beginning to think there's more smokers than non-smokers

Anyone else feel this way? I even over heard someone say they were surprised how many there are in Toronto (they aren't from here). It seems like half the people I see as I wait for the bus to work are smoking. At the bar this Saturday for a bday party, nearly the whole group of people were smoking (we were on the patio). I still smell it. I would say at least half my co-workers smoke (my boss doesn't even say have a 'break', it's 'smoke break'). Heck most of my friends the last couple years are smokers. What gives? Are more people getting hooked on them?

Oh yeah I remember walking down one of the main streets in the spring, and the sidewalk that was covered by snowbanks was now covered by old cigarette butts...so gross.

I don't mean to offend any smokers (do you guys even get offended by us non-smokers complaining?!?)...but why are there so many of you -.-

The non-smokers outnumber the smokers by quite a margin now. In certain populations you'll see more smokers. When I was a kid it was the other way around.

I think you see more smokers outside buildings and such because there are fewer places where smokers can smoke inside. Ohio became non-smoking in all public indoor places in the 2006 election. It is so much nicer now to not have to deal with smoke inside anywhere. I love it.

Quit almost a year ago after a long history with the tobacco industry.

Though I never tossed butts out the window or haphazardly on the ground, most smokers will without a second thought.

Some smokers are so belligerent they even get ticked off when folk don't want smoking around their children.

Near the end of my relationship with the Marlboro man it seemed there wasn't a welcome place in public to smoke and mostly everyone I knew was a non smoker.

Now I wish everyone was an ex-smoker.

To answer you question, no, I personally wasn't offended by non smokers as a smoker, I respected their right to not smoke my butts. As a non-smoker I wish more smokers felt the same way I did, as the smoke is uber offensive to me and will avoid places (indoors) that allow it whenever possible.

Weird....my fiance and I were just talking about this. We were inside a non-smoking brewery (Smoking is still allowed in public buildings so far). We noticed a lot of passerbys smoking and we said something at the same time. Smoking went out of fashion for a few years but all of the sudden, I'm seeing more and more people smoking again.

I'm a former smoker myself and every now and then, I'd love a drag but I refuse to even try. I considered myself a polite smoker, always stepping outside to smoke and distinguishing my cigs appropriately. I knew I was making the unhealthy choice so, no, I was never offended at other peoples decisions to not be around it.

I have zero tolerance for smokers.  That's a prejudice I'll repent of sometime in the future.

If you want to get choked by smoke, some American college campuses provide that opportunity.  Stupid kids.

I was so happy when Ohio became smoke free inside bars and buildings. Now, I am thinking about rejoining a bowling league. I used to HATE it when I would come home smelling like an ash tray and I didn't even smoke. Not to mention the fear I have of all the second hand smoke diseases. I can't stand when we go somewhere with the kids, like on a hayride, or the playground, and someone lights up. Give me a break. We are outside to get some fresh air, don't light up by me or my kids. If you have to smoke, they should have smoke zones like all the way at the far end of the parking lot or something. A really long hike. I have zero tolerance for smokers as well. I should say, zero tolerance for inconsiderate smokers who want to smoke by me or light up where it is illegal. I think alot of it stems from the fact that my dad has been a smoker pretty much forever. Every day I expect the phone to ring and to get "the call" from my mom that the BIG C has arrived. I have had this fear ever since Officer Thomas came to our school for the DARE program back when I was a little kid and showed us a black set of lungs.

When I was working the curb at the traffic light where we exited the property was an inch deep in butts.  It was people lighting up in the car as they left because they weren't allowed to smoke at work.  By the time they got up to the light, the first cigarette was finished and they tossed it out.  The world was their ashtray.

I don't see as many people smoking these days. 

I had a garage sale at my old house last summer. People would light up a cigarette as they walked around my yard and then just toss it into my bushes or drop it on the ground right in front of me in my driveway.

The next time I have a garage sale I'm putting up no smoking signs on my property.

I'm a freshman in college now, and while I wouldn't say most people at my school smoke, I definitely was surprised by the number of smokers. There are a couple of smokers who live on my floor, but they're very discreet about it. I didn't know until about a week ago that one of the guys smoked. And they always take it outside, even though it's so inconvenient (we live on the 11th floor of our dorm building).

I was also surprised, and a little upset, by the number of my highschool friends who started smoking once they got to college.

I posted a topic a few months ago about this. If I knew how to link it here I would, but I don't so I won't LOL. I live in a state that has a huge number of smokers. I can't stand it when they light up around my kids. It seems so RUDE to me. I don't want my child's health at risk. I don't want to smoke someone else's cancer stick I don't care if its outside or in. We were at the fair and my son was crying because he couldn't breathe. I was flamed for posting that, I was utterly speechless when grown adults were debating the right of smokers to smoke around my child or telling me that I should remove my child from the fair if I didn't like it. UGHH. Anyone that can find that post and link it please feel free and thank you in advance.

