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Opinions On Smoking

68K views 646 replies 337 participants last post by  ChanceMcCall 
#1 ·
I was just interested in what everyone's opinion is for smoking on here. Couldn't make a poll for whatever reason though.
 
#47 ·
here is a house I bought, that smokers lived in. I had to paint 3 coats of KilZ and 2 coats of paint on everything, after spending 3 days scrubbing the walls....not to mention all the carpet had to be replaced. just think what a smokers lungs look like....




look how nasty the ceiling was in the kitchen..

 
#48 ·
My brother died of a massive corronary at the age of 38, smoker.
Mother died of cancer age age of 55, smoker.
Father died of cancer, smoker.
Several good friends never made 55, smokers.
Best friend died at the age of 52, after quitting for 6 yrs. I carried his ashes in the service.
I do not believe in fate and have been butt free since 2004 after 43 yrs. of stupid ingestion of toxic fumes.
 
#52 ·
Quote from Chromie
here is a house I bought, that smokers lived in. I had to paint 3 coats of KilZ and 2 coats of paint on everything, after spending 3 days scrubbing the walls....not to mention all the carpet had to be replaced. just think what a smokers lungs look like....
:yeahthat:
When I was in college (25+ yrs ago), I worked at a Veterinary Clinic where 75% of the employees chain smoked. We had the "plastic" coated sheetrock, similar to hospitals, on the walls of the clinic. Every few weeks, it was my job to wipe down the walls of the clinic. You could spray 409 on the walls and just watch the orange crap run down the walls. Not exactly what I wanted to coat my lungs with, but I was not given a choice (I guess quitting my job should be classified as a choice).

I am all for individual freedom, and making choices for YOURSELF. However, when you expose others that have very little power in that choice, then you cross the line. If you smoke around your kids, spouse, or even non-smoking strangers, then I think you are extremely selfish. You are only concerned with your own self-gratification, and not concerned about the well being of others. You have the right to coat your own lungs with crap, but you do not have the right to coat your kid's lungs, my kid's lungs, or even my lungs.

That being said, I believe that there has been a significant improvement in smokers being more considerate in the last 30 years. Part of the improvement has been in legislation, but much has been a change in attitude by smokers themselves. I find far fewer "rude smokers" now than I did 30 years ago.

Rant over. :)
 
#53 ·
Back in the late 30's my Mom's doctor prescribed cigarettes to her as a mild tranquilizer. Both of my parents were smokers during the time I lived at home.

The population percentage of smokers has been dropping for years, more due to the increasing number of people who have never smoked, than those who have quit, I suspect. Also, my parent's generation is pretty much gone, and my generation has reached the age we keep an eye on the Obituary columns

Surgeon General Koop, I seem to recall, called nicotine the most addictive substance known to man. Research shows nicotine quickly binds to the same areas of the brain as alcohol, narcotics and other known addictive substances, and does it very rapidly. It meets all of the criteria for addiction, chemically and behaviorally. It is a serious health problem and extremely hard to treat.

I was a heavy smoker for 38 years, and then got lucky. Cigarettes started to taste bad instead of good. Once I noticed this, they started tasting worse and worse. So I quit. I was pretty p*ssy for a long time--a couple of years actually, until my doctor decided I was depressed and put me on an antidepressant. That did the trick with the generalized anger. I still have 10 of the 20 lbs I put on, and it's been almost 12 years. I read somewhere that the average weight gain for quitters is 15 lbs--permanently :rolleyes:

So what I tell people now when they ask for quitting advice is to stop focusing on the feelings they get when smoking, and start paying attention to the taste of the smoke and the cigarette. That has worked for a number of friends and acquaintances who had reached the point they were serious about quitting. It also removes the obsessive ruminating over wanting to smoke, because they can smoke all they want--until they can't stand the taste anymore. This technique does not work nearly as well with menthol cigarette smokers since the menthol pretty much masks the tobacco taste.

Tobacco smoke is now an irritant to me, so I don't like being in enclosed spaces with it. For that reason, I'm pretty happy about the indoor smoking bans in public places.
 
