h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I agree with the majority of what you say, smoking is indeed a very bad and disgusting habit. I have given up on a number of occasions and don't mind admitting I am addicted - it is a very difficult drug to give up.
I would also like to say I agree that insults and personal attacks are totally unnecassary and I try my best not to go down this path unless provoked.
Indeed smokers do have a right to smoke as much as non-smokers have a right to not breathe that same smoke. Unfortunately I don't think there can ever be an agreement as to how far this is stretched. I would never smoke in a no smoking environment, or anyone's houses etc. However I feel that it is within my right to be able to smoke outside and I believe the effects of this on other people are very minor, especially compared to traffic pollution.
So what's the solution? I guess if anyone knew it would be in force by now - perhaps certain places outside should remain non smoking i.e parks, countryside and let smoking be allowed within cities where the overall pollution is high anyway. Who knows, but whichever way it goes you can't please everyone all the time and there will always be message boards with messages like ours...

Maybe we should just agree to disagree and at least be satisfied that we understand one anothers points of view.

Thank you for your kind words.

Just a question. I have only tried smoking twice and each time hated it; is it possible to smoke and inhale the smoke so that none is blown out - or is this excessively unhealthy or unpleasant?




Myriad.

I'm not too sure what you mean but you are supposed to inhale the smoke into your lungs before blowing it out again.... of course, don't try this with cigars!! Corrr, it sounds lovely doesn't it LOL!!!

What I mean is -

When I smoked I didn't fancy inhaling into my lungs so I just puffed the cigarette so that the smoke went in my mouth and then I blew it out again.

What I'm asking is can the smoke be inhaled completely and not blown out at all?

Is this physically possible or am I being a lame brain?




Myriad.

You're not being a lame brain but no, you can't inhale smoke without blowing most of it out again. There is nowhere for it to go once it has reached your lungs so you must breathe out again and out comes the smoke!

Thanks for that.

It's just that I saw a programme once on television and there was a bloke working in an office and there was a sign up which said something along the lines of: "If you have to smoke, inhale, as it's safer for your colleagues" - or something like that. I didn't fully understand it so thought it meant what I spoke about earlier. Oh well.

Cheers,

Myriad.

No, I kinda don't understand that either. I guess if you inhale then there is less smoke around!? Or maybe inhaling takes away the worst part of the smoke and keeps it in the smokers lungs!?

me, i enjoy smoking...

i remember this one Seinfeld episode where he equates smoking with the ancient dream of breathing fire. i thought that was hillarious! basically, i like smoking because i enjoy the relaxing, deep breaths and the visual pleasure of seeing smoke patterns in the air after i exhale. it puts me at peace, and my head is always clearer after a smoke.

coincidentally, or perhaps not, smokers seem to be less critical of other peoples "bad" habits. in a public place, compare the annoyance derived from second hand smoke with the sound of someone's mobile phone going unanswered and forcing upon all ears a BEEPing rendition of a song that was never so bad. that's noise polution! migranes can be caused by such carelessness!

Okay, I was a smoker but I can tell you now that smoking does NOT make you relax.
Don't believe me?
Were you in a constant state of tension before you started smoking? Did you ever feel you were 'missing out' always worrying before starting smoking? I very much doubt it.
See, I've been doing a bit of research into this and found that it's not the smoking that relaxes you but the not smoking that makes you tense! It's the addiction that makes you worry, about where the next fag is coming from. If you'd never smoked you wouldn't have to have a fag to become relaxed because you would already be relaxed because you wouldn't be thinking about having a fag in the first place!! Make sense!? I hope so....

I would also suggest that smokers are less critical due to having one of the worst habits on this planet anyway!
And I'm afraid I think you should compare more the health factors relating to smoking and loud noises. After all, which is more 'annoying' - being deaf or dying from lung cancer!?

Just as a side note I've given up smoking now for about a month, and the difference is very noticeable. I can taste better, smell better and not have to worry all the time if I've got fags with me, lighter, time for a quick puff etc!!!
But I think all those people with really annoying ringtones on their phones should be careful - when giving up smoking you are liable to lose your temper more easily!!!

yeah, you're probably right about the whole stress issue... but when i started i do recall my temper came under control. i started smoking pretty late, around 18 or 19.

about the cancer issue, i know several doctors who smoke and, whereas they never promote it in any way, when i asked why they do it they respond by pointing out that genetics has more to do with cancer than any other factor. smoking will definitely aggrevate the tendancy, however.

still, smokers are actually paying through the nose for the right to smoke! with cigarette tax, it's getting really steep!

more power to you in quitting!

Yeah I agree with you on the genetics issue, there are some people who have smoked all their lives and lived to a ripe old age - just not many though!
As for the cost, it's ridiculous how much a pack of fags is now - only last week I worked out how much money my wife and I used to spend... over £3000 a year!!! Just think how much more you could afford if this was put towards the mortgage/rent or buying a car.

Can't say I've noticed I've got more money now though - it's amazing how quickly you find something else to spend it on!!!

I LOVE my fags!
If I ever decided to stop, it wouldn't be because someone told me it's bad for me. It wouldn't be because someone moaned at me for smoking.
If I ever decided to stop, it would be My decision, for ME. To keep ME happy, no-one else.
I don't moan or critise anyone else for their quirks, foibles or bad habits. So folk should get off my back about my vices.

Speaking as a non-smoker, I have two (or more, we'll see) thinga to say (one maybe?) anyways...
1) AS far as the alleged risks of secondhand smoke, I challenge you to find a city, any city, in which the air is not already so foul with car exhaust, factory smoke, and other such substances that cigarette smoke is at most a negligible risk. I see all thes political campigns for "smoke-free" workp;aces, restaurants, etc. when hardly anybody dares challenge the surpremacy of the mighty internal-combustion engine. Cars cause several times more deaths per year than cigarettes and alcohol(except drunk driving) combined. And that's not even adressing the gasoline fumes, CO&CO2.

2) Similarly, I noticed several responses by athsma sufferers in this list. I ask these people "Do you think that massive amounts of foreign particulate matter in the air around you since birth might possibly have contributed to you condition?"

Think about it. Share your thoughts with me. Please.

I have many many smoking relatives. I love them and don't find them evil, just because they do something I rather dislike to do myself.

I find that most of them identify their smoking intimately with their own brain's model of themselves. A mild expression against any other particular habit of theirs is accepted or ignored equinaminously as a well meant blither by dear kin.

And, since of course I love them (and hence in their minds the intimately connected part of them that is the cigarette)and they know that, it never really occurs to them that I might be objecting to any particular thing they are specifically doing.

I wonder how a smoker who I do not know percieves this. I wonder how sie percieves her non-relatives.

Actually, I have had an allergic reaction to perfume. It wash't being sprayed on me, but on some one else that I was walking past. Nonetheless, I felt as though I had been pepper-sprayed. That having been said, I find I agree more with Black Knight, in general.

Have to disagree with you on this one. I don't smoke normally, but when I do (1-2 per year maybe) it definetely does relieve stress. Not the healthiest way to do it, but we all know that.

Genetics and also life style. The more unhealthy factors (stress ,fags, etc.) the more likely cancer is. ! unhealthy factor wont do it.

Have you tried going to a no smoking pub! What a boring place, no atmosphere and very boring people, leave smokers alone, we've had do-gooders going on about it for too long....Get a life and enjoy it and stop moaning

i have long realised non-smokers believe they are superior to smokers, and have the automatic right to slag you off because you smoke.

Non smokers are just the Evil Empire in disguise, you want to control all the enjoyable thing in life!!