To all you smokers out there I think most of you truly believe this.
Just yesterday at my place of business someone emptied their car's ashtray into a giant pile in the parking lot. I drive down the road and someone in the car ahead of me is finished puffing on their cig toss it still lit out the window right onto the shoulder of the road where it starts a grass fire. I love it even more when they toss a lit one into a trash can when they walk into a place of business and it starts a fire. I've had to personally put a few of those out. Friends of mine that smoke come over to my house and light up outside and once finished toss it into the street. Worse is to go and take a piss in a urinal and see a few soaked cigarette butts in my urine stream next to the ABC gum.
I'm happy that smoking is pretty much banned in most public places, but you still have to deal with litter left behind by the majority of those that smoke. Every smoker I talk to says they never toss butts out so thoughtlessly so it make me wonder who the one person in the entire world is that is doing all this!
Rebuttals or anyone care to fess up?
Posted by FootLongSub Zero (Member # 19380) on :
Funny that. We have a designated area for smokers at work and there are 5 fixed metal cigarette disposal units, yet there are probably more butts on the grass around the area than in the disposals. The cleaner has a hard time trying to pick/push the butts crammed into the spaces between the seats. Part of being in a free country I guess.
Posted by sofatater (Member # 4209) on :
Wow! I thought I was "that one person" that was throwing all the butts on the ground. But, since I haven't smoked in almost three years, there must have been at least two of us! Sorry about that folks. I've seen the error of my ways and cleaned up my act.
Posted by FtLckr26 (Member # 13998) on :
My wife used to toss lit cigarette butts in the street. I guess she really loves me cause she stopped smoking because I don't like it. So now, there is one less smoker out there. I'm working on a second, my mom but its not looking like it will happen.
Posted by Cain (Member # 8492) on :
Isnt it funny how you can't drink and drive cause you Might kill someone but you can smoke next to people even though it Might kill them...
Posted by Cain (Member # 8492) on :
And why when you can't breathe because you walked a few hundred feet do you feel the need to expel all your air into the face of others when you come to ask them a question i one huge whoooofff in their face...like a long drawn out i can't breathe sigh...Can you smell my cigarettes and coffee breath!
Posted by Andy-Laa (Member # 31511) on :
Smokers are treated much like lepers recently (as proven by this post) and I'm not saying it's a bad thing...obviously though - the safety factor of starting forest fires is a major issue for concern and I don't agree with emptying out an ashtray in a car park (It kind of defeats the object of using the ashtray).
Having said all that...what harm does a fag end in the road do to us?
It's not like there's kids crawling around and eating the butts or wildlife doing the same or anything...I don't get the big deal - I do however use an ashtray and flush/throw mine out, but if there are no cigarette receptacles (there just never are - as they are always stupidly out of the way) I'll just chuck it on the road as I walk by. What else am I supposed to do? Like you said putting it in bins is like the stupidest idea you can think of and there's no way one could put them their pocket...the road is actually the safest place.
Much like banning talking on the phone in a car - banning it wont stop it I'm afraid...why is there a big deal about it now whereas it never affected anyone however many years people have been smoking and driving for?
Posted by LeDaemon (Member # 198) on :
quote:Having said all that...what harm does a fag end in the road do to us?
Well the harm is that its litter. Which means eventually someone else has to clean up behind you. Like I said at my place of business its a daily issue of having landscaping cleaned out from all the butts that get tossed off into it as people walk in the door. I think even if I went ahead and provided an receptacle by the door to safely dispose of cigs they would still end up everywhere else BUTT in it! I mean there are already ashtrays I've provided on the patio, but still people toss them on the ground and flick ash everywhere.
Posted by shook (Member # 12484) on :
Up here and canada you can't fucking smoke anywhere. Basically the only place you can smoke is at home, in your car (with no one under 18 in the car), and outside patios at restaurants/bars but only if there is no over hang or anything above you.
Posted by Jax (Member # 24963) on :
Smoking is a vice as much as any other habit that does cause harm to people who do smoke. Now, as for this statement; The King Of Feet Member # 8492
Icon 1 posted July 10, 2009 12:30 PM Profile for Cain Email Cain Send New Private Message Edit/Delete Post Reply With Quote Isnt it funny how you can't drink and drive cause you Might kill someone but you can smoke next to people even though it Might kill them...
Comparing alcohol to cigarettes? Seriously? Alcohol is a system suppressant that can cause a person to black out, lose emotional control, and all around take away rational thought, social graces, and common sense. Cigarettes are system stimulant. That means it increases blood flow through the body which can lead to an increased level of mental awareness. Also, it has been proven that nicotine DOES increase your concentration and stimulate the centers of your brain that produce dopamine. So if you can't concentrate and are pissed off, having a smoke with affect these negative feelings in a positive way.
As for the dumping of an astray just outside of the car and not in a dumpster, well that's just stupid and arrogant on that individuals part. As for my friends and myself, we try to use ashtrays every time one is available. When full, we throw them out in a garbage bin and pick up any butts we leave. As for the flicking of smokes out of windows, most of the time the cigarette is either out completely or has just a few seconds life left in it. It's not like people are lighting up meter long tiki torches covered in rocket fuel and throwing them into a pile of tinder on purpose while they perform abortions and club baby seals. Most cigarettes thrown out of windows will either die out before they hit the ground because of the high wind or extinguish on impact with the street. The few smokes that do continue to burn will only do so for a few more seconds before it burns itself out.
