What about my (non-smoking) rights?
Natalie writes: I am a 25-year-old woman who loves to socialize and adores dancing. However, I have no social life. Why? Because of cigarettes. I suffer from asthma and a specific, severe allergy to cigarette smoke. You may think this allergy is unusual but it isn't. I know of others who suffer from similar allergies.
So, you speak of smokers rights but what about my rights? Why can't I have a drink with friends in my local pub? Why can't I go dancing in a nightclub (something I would love to do as I have been attending dance lessons since the age of 7)?
You say many pubs have non-smoking areas which is adequate provision. I say no. It only takes ONE person to light up a cigarette for it to fill a room with smoke. How many times do you think that I've put my trust in publicans and the great British public to adhere to non-smoking areas? I have tried many times, so that I can have a social life (a basic human right). However, on most occasions when I can find a table in the non-smoking section (you may not like this but they are usually very crowded with non-smokers) at least one person (usually drunk) lights up and spoils my evening.
Experience has shown me that it is pointless to inform bar staff (usually too busy or indifferent) and asking the smoker to either stub out or move out of the non-smoking section leads to a stream of abuse and can be a dangerous thing to do.
So-called 'non-smoking areas' are usually pathetically inadequate. Apparently, invisible walls that divide an open plan room into 'smoking' and 'non-smoking' are able to stop the smoke from floating into the non-smoking area. This is particularly amusing on a crowded Friday or Saturday night when the smoke hangs like a thick fog. It won't surprise you that I have never yet come across this type of invisible barrier that actually works.
Your habit/addiction/human right of smoking literally rules over my day to day life. Smoking can destroy a simple thing for me like going on holiday, eating in a restaurant, staying in a hotel or even popping to my local pub. However, you may be surprised to hear that I think that some smoking in public areas can be permitted - providing that the smoking area is in a separate, sealed room and that restaurant owners/publicans go to more lengths to stop people smoking in the non-smoking areas.
You may think that my medical conditions make my arguments worthless. But all of my female friends of my age group do not smoke. They get sick of returning from an evening out reeking of smoke with stinging red eyes. They do not necessarily think that all public smoking should be banned but support the adequate provision of spaces where we can have a choice - where we don't have to breathe in smoke or be smoked upon.
One final thought. I have a couple of male friends who smoke. We have debated this subject often. They want to smoke but understand (and agree) that other people shouldn't have to breathe in their smoke. One friend has spent time in Canada. You really have to want to smoke if you are prepared to stand outside in their freezing cold temperatures! I don't want to turn this into a feminist issue but such weather conditions will certainly separate the men from the boys!
Smokers please take responsibility for your choice - and that includes the choice of non-smokers. You live in an enlightened age where medical and scientific advancements have been able to warn you of the dangers of smoking and can also prolong the life of a smoker who has a disease caused by their habit. I wish my grandmother could have taken advantage of modern medicine. She might have beaten the cancer she developed from her habit of smoking.
Choice and adequate provision - MY basic human right - that is all I ask for.
posted by Simon Clark @ 17:35
5 comments
5 Comments:
Move to Scotland......in a few months, you'll have almost every dancefloor to yourself. Well, at least for a year or so until the clubs can no longer afford to stay open.
I do sympathise with your medical condition however, do you not think that if more smoke-free clubs were really what the majority of people wanted, then market forces would dictate and more landlords would have made their premises non-smoking?
"Has Canada gone bankrupt? Has L.A gone bankrupt? Has New York gone bankrupt? Will Dublin go bankrupt?(I could go on) I think not."
No, these countries have not, and never will go bankrupt (unless there is a major world war) however, thousands of INDIVIDUALS in these countries have.
Regarding the village pub with 10 non-smoking tables which are always full.....the landlord is either A. a very astute business man who saw your clear desire for a non-smoking table and used the concept of high demand to ensure you got there early and spent more money or B. an absolute fool who hasn't had the sense to see that he could fill the pub every night if he made every table non-smoking. Either that or he currently has more money than he'll ever know what to do with and doesn't need to bother providing customers with what they want.
Natalie -
Firstly let me express my sympathy for your condition. The current (frankly ridiculous IMO) system must make it very difficult for you to socialise.
However, as I'm sure many before me have said, a total ban is not the answer. It is a massive infringement on civil liberties and undermines our freedom of choice.
One of the main arguments of the pro-ban lobbyists is that it is what the majority of people want. Well in that case why not leave it up to individual pubs / restaurants etc to decide if thay are going to be a smoking or non-smoking establishment? They could display a clear Government-issued notice outside showing whether smoking is allowed.
The current system of "non-smoking areas" is pointless. In my experience in pubs all around the country, they are almost always virtually deserted. The rest of the pub can be (cramped) standing room only, but there are always empty tables in this section. I imagine even non-smokers would not bother with them because they would feel alienated from the rest of the people in the pub and the smoke obviously drifts into the section anyway.
If non-smoking pubs really are what the majority of people want then, given the choice, surely many pubs would become non-smoking anyway and their takings would actually increase?
Just a thought...
Hi Natalie. To a degree I can sympathise with your asthma as my late mother-in-law also had the same problem, however she did find that she could cope when in non-smoking areas of bars and restaurants, it was only small pubs she had a problem with. As smokers, my husband and I usually find the opposite problem to you in that smoking areas are normally very small and crowded out and non smoking areas are almost empty!
The other point I would like to make, is when this unreasonable ban does come into force, how will it help you to go out dancing when you are also allergic to perfume that all the girls will be wearing and that will become more obvious and probably pungent as they get hotter and start to perspire?
I think if your friends won't agree to meet you in a venue with adequate ventilation, the perhaps you should take that up with them and not smokers.
No-one is denying that smoking has its health implications and my partner is asthmatic doesn't prevent him from lighting up. As a smoker, I advocate choice. I choose not to go to non smoking environments and you can choose not to go into smoking environments. It's not really our fault if the 'lively' places happen to allow smoking.
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