like the choice to be able to do these things if I so choose.


Did anyone notice that guiness and murphy's are suing the irish government for loss of business - Up to 104,000 jobs could go.

lightning101

And yes other people being drunk and obese - does affect me, i.e. they get drunk and stab me to death or their wife gets battered.


Obese people are taking up a large proportion of the hospital waiting lists so they effect my health should I need to go into hospital.

logiclee

Harming someone by stabbing them or battering them is already illegal. Harming someone with passive smoking in a pub is not yet a criminal offence.

As for obese people taking up hospital beds, well obesety is a problem and it's rightly being tackled but the cost to the NHS is only a proportion of that for smoking. And as for taking up beds, I was recently on a Cardiac Ward with 45 beds which were all full of people who were suffeng from some form of heart disease, many had suffered heart attacks and strokes.
Out of the 45 patients only one didn't smoke and that was myself.
So from a proportion of the population of 29% smokers the smokers were occupying 44 out of 45 beds. The ward was full and patients were being put on non-cardiac care wards without the proper care and monitoring.
Through my 12 weeks of Cardiac Rehabilitation I met 50 or so different people at different stages of recovery. I only met one other non-smoker.

I'm not suggesting we don't treat smokers with heart disease but the sooner we can get rid of smoking and passive smoking the better. The NHS is clogged up with smoking related illnesses just like the smokers arteries.

Cheers
Lee

logiclee

I would like the choice to go to pubs but the foul smokey air affects my health.

A lot has been said about the drop in trade of 15% in Ireland. Ireland was always going to be a tough one as the traditional pub is still very popular, the mainland UK however is moving towards a more family oriented pub culture so the immediate affects will not be as severe.
Most country's that have a ban in place have found the drop of in initial trade is replaced after around a year with people enjoying the cleaner atmosphere. This has actually led to a boom in New York with more people employed in the trade now than before the smoking ban.

In the UK the evidence is already taking shape, this is from todays newspaper.........

A PUB which has already banned smoking has seen its profits soar.

Drinkers are flocking to the smoke-free boozer and takings are up by £3,500 a week, delighted landlord David Sear said.

When it was revealed 22,000 other pubs were about to ban cigarettes, there were fears the move would hit trade.

But at the Warton Arms, in Woodmansey, near Beverley, East Yorkshire, business is booming. Boss David, who banned people lighting up in February, said: "We were doing well before but this has taken it up to another level.

"In a party of six people perhaps only one will be a smoker and they do not mind going outside. The air here smells so clean and two of my staff have quit smoking since we made the change.

"I get probably a dozen people a week who say how much they like the pub being smoke-free. More families are coming in since we started the ban." The Mirror revealed yesterday that a third of UK pubs are ready to ban smoking, except in special rooms. Those involved include the popular Harvester, All Bar One and O'Neill's chain pubs. They hope a voluntary ban will prevent a Government imposed one.

A recent Department of Health survey showed 80 per cent of people wanted smoking stopped in pubs.

British Beer and Pub Association spokesman Mark Hastings said pubs needed to reflect the increased desire for a non-smoking environment in pub.

Lee

Jerome

Er, passive smoking may harm you. Not everyone who smokes get a smoking related illness, let alone passive smokers. You'd have to spend a very long time sat next to a smoker to significantly increase you chances of getting a smoking related disease.

Wrong.

Cost to the NHS of smoking: 1.5billion pounds and reducing.

Cost to the NHS of obesity: 3.5 billion pounds and increasing.


And my great grandfather lived to be 138 and smoked 650 ciggies a day so smoking can't be harmful.

logiclee

No need to sit next to them just breathing in smokey air is enough to increase the risk of contracting a smoking related disease.


The NHS Official 2002 figures put obesity at £485million and smoking at £1.7billion.
The total cost to the country and private buissiness through sickdays etc is however well over £3.5billion for obesity.

It's a little harder to tackle though because you can't ban food.


This is always the old wifes tale favorite and the one that is joked about at our Cardiac meetings. Of course you can be lucky and years ago people did life far more phyisical lifes due to hands on work, no cars and no labour saving devices in the home. This helped keep the arteries open and allow blood to pass even though arteries were full of plaque and chlorestoral. More and more smokers are finding problems at an earier age now though.
I've not met a single smoker in our groups who if they had their life again would choose to smoke.
A good friend I have made, a chap called Frank is 48. Hes probably going to be alive for twenty years or so but 90% of that time he's going to be in a wheel chair with oxeygen bottles at his side.

If you enjoy smoking and are prepared for the results fine! But do it on your own or with other smokers, don't force it down the lungs of the other 71% of the population.

Lee

Jerome

I'd like to see the percentage increase in the risk of contracting a smoking related illness for occasional passive smoking. Also, aren't there carcinogens in exhaust smoke?



I stand (or sit) corrected.



You did realise I was joking didn't you..


I absolutely agree with you. You should be able to have a drink in a smoke free environment - regardless of any medical condition. I also think that people should be able to have a drink and smoke, as long as they are in a separate, sealed room.

logiclee

Yes.

It's just funny that every (Currently Healthy) smoker that comes onto one of our sessions has the same relative.

Lee