#55 ·
2nd hand smoke

For anyone to say that there is some difference between direct smoking (puffing on it yourself) and 2nd hand smoking (direct and indirect from someone else's puffing) is smoking something far more than cigarettes.

The smoke that is expelled directly from the tip of the cigarette and consumed in someones lungs is exactly the same as that drawn through an unfiltered cigarette.

The smoke exhaled from a person's lungs while exhaling contains the same chemicals as it did when it was inhaled. If you don't believe it, then you must not believe in smoker's breath either. If you didn't have that stench on your breath someone MIGHT believe that you were containing all of the chemicals and only exhaling smoke free air.

To say that 2nd hand smoking is not harmful to non-smokers goes against all honest research that has proven that 2nd hand smoking is just as toxic. Such as the 25% higher instances of lung cancer among spouses of smokers than spouses of non-smokers. Or the 38,000 non-smokers in 2002 whose deaths were attributed to smoking.

Personally, I have sinus attacks and headaches that are directly attibutable to being around 2nd hand smoke. And try to put an asmatic in a room full of smoke and see what the impact is.

And ANYONE and EVERYONE that smokes around anyone else besides a non-smoker is FORCING that other individual to smoke. If the people at the office here that smoke go outside and have a cigarette and come back in, I have to stay away from them for at least 30 minutes or I will get a headache just from the residual smoke on their breath.
 
#57 ·
I quit smoking several years ago, and I quit snuff recently. My stupid *** used tobacco for over half of my 40 year old life and now I pray I didn't do any permanent damage. I served in the military, I fought a war, I defended peoples rights. You have the right to smoke or whatever you want, and I have the right to not have to breath it. A little courtesy on both sides might go a long way.
 
#60 ·
comment :

Smoking MAY BE a contributing factor in causing some diseases to bloom (?) ,,, BUT,,, that with a lot of other habits ,,, many not considered detremental to good health ... Whether to smoke OR not to smoke is a personal choice ? It's best to leave it that way ...
 
#61 ·
Here's the thing for you who believe that it's your right to smoke around others:

Even if it was true that second hand smoke had no proven damaging effects on those exposed to it:

IT STINKS! It stinks to high heaven. I can't think of ANYTHING that stinks as bad and is so common.

If you've got the right to ruin my meal with your cigarette smoke, then surely I should be able to bring a skunk into a restaurant with me and tease it until it fires off.

I really couldn't care less what the statistics are for the deadliness of second hand smoke. That's not my main problem with it.

What I DO care about is that it stinks so bad that if I have to be in a restaurant or room where people are smoking, even for a fairly short time, I WILL have to wash my clothes and take a shower to get that stink off of me.

It ruins the pleasure of a meal. It ruins the pleasure of a concert. It's annoying and repulsive.

On that basis alone, people are surely free to vote as they see fit.

And when you find that the will of the majority is to ban smoking in public places, you know just how badly it must annoy virtually everyone who isn't a smoker!

There are LOTS of other things that we're not allowed to do in public simply because they're annoying. Something does NOT need to be deadly to others for it to be annoying to them.

So even if you truly believe that smoking is not harmful to you. And you also believe that it's not harmful to others around you when you do it. Surely you can understand that it's annoying and stinky.

Why should I be prevented from being able to enjoy a meal, a concert, etc., because smokers feel they have the right to smoke everywhere?

I'm sure I'd be thrown out of a restaurant, bar, concert hall, theater, meeting room, etc., if I just stood up and started singing my favorite songs loudly. Yet nobody would claim that I was causing them physical harm, and actually, they wouldn't have to go home and take a shower and wash their clothes to get the annoying residue of my performance off of them, either.

So "smokers' rights" people, please try to understand:

Your right to smoke ends where others' rights to enjoy various outings and activities begins to be infringed in a big way.

But, having said that:

I ALSO believe that it's a travesty to force someone to work around it or for parents to trap their kids or even their pets in a car (or their home) with it.

Yes. It's you're choice to do it. But really, can you possibly feel that it's OK to do so? I drive by cars and SMELL the smoke from someone smoking in them. And it's annoying! Seriously. Just being next to a car where someone is smoking stinks far worse than what one generally smells from LEGAL car exhaust.

