[News] Do you smoke?

[W.C.]

Does this include those bellends that "vape"

Christ is there nothing people won't go out of their way to let everyone know who 'shit' they think something is?

I know people who vape. It helped them quit smoking. They aren't bellends.

 

[beorhthelm]

As a matter of interest, where did you get those figures from?

you can look it up on the treasury website, but this site gives a good summary, covering revenue and the costs to NHS in one place.

 

[Bigtomfu]

No and literally have no idea why anyone would. (Yes yes I know the same could be said about drinking....)

 

[Lady Whistledown]

If you read my post earlier you will see i am a smoker, i am not going to get involved in any arguments about smoking bans and pubs, stinking etc but i will say that there is no sadder site than walking past the entrance of a hospital and seeing patients standing outside still in their gowns and nightware still attached to a bloody drip, smoking.
If i ever get into that position i know enough is enough.

Agreed. A similarly forlorn sight is the office workers you see huddled together outside the front of the building when it's absolutely pissing down outside.

Never smoked myself (well, not more than two or three in my lifetime, all when drunk, years ago). Each time I woke up the next morning with my mouth tasting like an ash tray and wondered why on earth people did it habitually.

It feels like you see far fewer kids smoking these days than you used to. I remember loads of kids smoking when I was at school, but it seems to be rarer now. Presumably that's partly connected to them raising the age to buy cigarettes from sixteen to eighteen- you used to be able to wander into a corner shop in your uniform and pull the wool over the eyes of a gullible shopkeeper if you looked reasonably mature. Now anybody in a school uniform will presumably get a flat "no chance" from most shops.

The smoking ban has been great as far as I'm concerned. As somebody else pointed out: it feels weird when you go abroad and sit in a restaurant to find somebody on the next table puffing away. The weirdest thing of all though, is the notion that you used to be able to smoke on planes. How bizarre that feels in this day and age (for safety reasons as much as comfort). The only thing separating the Smoking and Non-Smoking areas on aircraft was a curtain. I imagine if you had the seat next to the curtain in the Non-Smoking section, you might as well not have bothered??

 

[Tricky Dicky]

I never stood a chance, I was always going to be a smoker.
I am not blaming anyone it's up to me to give up, indeed I did for 13 years but this is why.
My mum smoked, she used to send me to the shop to buy them for her. I would buy her 25 JPS in a tub for Christmas.
I went to my nans after school she smoked as well so did my grandad, l used to love and sniff in the smoke from the cigarettes when they were all smoking at home.
One summer holiday I would collect off the street as many different brands as I could find.
So when I was offered a fag for the first time(I even remember who that was) it was obvious I was going to smoke it.
In those days you had sweet cigarettes and play cigarettes with a red bit on the end that blew fake smoke.
Shops would sell you cigarettes, no questions asked and cigarette vending machines were on the wall outside many shops.
A lot of people smoked, on TV as well it was quite a cool thing to do.
We even smoked in the school playground, most of the teachers smoked as well.
You could smoke on trains, planes, even the underground in London.
Pubs were full of smokers.
I gave up for 13 years, I always wanted to be able to smoke the odd Havana now and again which I managed to do.
But stupidly I went onto small cigars then roll ups which I still smoke.
I don't want to, I know it's stupid but you know what, I enjoy it.
But I don't seem to have the will power that I once had to give up.
As I said no ones fault but my own but when I was a kid smoking was almost a way of life and once addicted it is tricky to give up, but many have done it, maybe I will try again.
Gotta go now, I need a fag.

Well, if you want to see my cancer scars, hear how I had to crap into a colostomy bag for a year, witness my kidney dialysis and see the drugs I need to take, you're welcome - it might just put you off (though technically my cancer probably wasn't smoking related, but it's still the results of what can happen).

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Also: why is it more socially acceptable to chuck fag ends on the floor, or out of your car window, than other forms of littering?

Only the absolute tossers of this world chuck their other rubbish out of the car as they drive, but lobbing your fag butt out doesn't seem to worry people nearly as much. I know they're only small, but when you multiply that by the number of smokers, and the number of times they smoke...

 

[symyjym]

Horizon: E-Cigarettes: Miracle or Menace?

Michael Mosley investigates the dramatic rise in e-cigarettes. They're everywhere these days, but what does the latest scientific research on them reveal? Michael reveals what e-cigarettes are really doing to your health. Are they really better for you than cigarettes? What is actually in them? Is passive vapour harmful? And can they really stop you from smoking? Michael meets some of the scientists around the world studying them, asks a group of volunteers to try to give up smoking regular cigarettes using them, and even takes up 'vaping' himself, smoking an e-cigarette every day for a month to see the effects on his own health - no easy task for such a committed non-smoker.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03vmgdh

With what we know at the moment vaping is far less carcinogenic than cigarettes to the point it cannot be recognised as harmful, though e liquids flavourings vary in their carcinogenic content.

 

[ManOfSussex]

The smoking ban has been great as far as I'm concerned.

It's been great as far as I'm concerned too, as it definitely helped me keep off them when I quit.

 

[Boy Blue]

Also: why is it more socially acceptable to chuck fag ends on the floor, or out of your car window, than other forms of littering?

Only the absolute tossers of this world chuck their other rubbish out of the car as they drive, but lobbing your fag butt out doesn't seem to worry people nearly as much. I know they're only small, but when you multiply that by the number of smokers, and the number of times they smoke...

