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

Can I add a few comments?

I think there have been some relevant points raised. The main difference between smoking and drinking is that if I imbibe a gallon of vodka sitting at the bar next to you, I don't affect your liver, heart, brain or general state of health (though I might upset you if I puked all down your barstool!). However, if you smoke a pack of cancer sticks sitting next to me, you affect my health directly - not to mention making me smell horrible.

However, I have to say that the reason I dislike smoking has nothing to do with health risks or benefits. I couldn't really give a bugger how bad it is for you, I have done many, many, much more dangerous things in my life than smoking. The only reason I dislike smoking is just that, I dislike it. It smells revolting, looks totally putrid and the last time I kissed anybody who smoked was 14 years ago and the horrible memory still lingers with me.

I tried smoking when I was young, my peers were all trying it so I thought I'd give it a go. I hated it, it made me gag, I tried it for about a week and I felt incredibly dirty and as though I stank all the time. Despite massive peer pressure, especially from my best friend at the time, I stopped and never tried it again - not because it was bad for me, I just hated it. I used to run out of the room when my parents lit up - both of them were heavy smokers - screaming blue murder, even as a small child.

To be brutally honest, watching someone smoke is about as attractive to me as watching them eat a big old shite sandwich - nauseating, ugly and downright repulsive. But that's just my personal opinion, and has nothing to do with the p.c. crowd - in fact I'm more likely to be un-p.c. than anything else just to be ornery.

I am certainly all for no-smoking in restaurants, as I simply can't eat if someone is smoking near me and I don't like my kids being around used carcinogens. I have to disagree on pubs though. I wouldn't take my kids to a pub, and I go there for only one reason - to get drunk with my family or friends - so if someone else wants to take their drug of choice alongside mine, I can't morally object to that - and get me pissed enough and I don't care much anyway.....

Regards

I am a smoker and as the days go on it seems like non-smokers and reformed smokers take it upon them selves to tell me that I NEED to quit. I don't tell them they need to go to the denist when it looks like they have years and years of decay. I don't tell them to stop having one night stands "unprotected" it could kill them. We all do things we arn't proud of. And so I ask you non smokers not to throw stones when you live in a glass house. NO BODY is perfect so stop acting so noble, for the meer fact you don't light up.

Wow, nice to see a new thread on this one!

As for you not telling your friends to go to dentist/stop unprotected sex, does that come with the possibility of danger to you? I'm not against smoking, just pointing out the facts!

Oh yes; you're absolutely right in your own way, but whilst we're stopping people smoking, why don't we stop the traffic on the roads in case somebody gets run over...fence off the sea before somebody drowns...flatten out the mountains in case someone might fall...banish staircases...stop children from playing...in fact, why don't we all just stay at home and not move around at all? It would probably be safer...but who would we get to fix the roof when it leaks? Oh my God, we're all going to die!!!!! It's not even safe to live in a plastic bubble anymore; there are potential carcenogens leaching from the plastic...plus you'd probably suffocate unless you had your own air filtration device fitted, and what of food? Dear God there is no hope...

Sarky!

Not saying it's my point of view, simply stating that it is one!

Y'know, I never get why people are scared of going on planes, when there are so many more car accidents...

Interesting...

Me? Sarky? Ne-ver!

On the subject that you raise concerning the fear of flying when there are so many car accidents:

It probably has something to do with the fact that a terrorist isn't likely to hijack your car, make you fly it to a foreign airport and get you to sit there on the tarmac at gunpoint until it's stormed by special forces...or even worse, crash it into a multistorey office block/landmark.

I could be wrong though...

I smoke. Sorry. But the only place I smoke, have smoked and probably will ever smoke is in my back garden. I tend to agree with views that smoking in public places should be prohibited. If I've got the right to mess up the air for other people in a resturaunt, does that also give me the right to litter the streets? Graffiti the window of Marks and Sparks? I admit that's going slightly too far, but I'm just trying to prove a point. I tend to treat smoking as a private thing, a small treat every few days. I've been smoking rollies for three years now, and I've still kept my weekly spending down to about a pound. If you smoke, you should stop smoking when you stop enjoying it. If you smoke, you should have some consideration that the only person breathing your smoke should be you.
As for alcohol, I used to use it as a comeback when my reasons for smoking were questioned, but it's too much a part of culture now, and I drink anyway, so every time I used that comeback, I was descending into the very hypocrisy that I continually try to avoid.

There have been fears of flying even b4 hijacking of planes!

There have been fears of flying even b4 hijacking of planes!

No doubt there was fear of flying before the advent of planes too? And rightly so...

BTW, isn't 'aspiring actress' another way of saying 'waitress'? Heheh (j/k)

That is very true!

Ho hum - nothing wrong with waitressing...

Yes there is. I couldn't stand it as a job; taking all the hassle from customers, being on your feet for hours on end, carrying hot plates of food one way, and slop the other. Nope, I wouldn't want to do it, but I think anybody that does deserves every penny they earn, plus a great deal more respect than they usually get.

...and working in all that cigarette smoke too...eeew!