And then I look over and see that they've got their kid or dog in the car with them and I think to myself how selfish, uncaring, and cruel that person must be to subject the unwilling passenger to that.

Health risk or not. It's just rude.

Smokers generally have killed off their sensory cells to the point that they can't smell it at all themselves. So they rationalize it all by thinking that people who are sensitive to it or who just hate the smell are "wimps" or just making it up.

Well, then, people who hate my impromptu a-capella vocal exhibitions are also just wimps and whiners. Why are the cops dragging ME out of the restaurant? All I wanted to do was exercise my RIGHT to sing anywhere I want! It doesn't actually hurt anyone, right? What a bunch of weenies and complainers. Geeze!

My father has had asthma all his life. For YEARS we could not go to most restaurants because he would, potentially, DIE. Now, I know that's not usual, and we did just stay away from places where they allowed smoking. But I will tell you that now that many restaurants here have gone to "all non smoking" (instead of the JOKE of trying to segregate smoking and non-smoking areas), he can go out to eat much easier.

Why do restaurants choose to go to fully non-smoking?

Because it increases profits.

They get better insurance rates and they get more business. It's simple.

Quit complaining, smokers. Face the facts that people don't care for it.

And let that be another reason to quit yourself. If you're no longer addicted so that you must stop whatever you're doing to go out for a smoke, it won't bother you to have to do so. And that money you're spending on cigarettes can go to things you actually enjoy instead of into the tobacco companies' executives' pockets.

And understand also that I do sympathize with those who are smokers and have had a hard time quitting. I know it's addictive. I've watched an uncle with lung cancer go out for a smoke between radiation treatments and then been with his wife at the funeral. I've been to the funeral of a friend who died of a brain aneurysm who had smoked for years but who had given it up for a few years only to make one slip and get back on them, unable to keep off of them. I've watched and listened to my brother cough for a full half hour every day when he wakes up and yet, he won't/can't quit.

I KNOW it's tough.

But telling yourself that it's a "right" and being militant about it is counterproductive. I'd guess that most smokers who have done it for more than their first five years want to quit.

What amazes me is how many kids take it up. Why is it "cool" and "anti-authoritarian" to succumb to the wishes of a bunch of suit-wearing, evil-hearted "businessmen" and willingly let yourself become addicted to their products? How is that, in any way, cool and an expression of your freedom and rebelliousness? It's an incredible marketing scheme that can make smoking seem attractive to kids. Count me as very impressed!

Anyhow.... I ramble on this subject because it bugs me a LOT.

Signed:

Jim (Why can't they just let me sing here) WY
 
#62 ·
the "RIGHT" to smoke or not to smoke.

I will grant YOU your "right" to smoke or not if you will grant me the same. And you CANNOT smoke ANYWHERE in my presence, nor can you exhale after smoking anywhere within my presence, nor can you bring your smoke saturated clothing anywhere within my presence WITHOUT FORCING ME TO SMOKE! If I can smell the smoke, then I AM smoking! It is those chemicals in the smoke that gives it its smell & that is what I am being forced to breathe. that is what I am being forced to breath. If I can smell it, then I am smoking!

It really is as simple as that.
 
#69 ·
I will grant YOU your "right" to smoke or not if you will grant me the same. And you CANNOT smoke ANYWHERE in my presence, nor can you exhale after smoking anywhere within my presence, nor can you bring your smoke saturated clothing anywhere within my presence WITHOUT FORCING ME TO SMOKE! If I can smell the smoke, then I AM smoking! It is those chemicals in the smoke that gives it its smell & that is what I am being forced to breathe. that is what I am being forced to breath. If I can smell it, then I am smoking!

It really is as simple as that.
Haha your confusing rights with comfort, sorry. If that were true environmentalists would have had nuclear power and everything else that is a signifigant pollutant banned since that is technically polluting the air quality for more people and obviously at a more damaging effect in comparison to cigarettes, cause that should be their "right" as well I guess? Same difference wouldn't you agree? All i say is it shouldn't be the government's decision, it shouldn't be the majority of the people's decision, it should be whoever pays the bills for the company that makes that decision. And if smoking were so bad for restaurants the government shouldn't have to make laws, as they would see the loss of money from anti-smokers, which doesn't seem like it happens too much unless the owner has a personal issue against smoking, which I would also support them if they want to make that choice.
 