Don't see what the issue is to be honest because if it wasn't for people like me road sweepers wouldn't have a job.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

It's been great as far as I'm concerned too, as it definitely helped me keep off them when I quit.

Years ago, when I worked in a large office in Crawley, the thing that ground my gears about the smokers was the way they'd simply swan off outside for ten, fifteen minutes at a time for a fag break. Several times a day. That just seems to be accepted in any workplace.

Not sure what my current employer's view is on this sort of thing, but I might test the water by claiming to be addicted to something else (legal)- let's say Pokemon Go- and see if they'll mind me popping outside to play it for ten minutes every couple of hours while my colleagues continue working

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Don't see what the issue is to be honest because if it wasn't for people like me road sweepers wouldn't have a job.

Nor would I

 

[Boy Blue]

Nor would I

Precisely. If we didn't have criminals we wouldn't have prisons, judges, barristers, police and the list could go on.

 

[ManOfSussex]

Years ago, when I worked in a large office in Crawley, the thing that ground my gears about the smokers was the way they'd simply swan off outside for ten, fifteen minutes at a time for a fag break. Several times a day. That just seems to be accepted in any workplace.

Not sure what my current employer's view is on this sort of thing, but I might test the water by claiming to be addicted to something else (legal)- let's say Pokemon Go- and see if they'll mind me popping outside to play it for ten minutes every couple of hours while my colleagues continue working

The office I worked at for most of the time when I smoked had a policy of 1 cigarette break in the morning, 1 in the afternoon, though in practise that never happened. I would go for a fag every hour, but I generally came in early and worked late every day though.

 

[Durlston]

Cigarettes - Yes. Ten a day.

Skunk - About one joint a week. Pringles and old episodes of Only Fools And Horses.

Crack - Only tried it twice. Both times I hated it and thought I was going to have a heart attack. Lungs felt burnt for a couple of days after. Horrible.

 

[mejonaNO12 aka riskit]

Crack - Only tried it twice. Both times I hated it and thought I was going to have a heart attack. Lungs felt burnt for a couple of days after. Horrible.

Why did you try it a SECOND time!?

 

[Durlston]

Why did you try it a SECOND time!?

I honestly don't know. I suppose I was in a bad place. Very lucky that I didn't get hooked. Maybe because it was a crap time in my life, years apart.

 

[cjd]

It's a bloody selfish gamble.

Not only is it utterly anti social, it is also a choice. My partner is a nurse and the stories she tells me about the time and effort she has to put into looking after smokers really irritates me.

The NHS is suffering from bed shortages, staff shortages and money shortages. How would you like to be refused a bed because it was occupied by a smoker who either refused or wasn't capable of giving up? And yes - that happens.

To wheel out the old "I've smoked for 60 years and am fine" is a dangerous and pathetic argument.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Deary me. For someone who is closely related to a qualified nurse, your ignorance and attitude is quite astounding.

You do know that hospitals are full of people with smoking related illnesses..........alcohol related illnesses.....obesity related illnesses.....accident related injuries.......drug related illnesses........and sport related injuries. All of these are choice related.

Both my daughter and ex are qualified nurses. The stories I hear from them, are of compassion and care for those in hospital. I am certain your partner also falls into that category. You however, need to try and understand the work your partner does and why she does it, considering the poor financial rewards. I,m sure that if you do, you will be less "irritated" by peoples choices.

 

[Badger]

Why did you try it a SECOND time!?

Crack is very moreish

 

[LlcoolJ]

Horizon: E-Cigarettes: Miracle or Menace?

Michael Mosley investigates the dramatic rise in e-cigarettes. They're everywhere these days, but what does the latest scientific research on them reveal? Michael reveals what e-cigarettes are really doing to your health. Are they really better for you than cigarettes? What is actually in them? Is passive vapour harmful? And can they really stop you from smoking? Michael meets some of the scientists around the world studying them, asks a group of volunteers to try to give up smoking regular cigarettes using them, and even takes up 'vaping' himself, smoking an e-cigarette every day for a month to see the effects on his own health - no easy task for such a committed non-smoker.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03vmgdh

With what we know at the moment vaping is far less carcinogenic than cigarettes to the point it cannot be recognised as harmful, though e liquids flavourings vary in their carcinogenic content.

Watched that when it was on tv. Very interesting programme and debunked a lot of the myths about vaping that are being quoted on this thread.

 

[Sussexscots]

Deary me. For someone who is closely related to a qualified nurse, your ignorance and attitude is quite astounding.

You do know that hospitals are full of people with smoking related illnesses..........alcohol related illnesses.....obesity related illnesses.....accident related injuries.......drug related illnesses........and sport related injuries. All of these are choice related.

Both my daughter and ex are qualified nurses. The stories I hear from them, are of compassion and care for those in hospital. I am certain your partner also falls into that category. You however, need to try and understand the work your partner does and why she does it, considering the poor financial rewards. I,m sure that if you do, you will be less "irritated" by peoples choices.

Quite so. We have a National Health Service to provide universal health care for all. If you start trying to make judgement about whose illness or injury is "worthier" or "could have been avoided with better lifestyle choices" then the discussion broadens to what sort of health service we want/can afford/are people prepared to contribute to.

Health service is short of money, therefore, could do without the costs of treating smokers. Other side of the coin, smokers are likely to die younger. Pension age is rising because the Government can't afford to pay state pensions (and other age related benefits) because life expectancy is increasing, therefore, could do with a percentage of people dying younger to save money.

In a first world country have we really come to the stage where we reduce our human compassion to an actuarial calculation?