Public Smoking Bans

[anonemouse 1]

I think they were referring to Laurend's question about someone who has poor hygene on top of the smell of smoke...bad combo! I can deal with someone smelling like smoke...I think most people can...it's the B.O. that turns my stomache.

Actually, I was referring to the smoke smell. You know, not the smell you get when you are right next to a smoker, but the stench that you can smell across the room. I don't know if they are just particularly heavy smokers or if they just don't bother to bathe and wash their clothes, but it is stomach-turning to me. Those people literally make me sick. I get nauseated, my throat hurts, and I get headaches, along with my asthma acting up.

[green 6]

Actually, I was referring to the smoke smell. You know, not the smell you get when you are right next to a smoker, but the stench that you can smell across the room. I don't know if they are just particularly heavy smokers or if they just don't bother to bathe and wash their clothes, but it is stomach-turning to me. Those people literally make me sick. I get nauseated, my throat hurts, and I get headaches, along with my asthma acting up.

Oh, yah, I know what you are talking about. I have two smoker friends, both male, both single, and both living below the poverty line who can really reek of stale smoke and some other odor which I choose not to define other than to say that this is what men smell like when undiluted by soap and water! Come to think of it, I have another friend who occasionally smells like that but without the overlay of stale smoke.:phanvan None of these guys live in a houses with ready access to their own personal washers and dryers.:cry They all have to leave home in order to do their laundry!

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

And you are still wrong, IMO. There isn't any comparison between obesity and smoking. You can't just choose not to eat. Like Kat said, you can't choose to smoke healthily.

Lauren, that does NOT make it ANY less of an addiction! food is our addiction, smoking is an addiction for some of us. Just because one may have easier aspects to it than another does not mean it isn't an addiction.

An addiction is an addiction, period.

I think there should be a fat tax. If you are above a 25BMI then you pay $1.00 per calorie and an additional $0.50 per fat gram for restaurant food. Fat people cost the medical system a buttload of money, it's time we fatties started paying up! Just like smokers. You don't NEED restaurant food to survive. Eat twigs, eat leaves, but you don't need restaurant food to survive.

Maybe we should apply the same fat tax to grocery store foods. You don't NEED white rice, flour, fried chicken, donuts, crackers, etc. etc. etc. to survive. I think $1.00 per calorie and $0.50 per fat gram should start paying for the costs to society for we fatties.

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

This is the only post I am ever going to make to this thread. I'm not going to debate the issue or give any opinion either way. I only have one statement to make. On November 17, 2004 my mother (who smoked for 50+ years but had quit ten years earlier) died of complications of lung cancer. She will never see my children grow up.

Sorry to hear that. My Dad died 4/26/05 of colon cancer that was very likely related to excess fat and crap in his diet.

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

As for my own personal level of addiction, I am kinda stuck. I am on Zyban under its other name, Wellbutrin. It is one of the antidepressants which I am on. Unfortunately it ain't doing too much with respect to trimming back my nicotine habit, dammit!

Are you taking the 150mg extended release version twice daily?

[DerickM 1]

In 1998, the London Telegraph reported that the World Health Organization (WHO) conducted one of the largest studies ever done on passive smoking and then tried to suppress the study because it concluded: http://www.journaloftheoretics.com/Editorials/Vol-1/e1-4.htm

[Sunta 4]

Well, I used to smoke when I was in my teens and early 20's, then I quit when I was 22. 14 years later and after my surgery, I picked it back up again, but not every day and only 1-5 cigs on the days when I do smoke.

Since I've had this sinus infection for the last three weeks, I have not one the entire time, because it really increases my coughing. So I'm thinking that if I've gone three weeks without one, I can just keep going.

However, I really love smoking. I really do. It's sooooo relaxing to end the day with a smoke and a glass of wine on my steps. I really look forward to that great time in the evening and relaxing with a smoke.

I don't believe that 1-5 cigs a few times a week significantly increases my risk of lung cancer, even though a recent study said it increases it five times that of a non-smoker. I think heavy smokers have something like a 15 times increased risk. I don't think it's any worse for my lungs than inhaling all the pollution here in Philly.

Now with regard to the smoking ban, we do have the ban here in Philly, and I am not in favor of it, even though I'm planning on quitting. I think that it is more than sufficient to have non-smoking sections in restaurants and bars. Quite frankly it feels really really odd to me to go into a little neighborhood corner dive bar nowadays and there's no one smoking. It really ruins the character of a place.

There should be smoking and non-smoking sections, and maybe even I would go so far as to say smoking and non-smoking establishments. That way, if someone wants to go hang out and smoke at a local pub, they can, while if they want to enjoy dinner in a totally smoke-free environment, they can do that also.

