this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2023
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That's just not the case, at all. I'm a very recent ex-smoker and non-smoking areas absolutely helped me stop, but not for the reason you might think.
In Australia it's the same - cigarettes getting more expensive and the number of places you can smoke reducing.
No one ever suggested that it's to keep kids from smoking - the message has always been pretty clear: every cigarette is doing harm, so less places to smoke means less harm.
The main benefit of non-smoking areas is that it made me realise that withdrawals and cravings are really no big deal. About 5 years ago I was terrified of trying to stop because I had convinced myself that the withdrawals would be awful. Then I took a job at a place where it just wasn't possible to smoke even on breaks. The most noticeable thing was that getting through the entire day without a smoke was actually no big deal - the symptoms were very manageable.
So, to say "they" want everyone to smoke is an odd take IMO. The assumption is that everyone want's to stop - and non-smoking areas assist with that.
I don't really believe that you do enjoy smoking. I mean, sitting with friends and having a few beers and smokes is certainly an enjoyable activity - but it's not the smoking that makes it enjoyable. Anyhow, even if you did truly enjoy smoking, I guess you unfortunately just have to cater for the majority who do not.
Non-smoking area are also there so that the people around smokers don't have to breathe cancer they never asked for.
A absolutely hate how every time I go eat on a restaurant terrace the experience is ruined by some guy next to me smoking...
Yeah. That is one of the purported reasons for non-smoking areas, all though your actual risk of cancer must be pretty minor surely.
If you worked in a bar then yeah - breathing the smoke-filled air all shift for many years might effect your risk profile.
Catching a whiff of tobacco not so much.
Passive smoking is health problem as soon it's indoor, but even when it's not a health issue, smoke fucking stinks.
I think this is a cultural difference. In the US it's not uncommon for common sense health regulation to get ignored - such as the amount of sugar in soda - because people cause an uproar about freedoms being taken away.
But if you say it's about the health of sweet, innocent children... well then suddenly it's a lot more palatable for the public.
So here in the US, you can want everyone to stop smoking, but make the case that it is for the benefit of children in order to help achieve that goal.
Maybe things are different down under, but here in the states they very much do use the "keep kids from smoking" excuse. Every. Single. Time.
I don't mind going outside or whatever so much. That wasn't the point I was making. When I started smoking, you could still smoke in restaurants, airplanes, offices, etc. They still had ashtrays at the end of every aisle at the supermarket when I was a kid. Picking up smoking wasn't a radical thing to do.
They've pushed us out to the fringes, but that's fine. But their goal is to eliminate smoking. What I'm saying is that enough is enough. Let us smoke off away from everyone and die out.