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No Smoking (UK experience)
10/08/08 | Phil.K

Posted on 08/10/2008 3:03:15 AM PDT by Jakarta ex-pat

After just returning from a 2 week holiday to my home country, I can sadly conclude we Brits have become obsessed with public smoking.

I can understand why people shouldn’t smoke on trains, but even in the outside of a train station, as long as it is covered, NO SMOKING!

At Heathrow airport, NO SMOKING! (Even Changi Airport in Singapore has had the civility to keep smoking rooms available for those inclined.)

In every pub, NO SMOKING

In every hotel, NO SMOKING

Thank god I live in smoker’s paradise.


TOPICS: Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: nannystate; pufflist; smokingbans

1 posted on 08/10/2008 3:03:16 AM PDT by Jakarta ex-pat
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To: Jakarta ex-pat
In every pub, NO SMOKING

Thats just nuts. Glad I saw the UK when I did (1990-93). Its fading away.
2 posted on 08/10/2008 3:18:03 AM PDT by kb2614 (Hell hath no fury than a bureaucrat scorned)
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To: kb2614

What’s more there are often more punters drinking outside the pub than inside, though I got the impression it became far fewer during the winter :-)


3 posted on 08/10/2008 3:21:30 AM PDT by Jakarta ex-pat
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To: Jakarta ex-pat

Ironically, the Japanese do not discourage smoking. They realize the savings in health care costs from smokers dieing prematurely and factor that into their economy. They must laugh at how Americans discourage it at their own peril in long term health care costs.


4 posted on 08/10/2008 3:30:32 AM PDT by microgood
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To: microgood

Used to be that way, my friend. But not anymore. Smoking is being relentlessly snuffed out in Japan as well.

20 years ago when I came to work here, smoking was allowed in every office space and people came around in the morning to empty the ashtrays on everyone’s desks.

Now, virtually all offices are non-smoking and the most you can hope for is a smoking room on your floor — if your lucky.

You can’t even pop outside the building for a smoke in most districts of Tokyo now. Walking with a cigarette in your hand is a 2,000 yen fine in most central Tokyo areas. Taxis are now non-smoking.

Smoking cars are being eliminated from trains. Smoking areas in restaurants are getting smaller and smaller, and on the station platforms, and only on a few lines, there are small three meter square smoking areas always located wayyyyyyyyyyy down at the very end of the platform.

I’ve pretty much switched to Swedish snus during the day. I smoke at home in the evenings and on weekends.


5 posted on 08/10/2008 3:44:26 AM PDT by Ronin (Is there some rule that says that when an evil man gets sick, we must pretend he was a saint?)
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To: microgood
They realize the savings in health care costs from smokers dieing prematurely and factor that into their economy.

When everything is added up does the typical smoker cost a nation's health care system less that a non-smoker? Yes,smokers tend to die young but many of them (most,in fact) use up a ton of health care $$$ in the last 5...10...20 years of their lives.My Dad and my cousin are two examples.My Dad stopped smoking in his 70's after substantial,but not overwhelming,damage had been done to his lungs.He spent **lots** of time in the hospital and in doctors' offices....tests,X-rays,pills,etc,etc...in the last 10 years of his life.Except for his lungs he was in very good shape for a guy his age.

My cousin was even worse.She was a respiratory cripple for the last 10 years of her life.In the hospital more than she was out.She died young (65) but she did *not* die cheap.

6 posted on 08/10/2008 5:42:05 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Obama:"Ich bein ein beginner")
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To: Gay State Conservative
Yes,smokers tend to die young but many of them (most,in fact) use up a ton of health care $$$ in the last 5...10...20 years of their lives.

On the other hand I have an 89 year old aunt that has smoked for probably 75 plus years. She has outlived 5 of her 7 children, all non-smokers and other than birthing children has never spent a day in the hospital. She's in excellent health and extremely active.

7 posted on 08/10/2008 6:03:29 AM PDT by politicalwit (AKA... A Tradition Continues...Now a Hoosier Freeper)
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To: Jakarta ex-pat
I smoke, but recognized it is obnoxious to non- smokers and stinks, so I won't smoke around people who don't. Pubs should be able to make that judgement on their own. In CA they call a place a cigar bar to get around it.
8 posted on 08/10/2008 6:42:17 AM PDT by mefistofelerevised
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To: Gay State Conservative

Your points are valid. However, I wonder where it stops. A neurologist friend of mine states without qualification that alcoholism is FAR more expensive on the medical side alone (the patients tend to be sick, but not die right away, and expensive organs [e.g. liver] are most affected.) He stated that a trip to any VA hospital will make it clear.

Some are already arguing that obesity and even being overweight costs as much or more.

I am a lifelong non-smoker, and my dad got lung cancer at 35 (it was caught earlier and beaten with surgery). I am still uncomfortable with the government making so big a fuss over it, even though I am no libertarian.

When the argument shifts from “interfering with other people in public places” to managing health-care costs, I see no logical argument angainst government controlling nearly every aspect of our lives.


9 posted on 08/10/2008 7:28:51 AM PDT by Dr. Sivana (There is no salvation in politics)
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