I wondered if people were going to shoot me down for my opionion as well. Nobody has a right to smoke around me or my children. If someone lights up, I ask them to leave, or we leave. Smoking in front of me or my kids is as dangerous as waving a weapon around in the air. Thats my opinion and I'm stickin to it.

r4eboxer - ask and you shall receive 

http://caloriecount.about.com/grrr-rant-ft108 662-1#35

Lulu, I think it depends on where the offending smoker is at.   If it's outside, but in a very tight space, I can understand...but if it's out on the sidewalk or something, there's not much that can be done.  It's public area.

Right peaches, I understand this. I am mostly referring to the tighter spaces such as a picnic pavilion, standing in line, etc.....Anywhere the smoke is coming into direct contact with someone else. And I understand that some of those places are public, such as a picnic pavilion at a public park. I am just asking for courtesy and respect from smokers. If its public place, they can go somewhere else where nobody else is around and smoke all they want. But don't smoke where someone else can breath it in, especially kids, or anyone really. You never know who has asthma or something.  And don't leave butts all over the ground where my little ones tend to pick them up.

I'm a smoker.  I hate leaving butts on the ground.  When I'm out, I always make an effort to look for an ashtray....or a trash can.

Original Post by peaches0405:

Lulu, I think it depends on where the offending smoker is at.   If it's outside, but in a very tight space, I can understand...but if it's out on the sidewalk or something, there's not much that can be done.  It's public area.

 Give me a break!!!  Really - if you are outside - you guys are just being ignorant and following the no-smoke croud!  I am a non-smoker - but sheeeeesh!  If the person is outside - what more do you want?  You don't  like it - step away!!!  What is next - what do you want?  - the govmt to tell you it is illegal to eat pie becuase it causes artery clogging?

Cars cause as much pollution outside... so does your furnace.  Alot of posters here probably have more to worry about from their bodyfat & their cholesterol than they do from smoke! 

This herd mentality is ridiculous.

Cars cause as much pollution outside... so does your furnace. 

Cars move around, so I don't have to smell them as much as the neighbor that sits outside and makes me close my windows when the smoke comes in my house.

Smoking has a worse odor, anyhow.

I like cars, though.  I can use them to get from point A to point B.  No point in smoking.

you guys are just being ignorant and following the no-smoke croud!

You have got to be kidding me. I didn't know that caring for my health and that of my children was ignorant, or following a "crowd". But if it is, then I'll join that crowd.

And last I heard, alot of the  new cars are being designed to try to make them more enviornmentally friendly and to cause less pollution.

i also hate smokers.  that's extreme.  let me be more preceise.  i hate smokers who ask if you mind if they smoke, after they already lit their cigarette.  the otehrs ones are ignorant.  not stupid (well, some are, but there are stupid non-smokers too).  ignorat because they know smoking is bad for them, the people around them, AND the planet, yet they still do it.  there is no reason to smoke.  i'm sorry, but there isn't  ephesema, lung/other cancer is not cool.  wrinkles, yellow fingernails, rotting teeth, impotence, is not cool.  i just don't get why someone would choose to kill themselevs and those close to them.

this is NOT the same as cars who also pollute, because until alternatives to fuel become more affordale/convenient, we still need gas which does, unfortunately, polute.  doing every little bit to cut back (bike, walk, bus, subway) counts. 

i have friends who are smokers, they're nice, i'm not saying they're monsters so no one attack me.  all i'm saying it it's a stupid choice to not quit.  for whatever reason you started, it doesn't matter, but you should quit.  saves money, healthy, garbage, so much...

those are my two cents and i shall not check this thread again since i'm sure i'll get attacked for my views.  i just wanted to express them.  freedom of speech and all.

As a former smoker, I am of two minds about this.  When I was a smoker, I was a considerate smoker in that I always tried to keep the smoke away from those who didn't smoke and would never throw my butts on the ground.  There were a great many times, however, when nonsmokers would be very rude to me for being a smoker.  As far as I was concerned, they didn't have the right to treat me in that manner simply because they didn't agree with the choice that I made to smoke.  For some reason, non-smokers, and particularly former smokers, seem to feel that they are entitled to be abusive toward smokers regardless of the circumstances.  Now that I no longer smoke, I am not, nor I would ever become a "smoking nazi" and treat people badly simply because they smoke.   They have that right.  That said, I now find the smell of smoke offensive, on people but not necessarily in the air, unless it's a very closed in place. 

Wow.  Some people got a little harsh about this.

*steps far away from the thread to take smoke break*