I generally tend to not like laws that limit anyone's freedom of choice.

[green 6]

Are you taking the 150mg extended release version twice daily?

I am currently on Wellbutrin XL 300mg which I take with my morning coffee.< /p>

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

I am currently on Wellbutrin XL 300mg which I take with my morning coffee.< /div>

This won't likely work since you've been on the drug for a while but for smoking you have to take it 150mg extended release twice daily.

This makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE because the 300 once daily should do exactly the same thing. But for smokers, it just doesn't. It works for depression but not smoking unless it is 150mg version twice daily.

[green 6]

Addiction is addiction, whether it be to alcohol, crack, heroin, nicotine, or whatever........ Addiction is not a question moral failure as much as it is a medical problem with physiological and psychological dimensions.

It often seems to me that this business of the smoker has become in the way of a witch hunt over the past 25 years. It is easy to squeal that that nasty smoker who is smoking outside but near the entrance of your building is gonna kill you but scientifically this is not so. Toxins are scrutinized in parts per million and outdoors second-hand smoke is negligible. It is much easier to blame the smoker for polluting your air than to blame those who drive cars, especially those who drive the guzzlers such as SUVs, and it is much easier to blame smokers than to turn off your air conditioner or to hang your laundry outside to dry. Or, for that matter, to skip the disposable diapers. A child will go through approximately 10,000 diapers before he is continent.

I live in an area where summer has become a nightmare. Everytime we have a heatwave we suffer from toxic air. Yep, we have smog advisories and these are caused by industrial and vehicular pollution. But it has become easy to villify the smoker. This is a sign of careless thinking, I think.

[green 6]

As for the argument that the smoker is a charge on the medical system, well, let us examine this. Both the smoker and the morbidly obese will suffer from an array of medical problems from which your skinny non-smoker will likely be free. Big people and smokers will have a greater liability to suffer from heart disease and strokes. Smokers are subject to cancers and emphysema. Big people are subject to diabetes, problems when having dental work done (due to diabetes), possible blindness (due to diabetes), joint problems, possible amputations (due to diabetes), life in a wheelchair. Both smokers and big folk have problems with blood pressure and they say that ain't good. I am speaking here as an amateur, of course; I am sure that Was a BB can fill you in much better than I can on all the medical facts.

Of course smoking is not good for you. Everyone knows that. Even/especially the smoker. I am, however, amazed at the inordinate rage which so many people feel now towards the smoker.

[green 6]

This won't likely work since you've been on the drug for a while but for smoking you have to take it 150mg extended release twice daily.

This makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE because the 300 once daily should do exactly the same thing. But for smokers, it just doesn't. It works for depression but not smoking unless it is 150mg version twice daily.

Thanks for the info, grrl. I can easily get my regimen changed.

[Marimaru 7]

I think there should be a fat tax. If you are above a 25BMI then you pay $1.00 per calorie and an additional $0.50 per fat gram for restaurant food. Fat people cost the medical system a buttload of money, it's time we fatties started paying up! Just like smokers. You don't NEED restaurant food to survive. Eat twigs, eat leaves, but you don't need restaurant food to survive.

Maybe we should apply the same fat tax to grocery store foods. You don't NEED white rice, flour, fried chicken, donuts, crackers, etc. etc. etc. to survive. I think $1.00 per calorie and $0.50 per fat gram should start paying for the costs to society for we fatties.

This is probably going to come out a little more harsh than I mean it because I'm all stressed out but are you serious?! There are so many people who are above a 25 BMI but aren't overweight, even if that tells them they are. By the BMI standard anyone who body builds is overweight, should they have to pay this tax too? What about the people with actual health reasons (like Vinesqueen) for their weight gain or lack of weight loss? Or the people that just naturally bottom out above that BMI level, etc. I'll actually agree that the cigarette tax has gotten out of hand, but damn..

If you were being sarcastic, I'll take it all back, but I don't get the feeling you are.

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

I was making a point.

[TommyO 5]

I am in favour of smoking bans, I like Green, live in Canada and we have a smoking ban in all public places. As well I did not smoke in my house or in my vehicle because of the kids. What this meant for me was that I was unable to enjoy any cigarete that I smoked for the last few years I smoked. I quit four years ago and because I no longer was able to sit and relax and enjoy a smoke I only had to overcome the physical addiction not the phsycological addiction.

I would never lecture anyone on smoking simply because I know they know all about the evils of smoking and I also know that for the most part smokers would prefer not to smoke. They don't quit because it is very difficult. Smoking bans, in my opinion make it easier for smokers to quit and for that reason I am all for them.