What is it about smoking that brings out the most infantile attitudes? Any attempt to restrict the ability of smokers to smoke when and where they like is bound to bring out the silliest self-serving nonsense. Case in point is the BCC's latest move to restrict smoking on Queen Street Mall. The idea that I shouldn't have to partake of someone else's smoke just because I want to go shopping elicits comments like these:
City worker Leah Nesbit said she was more concerned about the plans to ban smoking in cars if there was a child in the car
....She said the changes would affect her smoking and driving.
"I would stop and pull over and then smoke," she said.
Bad luck if you're Ms Nesbit's child I suppose. A potential lifetime of asthma and impaired neurological development could be in your future.
City News worker Warren Burton said he believed any toughening of anti-smoking legislation would drive some people from the mall.
He suggested "sectioning off" an area of the mall for smokers.
"In one way it would would mean that we would lose customers out of it," Mr Burton said.
No Warren, no one is allowed to smoke in stores anyway, anyone who couldn't visit the mall because they're so addicted to ciggies wouldn't be able to stop smoking long enough to enter a store anyway.
"Why don't we section an area off," he asked.
"And put in proper bins and smoking trays."
Mr Burton said one problem in the Queen Street Mall at present was burning cigarette butts setting rubbish in bins alight.
"What people really object to is the butts lighting up," he said.
I don't see why the tax payer should be forced to pay for arson proof bins. I manage to not set my bin on fire on a daily basis, it shouldn't be too hard for other people. Also a sectioned off area for smokers means smokers, people who make a PERSONAL CHOICE to smoke, get to enjoy the whole mall while people who do not want to smoke are forced to take part in someone else's habit if they want to enjoy the entire mall.
And finally:
Smoker Mark Bahnisch said he understood that passive smoking was a problem, but believed most people were responsible smokers and stood clear of people while they smoked.
"I think we need to draw a line somewhere," Mr Bahnisch said.
"Because it is an addiction and if you stop people smoking here, then you will just get more smokers in a smaller area.
"And then you just have to ask how ridiculous is it in terms of people's personal freedoms."
How precious. Personal freedoms are not synonymous with getting to do whatever you want to other people. I didn't choose to smoke, someone else did. Why should I get to smoke too? Maybe I should spray bug spray in his face* and tell him how ridiculous his objections are in terms of my freedom to spray a toxic product freely available from supermarkets where I like. Is this one of the guys from Larvatus Prodeo? Sarah reckons it is. If it is, how disappointing. My right to not breathe your smoke trumps your right to enjoy your cigarette. Why? Because you can still smoke, at home, at other private places and, god help us, public designated smoking areas.
My right to not stink of cigarette smoke and feel like I'm gargling gravel can be upheld by you simply NOT smoking. You made the choice to increase your risk of dying from something horrible, I didn't, should I share that risk just for being in public? You don't have to do anything special or stop smoking altogether. If I don't choose to smoke I shouldn't be forced to do so simply by being in freaking public. You're not forced to drink alcohol if you go to a bar, an establishment specifically for the consumption of alcohol, so why the hell should I be forced to smoke because I'm in public and some dude wants to indulge in their habit because they feel oppressed?
I've gotten to work with people who have wound up with smoking related diseases. They all vehemently and vocally regretted it and wished they could have chosen differently. A few of them expressed disbelief at how younger people were STILL taking up smoking despite the new warnings and information they'd never had. Still, just because it's a stupid risk to take doesn't mean I think people should be stopped from taking it. I just don't want to go along for the ride because I'm queuing for the bus or walking down the mall.
* Clearly I wouldn't do this. But smokers do this to non-smokers every day.
2 comments:
You beat me to it. As for people not shopping if they can't smoke- are you kidding me? Warren Burton is an idiot. I avoid shopping in the mall like the plague because I inevitably come out of the place with a sore throat and aching chest from having to breathe the clouds of cigarette smoke that hang in the air. The 80% of the population who don't smoke probably do likewise. The buildings hem in the smoke-filled air so it can't escape, and it's even worse under the semi-roofed areas.
As for the idea that smokers are 'mostly considerate' about where they smoke, are you fucking KIDDING me?!!! They smoke EVERYWHERE. It's gross. Smokers are the most inconsiderate people in the universe, and Mark Bahnisch is obviously a bit too wrapped up with his concerns over his 'right' to force non-smokers to breathe his foul-smelling carcinogens to notice what a bunch of inconsiderate fucktards his fellow addicts are. Most of them can't even be arsed to walk a metre or two to the nearest bin, let along show any concern for the health of people around them. Hell, most smokers don't even show any concern for the health of their own children. What about that Leah Nesbit chick? 17 years old and is concerned that she won't be able to smoke in her car because she's carrying a kid in there. It boggles my mind that so many smokers show such disregard for their children's health.
Frankly, I've never even noticed burning rubbish in the mall, but maybe that's because I was hurrying past to escape all the fucking smokers.
I've actually written Campbell Newman a letter to congratulate him and encourage him to ban all public smoking in Brisbane, or at least the CBD. This is probably the first really decent thing he has done as lord mayor/idiot-in-chief.
I wholeheartedly agree. As a non-smoker I'm constantly sickened by the smokers who literally don't give a shit about how they affect other people.
I call BS on anyone who says that the majority of smokers are "considerate". They fail to understand there there is no such thing as a considerate smoker.
I have lost count of the times I've thought to myself "I should piss all over this guy". That sounds rather crooked, but yes I mean it.
When the bastard complains I'll simply state: "You have a habit. The residue of your habit is smoke. That smoke pollutes the air that I breathe, makes me feel sick, and makes me stink. You smoke around me and your residue affects me without my permission. I also have a habit. I like to drink. The residue of my habit is urine. It just so happens that whatever it is you think gives you the right to smother me in smoke without my permission is exactly the same thing that gives me the right to piss all over you without your permission".
OK, so that is an extreme example, but at the end of the day I think it's a valid one. I am sick of smoke, and I'm sick of smokers.
Hats off to BCC for finally considering banning smoke from Queen St Mall. It's a constant pillar of smoke at lunch times and it's pretty much unbearable going anywhere near it.
Another hot spot for stinkers is at the end of the tunnel that connects ANZAC square to the train. In the afternoon, the whole tunnel stinks of the last exhilation from all those smokers trying their best to get a few more puffs in before going into the non-smoking area. It's horrendous. Add that the fact that they're all in a hurry to get on the train and hence don't extinguish their cigarettes before bolting up the tunnel - resulting in all the bins burning, along with the butts.
I'm fucking sick of it. Smoking is by far and away the filthiest and most intrusive habit out there. I can't stand it.
Thanks for listening :)
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