Smoke Free by 2007 July

Former Member

All enclosed public places and workplaces in the UK will become smokefree from 1st July 2007, Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt announced today.

Anyone planning to give up with this news?

As a non smoker myself I'm looking forward to being able to go out to a club and not be subjected to other people's smoke, or coming home to find a burn mark in my clothes from someone on the dance floor waving their ciggies about.

And when I come home I've noticed even my socks and underwear smell of cigarette smoke and if I don't have a shower (especially washing out my hair) after I come home then the next day I feel almost hung over / really wiped out even if I'm not had a drink - but if I've showered the night before then I'm fine.

I can't wait

Former Member

I'm amazed and delighted personally. I'm a non smoker and it's a pain in the rear end when walking into college you walk through a cloud of smoke coming from right outside the main entrance to the college reception. There's a smoking shelter right next to the entrance but do they use it? Nope. Come July 07 and they'll have no choice.

Wicked.

Former Member

I doubt anyone will plan to give up on hearing that, the huge [immediate] impact it'll have will be on your so-called "social" smokers which can only be a good thing.

Hardened addicts like myself will still be puffing away on July 2nd I'm sure

Former Member

Its crap, what sort of club is it when you cant smoke, you might as well try and party at an airport departure gate.

Former Member

There are some smokers who instead of having a cup of coffee at the cafe down the road or a beer in the pub after work will instead stay at home. Whilst anti-smokers can choose to go to one of the many non-smoking cafes around or a pub with decent non-smoking areas (or even completely non-smoking) the smoker now will have no choice. Even if smokers got together and made a private club just for smokers they would be breaking the law. And if smokers stay at home more of the time so they can still smoke children at home have no choice.

Former Member

TBH I plan to give up anyway. This just makes it easier.

Skive

It won't make much difference in some of the old local country pubs round here I'm sure.

Former Member

The pub at the top of my road went non smoking about a year ago. It went from having youngsters socializing there (and the top drug den) to old farts drinking ale with a TV that plays BBC News 24.

I am a non smoker myself, so I dont care either way. The only problem I have with this is all the good looking women that smoke wont be around no more.

smitherz

Man Of Kent wrote:

TBH I plan to give up anyway. This just makes it easier.

Same for me, im tempted to to give up as a new years resolution.

Former Member

January is actually the worst time of the year to diet, give up habits, etc.

Its because its the most depressing month, hence why no one ever sticks to things. lol

Former Member

My pub's getting a huge sheltered outdoor heated area for the smokers. Most excellent :-).

Former Member

when i was in America most places are already smoke free and its SO good to be able to go out on a night out and come home without my hair and clothes smelling of smoke, and to not have been burnt by someone on the dancefloor with a cigarette. and waking up in the morning without a cough and husky voice. awesome.

i dont smoke though so obviously if i did id obviously be a bit more against it i hope it encourages more people to give up.

Former Member

The Germans seem to be getting the balance about right. Just a shame we're not as tolerant as Germany.

Former Member

Disillusioned wrote:

The Germans seem to be getting the balance about right. Just a shame we're not as tolerant as Germany.

Maybe Hitler should have won

Former Member

VinylVicky wrote:

Maybe Hitler should have won

Well it's precisely because Hitler was so anti-smoking and that smoking bans were a Nazi invention that many Germans are hostile to smoking bans.

Former Member

Disillusioned wrote:

Well it's precisely because Hitler was so anti-smoking and that smoking bans were a Nazi invention that many Germans are hostile to smoking bans.

We should follow suit then, surely?!!

Former Member

VinylVicky wrote:

We should follow suit then, surely?!!

Ha, well as opposed as I am to smoking bans it wouldn't have been too nice if Britain had to go through what Germany has to have a bit more sense. Meh, anyway I'm off to the pub, should enjoy it while I can still smoke there.

Former Member

Disillusioned wrote:

Ha, well as opposed as I am to smoking bans it wouldn't have been too nice if Britain had to go through what Germany has to have a bit more sense. Meh, anyway I'm off to the pub, should enjoy it while I can still smoke there.

Living in a regime doesn't sound so bad, if I can smoke :hyper:

littlemissy

Skive wrote:

It won't make much difference in some of the old local country pubs round here I'm sure.

I thought that would be the case in some of the local, country pubs up north that I used to frequent but apparently there are on the spot police checks happening and on the spot fines and the stuff so the local pubs are all smoke-free as they don;t want to be fined or have a tarnished record.

As for the ban, I am extremely pleased. However, I am a non smoker.

Former Member

Disillusioned wrote:

There are some smokers who instead of having a cup of coffee at the cafe down the road or a beer in the pub after work will instead stay at home. Whilst anti-smokers can choose to go to one of the many non-smoking cafes around or a pub with decent non-smoking areas (or even completely non-smoking) the smoker now will have no choice. Even if smokers got together and made a private club just for smokers they would be breaking the law. And if smokers stay at home more of the time so they can still smoke children at home have no choice.

Almost feel sorry for smokers reading that .. but only almost.

Smokers have more choices then non smokers - especially in nightclubs. Smokers can go to a venue and choose to lite up or choose NOT to.

My Dad smokes, but when he does so, he chooses to go in the extension and smoke, even he doesn't want the rest of his own house smelling of smoke.

In most places where I live I reckon the vast majority of smokers in clubs and pubs are women. As far as I can tell about 5 times more women then men appear to smoke, maybe even more.