Okay... so smoking is generally bad for you, and as a smoker I've never had a problem refraining in mixed company, but "no known [beneficial] effects" isn't quite true:

"A statistically significant inverse association between smoking and Alzheimer's disease was observed at all levels of analysis, with a trend towards decreasing risk with increasing consumption" (International Journal of Epidemiology, 1991). "The risk of Alzheimer's disease decreased with increasing daily number of cigarettes smoked before onset of disease. . . . In six families in which the disease was apparently inherited . . . the mean age of onset was 4.17 years later in smoking patients than in non-smoking patients from the same family" (British Medical Journal, June 22, 1991). "Although more data are needed . . . [an analysis of 19 studies suggests] nicotine protects against AD" (Neuroepidemiology, 1994). Nicotine injections significantly improved certain types of mental functioning in Alzheimer's patients (Psychopharmacology, 1992).

[The quotes above were collected by Cecil Adams, author of syndicated column, "The Straight Dope"]

Hmm? Interesting; I'm wondering if the increased alertness might just be as a result of stimulation by nicotine in particular, or whether the same result could be witnessed after the patient consumed a strong cup of coffee?

Smoking can definitely calm nerves in tense situations (of the smoker at least), that much I know. Asthmatics usually notice a positive effect from starting smoking too; it dilates the bronchial passages. My grandfather was pusuaded not to stop smoking, by his doctor, who said that he'd been smoking for something like sixty years, had survived all those years without ill effect, and the shock of stopping at that late stage would have killed him. He lived to be eighty-three, but who's to say he couldn't have reached a century if he'd never smoked? A lot of it is down to the luck of the draw I think.

But in the long term, the negative effects of smoking can't be denied; there is plenty of evidence to support this. I carry on smoking, but I can't deny that I'd like to stop...it's just bloody hard to do.

Hear, hear. At work we air not allowed to smoke on site (and I work on a substantial sized airfield) although it's considered acceptable for people to stand for hours in a queue at the coffee shop to get their hit.

I am considering giving up but I'm reluctant in case the company (or worse - the girlfriend) thinks it is their doing and gloat over their success.

I welcome any suggestions for replacement methods of bucking the system and making them wish they'd been more forgiving on smokers.

It's a known fact that humans will suffer, have pain, illness and then die. Death comes to all.

Well pointed out previously about all the nasty chemicals and carcinogens everywhere.

Bill Hicks famously said- All non smokers will die.
There is certainly lots of pollution everywhere, where is all this fresh clean air non smokers want to breathe?

I don't think a bit of cigarette smoke in the outside air will trigger an asthma attack, more likely the persons indignation and anger causing bronschospasm. Asthma is on the up, too much dettol, carpets and not enough allergens in the form of good old dirt and viruses.
I agree smokers should be considerate in where they smoke.
Nicotine is THE most addictive drug. Humans are suckers for being addictive to fat, sugar etc. The pleasure centre in the brain.

Smokers smoke for social, psychological and physical reasons (latter being addiction).
Too many high horses neighing.
Let's ban fat in food in any form, obesity is becoming a leading killer and mental health a leading form of disability.
There are no horns on my head. I enjoyed my rant.

Again... smokers seem to have the idea that non- smokers are being all righteous and "don't smoke 'cos it's bad for you." I for one do not give half a damn about what you smoke and how bad it is for you, just so long as you don't do it around me.

Case in point: your 'ban fat' point. If I eat a big greasy burger, no matter how close I am to you, you do not ingest ANY of the fat in it, and unless I throw it at you for smoking at me, you will not smell of burger until you go home and have a shower. When you light up at the table next to me, your little white stick affects the air I'm breathing, the taste of my burger and the colour and smell of my clothes.

My objections to smoking in public, and I guess most objections from those objections are not about you. You have the 'right' to be selfish by forcing me to breath your second hand smoke, so why should I back down from the selfishness of not wanting to?

TK

Just asking... please consider what these "situations you put yourself into", as you call them, that expose asthmatics to smoke:

Walking in public places, such as streets and parks.
Eating in public restaraunts.
Drinking in Pubs.

Dear lord, how inconsiderate of them, treating these places like public areas...

I have no quibble with a "right to smoke," but I've got no problem with guns on shooting ranges either. When your behaviour directly causes damage to those around you as well as yourself, you have no right to indulge in that behaviour around anyone who has not given permission to be damaged.

If you still think it's your right to smoke in public, can I gob in your beer if I see you down the pub? It relaxes me, it's my right, if you don't like it, you can go to another pub... Okay, if I pay taxes on gobbing, is it okay?

I would like to say that all people have the right to smoke drink and be happy if they want to. There are no smoking pubs and clubs, restaurants. Us smokers don't complain that we are being infrindged. Yes i don understand that there are asthma sufferers as i myself am one. Yes i realise the health risks im under but i do it on my own and i am hurting no one else. The debate then is what is worse....an addicted smoker or an addicted alcoholic? Both are legal both have devastating consequences but one is more socially acceptable.

I have never seen, walked past or heard of a pub or club anywhere I have been in this country (or any others, come to think of it) which has been a 'no smoking' pub or club, and I couldn't name a single restaurant that I know which is exclusively non- smoking.

And that's not the debate at all- people who can't handle their drink (i.e become violent when under the influence, or addicted) shouldn't drink- I agree with that- but it really isn't comparable. Comparing drinking and smoking really doesn't make any sense. Drinking is something you can do around other people without it affecting them in any way, unless you do it far too much (but that's a personal issue rather than a drinking one), but when you smoke, you force those around you to smoke too.

TK