Smoking and anti-smoking

[bluehillside Retd.]

Crossing the road.

[bluehillside Retd.]

Dishwashers - apparently several people a year are killed or injured by them when they put the sharp knives in blade side up, leave the door open and then trip over it and impale themselves.

I tell you, they're lethal those things!

[bluehillside Retd.]

Cows. In 2013 João Maria de Souza was crushed in his bed by a cow falling through the roof of his home in Caratinga, Brazil. The cow had climbed on top of the house from a steep hillside behind it. Both the cow and de Souza's wife (who had been in bed next to him) were unharmed.

[Steve H]

Winter should be banned - the number of sprained ankles and fractured arms and ribs from slipping on ice is unacceptable.

[Enki]

Golf clubs, soup, hair extensions.

[Rhiannon]

I’ve heard that if you are alive you will actually die. I think it should be banned immediately. It’s far too risky.

[jeremyp]

I think you'll find that smokers are mindless scum.

That post wins the Internet for today.

[Nearly Sane]

I’ve heard that if you are alive you will actually die. I think it should be banned immediately. It’s far too risky.

Worse you will almost certainly harm someone else!


All of the joking aside, how we accept risks is a complex balance of freedom and harm. A simplistic idea that harm must be stopped is obviously problematic. Cases need to be considered individually. I'm pretty happy with where we are on smoking. There might be some tweaks that could be done but the general aim is right.

[jeremyp]

Dishwashers - apparently several people a year are killed or injured by them when they put the sharp knives in blade side up, leave the door open and then trip over it and impale themselves.

I tell you, they're lethal those things!

Surely that's knives, not dishwashers. All knives that are capable of cutting things should be banned. Also, scissors that are light enough to run with.

[Nearly Sane]

Surely that's knives, not dishwashers. All knives that are capable of cutting things should be banned. Also, scissors that are light enough to run with.

I'm loving the idea of properly heavy scissors.

[bluehillside Retd.]

Jeremy,

Surely that's knives, not dishwashers. All knives that are capable of cutting things should be banned. Also, scissors that are light enough to run with.

It's both - you need an open (and forgotten about) dishwasher door to trip over for the full horror to emerge...

[Steve H]

Can you cite a study that shows smoking in open places is harmful to non smokers?

No, of course she can't. Mere facts never bother her.

[Rhiannon]

Worse you will almost certainly harm someone else!


All of the joking aside, how we accept risks is a complex balance of freedom and harm. A simplistic idea that harm must be stopped is obviously problematic. Cases need to be considered individually. I'm pretty happy with where we are on smoking. There might be some tweaks that could be done but the general aim is right.

I think it crazy that smoking isn't allowed in pubs. At the same time I think we have out attitude to drinking distinctly skewed. It's ok to both drink in public and be drunk in public, but if I had the choice between sitting next to a table of smokers or a table of drunks give me the smokers any day - even more so if I'm just walking around town, smokers will leave me alone, a drunk might not. With drinking it's not just physical harm but harassment. But try to talk about restrictions and all you get is, 'but Jacintha and I want to have a glass of fizz with our picnic'...

[Humph Warden Bennett]

I gave up smoking several years ago when I found that I did not enjoy it any more.

To ban smoking in a town centre is plain silly, it is difficult enough enforcing a booze free zone, and that is far more of a danger to passers-by than is cigarette smoke.

[Robbie]

I don't smoke but don't mind others doing it. If anyone visits me and wants to smoke they go in the garden or if bad weather a small room that has a door to the garden, with door open.A bit of 'passive' smoke out of doors is not going to hurt anyone, you'd have to be in a smoky atmosphere for a long time to be harmed and even then probably wouldn't be though the smell would linger on clothes. In the 1980s I remember people smoking at their desks at work, nobody said anything, but that all changed later in the decade.