As far as I can tell the men can't be arsed to carry a lighter and a pack of 20, whilst the women just stick it all in their handbags.

It appears that being a smoker is physically more convenient for women then men as they have the means to carry everything around, so more smoke. I'm sure when things become less convenient next year more people will finally give up.

Former Member

This is seriously lame.
So clubbing, pubbing, raving and going to gigs will never be the same again. Smoking goes hand in hand with drinking, this is a complete load of fucking bullshit.

Former Member

DiamondGeezer wrote:

My Dad smokes, but when he does so, he chooses to go in the extension and smoke, even he doesn't want the rest of his own house smelling of smoke.

I go outside, have done for over 12 years now (if you forget the three years when I didn't smoke) and it's not because of the smell, it's because I don't want my kids breathing my smoke.

For me that's the rub.

I do see this ban as stripping away rights, I do see it as a lack of compromise which would have been a perfect solution but I really understand non-smokers pov too and they don't have much choice at the moment. Sure they can avoid pubs buts that's hardly equitable.

Former Member

Man Of Kent wrote:

I go outside, have done for over 12 years now (if you forget the three years when I didn't smoke) and it's not because of the smell, it's because I don't want my kids breathing my smoke.

For me that's the rub.

I do see this ban as stripping away rights, I do see it as a lack of compromise which would have been a perfect solution but I really understand non-smokers pov too and they don't have much choice at the moment. Sure they can avoid pubs buts that's hardly equitable.

I quit originally a year ago, lasted 9 months then started again.. quit again 3 weeks ago after a couple of months of on/off smoking....

I never smoked in my house or around my child/in the car etc either - I just don't get how people can do that to their kids ??

Former Member

Man Of Kent wrote:

I do see this ban as stripping away rights, I do see it as a lack of compromise which would have been a perfect solution but I really understand non-smokers pov too and they don't have much choice at the moment. Sure they can avoid pubs buts that's hardly equitable.

I don't mind people smoking around me as long as I don't feel the effects.

At some places we go to the ceilings are really high and the smoke just carries away and it's no big deal, at other places you're boxed in and it gets in your hair, clothes, etc and then I wear contact lens and it gets in them to and it starts irritating my eyes.

Personally I'd have been happy if the government had just introduced a minimum air quality standard and had machines like smoke detectors to measure the air quality in a bar or club and if it's over a certain limit they get fined .. that way they can have smoking but if they want to avoid a fine they have to install air extractors, etc.

I'm not so worried about pubs there's a million pubs to choose from, more clubs I find there's lack of choice.

How many people smoke cos they enjoy it and how many cos they're addicted to it?

Virtually every smoker I know would give up if they could ...

I also don't know a single smoker that actually wants their kids to become smokers ... It'll probably be like when people protested about their rights to NOT wear seat belts, the the new law has saved countless lives and injuries over the years...

Also the law might lead to a few more outdoor venues, which would make a nice change.

Former Member

I couldn't care less about the ban. I'm gonna go wherever i fuckin well like and smoke.

Former Member

Hooray :hyper: . Now i can have a night out without having stingy eyes while im out, not being able to sleep due to a nose clogged with smoke residue, sounding like a croaky frog the next day, blowing my nose to find my snot is black, smelling absolutely disgusting, and without suffering from asthma for 3 days after

Former Member

F*ckin wowsers is all I can say. We've had the new smoking ban in australia now since February I think and its just rubbish. all public places are banned from schools to 5m from shop entrances, clubs, pubs, restraunts, beaches everything. And all its done is turn the freakin street malls into giant ashtrays. I have no idea if it will last, i hope not and I can't really see how I mean I for one go out to clubs and such half as much as I used to. it's ridiculous some clubs are upgrading to having smoking areas in them but they are SO tiny. Like, 50 people crammed into a bedroom sized box. AGH! be warned cousins. But then again alot of the security's alrite if they catch u on the dancefloor they just tell u to butt it with no fine but STILL.

I dont know about anyone else but I am sooooo sick of all the politically correct bullshit that is everywhere these days and for some reason half the population feels obligated to frown and nodd their head about too. Screw them all I say. Im just gonna go open my own smokeasy.

Former Member

Blah wrote:

Hooray :hyper: . Now i can have a night out without having stingy eyes while im out, not being able to sleep due to a nose clogged with smoke residue, sounding like a croaky frog the next day, blowing my nose to find my snot is black, smelling absolutely disgusting, and without suffering from asthma for 3 days after

I smoke 40 in a night and even i don't feel like that in the morning :eek2:

Former Member

LacyMay wrote:

I smoke 40 in a night and even i don't feel like that in the morning :eek2:

Lucky you. It's not a nice feeling :no:

Former Member

pill 'ed wrote:

This is seriously lame.
So clubbing, pubbing, raving and going to gigs will never be the same again. Smoking goes hand in hand with drinking, this is a complete load of fucking bullshit.

That is so true.

When that ban comes into force i won't be able to go out with my mates to a club, cos there is no way i'm giving up and no way i could spend a whole night drinking without sparkin up.

Former Member

LacyMay wrote:

That is so true.

When that ban comes into force i won't be able to go out with my mates to a club, cos there is no way i'm giving up and no way i could spend a whole night drinking without sparkin up.

unlucky.

you've spent a few years (guestimate ) smoking publically and inconviniencing non smokers, now it's the other way round and you sulk

going outside isn't THAT hard, it's for the best IMO... I don't think smoking can be compared as human right infringement or something because of the damage it does to others.