#67 ·
I disagree strongly, doesn't anyone believe that the owner of a business should be able to decide for themselves if they are okay with "second hand smoke". Or at least have it equal and allow companies to ban non-smokers from their buildings, it wouldn't be a health issue if only smokers were allowed in. Ya check out the UK since all their smoking bans, revenues in bars and pubs aren't doing so well, it hurts the economy more than it helps it and it just shows how common it is for people to be whipped by their country these days.
 
#68 ·
I love the smokers!

Granted, I feel sorry for the poor souls out there in the rain and the snow suckin on their coffin nails but I lock my bike up outside the "back" entrance while they are jones'in for some food cause they spent their lunch money on smokes. Every couple weeks, right before payday, I bring some donuts to thank them for "keepin such a good eye on my bike"!!! OH MAN! since some of them are CCW holders (and subscribers to rimfire central), I have 24/7 personal armed security for my ride. AWSOME! Don't nobody mess with Cranky's Bicycle! And the best part is that with their taste buds shot to heck, I can haul in the day old's and they still check the air and pump some psi's in when required.

LOVE THEM SMOKERS!

Cranky
 
#71 ·
Think ?

"IF" smoking is the cause of death OR a contributing factor in cause of death ,,, why doesn't the gov't make smoking illegal ? ? ? FOLLOW THE MONEY ! ! ! The U.S. gov't ,,, states ,,, and some municipalities annually derive billions and billions of dollars collectively from the tobacco tax ? ? ? Apparently the Gov's value these revenues MORE than good health and/or preventing early deaths of the citizens in the U.S.of A ? ? ? Further ,,, why does the gov. continue to subsidize tobacco growers ? ? ? HUH ...

I don't have a dog in the race, so I really don't care ,,, BUT ,,, the gov's should be honest ,,, above board ,,, and not infringe on its citizens basic right to make a choice ...

You can't legislate "not being stupid (?), can you" ? ? ?
 
#77 ·
"IF" smoking is the cause of death OR a contributing factor in cause of death ,,, why doesn't the gov't make smoking illegal ? ? ? FOLLOW THE MONEY ! ! ! The U.S. gov't ,,, states ,,, and some municipalities annually derive billions and billions of dollars collectively from the tobacco tax ? ? ? Apparently the Gov's value these revenues MORE than good health and/or preventing early deaths of the citizens in the U.S.of A ? ? ? Further ,,, why does the gov. continue to subsidize tobacco growers ? ? ? HUH ...

I don't have a dog in the race, so I really don't care ,,, BUT ,,, the gov's should be honest ,,, above board ,,, and not infringe on its citizens basic right to make a choice ...

You can't legislate "not being stupid (?), can you" ? ? ?
Obviously people decide to smoke because they see benefits, just like drinking, they could do the same for alcohol and I'd say they have just as much reason too, tobacco is one of the only drugs that doesn't impair you and overall I'd say thats a good thing. I'd figure that a lot more bad has come from idiot being drunk than smokers. And if the government could just say something was stupid and people no longer had a choice on it anymore that would be a sad day for "freedom".
 
#72 ·
One thing I noticed about all you "Carey Nation" anti smokers is that all of you are stuck on Me,Me,Me or I,I,I. You're all tied up in your own likes and dislikes. It's a big world and none of us controls all of it. If I decide to light up and a puff of smoke bumps into your tuxedo or your nighty, that's tuff do what you feel you have to.
By the way, I only occasionally smoke a cigar, and not usually around people, I like them, it's one of the few pleasures left to me. Hitler didn't smoke but he killed millions.
 
#75 ·
I smoked 3 packs a day for 30 Years. Saw adds showing pics of the black lungs of people that had smoked. Heard about how it caused heart disease and stroke. And that 1,000's of people died each year from smoking.
I always thought that I am an adult, I can make my own dicision. I will quit next week, next month, next year......
Well that day came that I had a stroke. As I laid in the back of an ambulance paralized and unable to speak and barely able to breathe, I knew that that day had finely come. If I made it out of the hospital, I would never smoke again.
 
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