SteveH has said he smokes pipe & not heard of any problems with pipe smoking except rarely on the lip. Steven most your pipe around, don't always park it in the same place in your mouth. I expect where you work you're not allowed to smoke so it's only in the evening or weekends. I quite like smell of pipe smoking.

[Roses]

I don't smoke but don't mind others doing it. If anyone visits me and wants to smoke they go in the garden or if bad weather a small room that has a door to the garden, with door open.A bit of 'passive' smoke out of doors is not going to hurt anyone, you'd have to be in a smoky atmosphere for a long time to be harmed and even then probably wouldn't be though the smell would linger on clothes. In the 1980s I remember people smoking at their desks at work, nobody said anything, but that all changed later in the decade.

SteveH has said he smokes pipe & not heard of any problems with pipe smoking except rarely on the lip. Steven most your pipe around, don't always park it in the same place in your mouth. I expect where you work you're not allowed to smoke so it's only in the evening or weekends. I quite like smell of pipe smoking.

Apparently my maternal grandfather was a pipe smoker, he died at the young age of nearly 53 due to problems with his lungs.

[bluehillside Retd.]

LR,

Apparently my maternal grandfather was a pipe smoker, he died at the young age of nearly 53 due to problems with his lungs.

Just out of interest, would you also re-criminalise attempted suicide? After all, smoking is arguably a form of slow suicide albeit with less consistent results.

[Robbie]

I thought pipe smokers didn't inhale. We'll have to ask Steve as he's the only active pipe smoker here as far as I know. Both of my grandfathers and an uncle smoked a pipe and lived to ripe old ages, one cousin of my mother in Filey whom I saw this year (the cousin) does. He's old and sprightly. Cigarettes are the worst thing, smokers take it all down into lungs and clog up the cilia which causes all sorts of problems if they're heavy smokers. There are people who smoke one or two fags a day or occasionally after a meal (a friend does that) which doesn't hurt.

[bluehillside Retd.]

Robbie,

Cigarettes are the worst thing, smokers take it all down into lungs and clog up the cilia which causes all sorts of problems if they're heavy smokers.

Cilia Black?

I'll get me jacket...

[Roses]

I thought pipe smokers didn't inhale. We'll have to ask Steve as he's the only active pipe smoker here as far as I know. Both of my grandfathers and an uncle smoked a pipe and lived to ripe old ages, one cousin of my mother in Filey whom I saw this year (the cousin) does. He's old and sprightly. Cigarettes are the worst thing, smokers take it all down into lungs and clog up the cilia which causes all sorts of problems if they're heavy smokers. There are people who smoke one or two fags a day or occasionally after a meal (a friend does that) which doesn't hurt.

If you smoke, however few, you are putting yourself at risk. The first question you are asked when receiving medical care is, 'Do you smoke?' We were asked that the other day when we went for our flu jabs.

[Rhiannon]

If you smoke, however few, you are putting yourself at risk. The first question you are asked when receiving medical care is, 'Do you smoke?' We were asked that the other day when we went for our flu jabs.

Isn't that personal choice though?

[Rhiannon]

Apparently my maternal grandfather was a pipe smoker, he died at the young age of nearly 53 due to problems with his lungs.

And you know that was due to pipe smoking how? My uncle has never smoked but has lung problems due to exposure to particles in his working life. There are all kinds of problems in the past that don't factor so much now - TB for example.

[bluehillside Retd.]

Rhi,

And you know that was due to pipe smoking how? My uncle has never smoked but has lung problems due to exposure to particles in his working life. There are all kinds of problems in the past that don't factor so much now - TB for example.

To be fair I know for certain that smoking killed my uncle. He was run over by a Benson & Hedges lorry...

[Anchorman]

Apparently my maternal grandfather was a pipe smoker, he died at the young age of nearly 53 due to problems with his lungs.

My mum smoked cigarretes.
She couldn't quit, but cut down.
She contracted tongue cancer.

[Nearly Sane]

No, of course she can't. Mere facts never bother her.

except when asked she did. There may be questions around its method but it's still cited.