As for the flicking of cigarettes into streets, where else would you have us put them? Ever since the clean air acts that have passed almost unanimously throughout the United States of America in the last 5 years, the number of public ashtrays and cigarette specific litter bins has tanked. In fact, some cities and towns have banned having public ashtrays and smoke specific trash cans because the the clean air acts passed. They say, "It would encourage smoking!" So, instead of smokers having a way to dispose of cigarettes in a safe way, we are forced to either toss our expended smoke in a thrash can that might catch fire, or out in the street where there isn't anything flammable. So the anti-smoking front really has only itself to blame for that one.
Now for the fun part of this rebuttal, (pun absolutely intended!)
ECONOMIC THINKING!!
Tobacco is a multi-billion dollar industry that has never needed a government bail out in history. Tobacco is a renewable commodity that has consistently provided steady work for the last 10,000 years of civilized human history. All that with no policies to inflate or stimulate the industry. Tobacco has been used for medicinal and ritual purposes for longer then any of the countries we live in have been around. On that basis alone it is a stable job market. Now, let us take a look at how many different types of people that tobacco employs.
Tobacco Farms:
Tobacco farmers
The people who make the equipment for the farmer to harvest said tobacco
Mechanics who keep said machines up and running
Shipping companies to transport tobacco from the farms to the curing and packaging factories.
Tobacco Factories:
People who do intake paperwork for incoming tobacco shipments
Janitors
People who load the tobacco from the trucks to the processing line
Factory managers
Common line workers
I'll stop there. Long story short, economic sense says to leave tobacco the fuck alone because it stimulates so many other industries and it provides millions of jobs worldwide. Economic sense says that smokers alone provide for jobs such as street cleaners, makers of trash bins, and will go to an establishment simply because they are allowed to smoke inside.
Common sense says this:
SMOKING IS BAD FOR YOU!! IF YOU ARE SOMEONE WHO THINKS PEOPLE IN TODAY'S WORLD DON'T KNOW SMOKING IS BAD FOR THEM THEN YOU ARE BLIND AND REFUSE TO APPLY COMMON SENSE. PEOPLE ARE SMART AND KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING AND DON'T NEED YOUR SELF RIGHTEOUS GROUPS AND ORGANIZATIONS TO SAVE THEM!!!
If you want to push the social and ethical for not smoking, I got a brand new keyboard and just finished Plato's Orations and an amalgamated works of Aristotle. Please, I'm bored.
Jax Your resident hedonist, advocate of personal liberties, and anarchist.
Posted by LeDaemon (Member # 198) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jax:
Tobacco Farms:
Tobacco farmers
The people who make the equipment for the farmer to harvest said tobacco
Mechanics who keep said machines up and running
Shipping companies to transport tobacco from the farms to the curing and packaging factories.
Tobacco Factories:
People who do intake paperwork for incoming tobacco shipments
Janitors
People who load the tobacco from the trucks to the processing line
Factory managers
Common line workers
I'll stop there.
Absolutely! Add in the doctors, nurses, and the people that make those portable oxygen tanks for the people that have to take care of you guys when you start hacking up chunks of lung after 30 years of sucking on a friendly fag! Posted by Andy-Laa (Member # 31511) on :
quote:Originally posted by LeDaemon: Absolutely! Add in the doctors, nurses, and the people that make those portable oxygen tanks for the people that have to take care of you guys when you start hacking up chunks of lung after 30 years of sucking on a friendly fag!
That's one thing that annoys me about people's perceptions of smoking; they say "Oh all our tax goes towards you and how ou try to kill yourself"...well...erm...no? The tax on a pack of cigs is MASSIVE!! Like here they cost around about £6...over half that is tax. The tax goes into the NHS (National Health Service) and the smokers are actually MORE than paying for the treatment they require as a result of smoking...so if there were no smokers...there would be less-equipped healthcare for the non-smokers; it sounds mad but it's true.
And about the point you raised about litter - it gives a working class guy (the people who need it) a job to do; I don't see a problem. I do disagree with "dirty" smoking and tell my friends who own a shop off for just chucking them on the floor inside and that...but at the end of the day it's not really affecting anyone (aside from the health issue).
About your office (assuming they are staff) just forbid them from smoking at the enterance (here is a classic example as to why there DO need to be indoor areas where one can go to smoke). If it's not your staff doing it, like yopu said - employ a cleaning guy or if you are SO affected by it, hire security guards to shoo them away.
Posted by the_foot_fetishist (Member # 30029) on :
Smoking is no good for you, though I don't believe in second-hand smoke? How is it possible that second-hand smoke harms those who inhale the smoke from a smoker more than it does to those who actually smoke the damn thing? If second-hand smoke is more dangerous than first-hand smoke, then how come I don't hear about deaths being related to it? If it was more dangerous, shouldn't there be some law to ban people from smoking at all to prevent others from becoming more sick?
I don't get it.
Posted by Michael P (Member # 1922) on :
smoking is a billion dollar business
money will always be more important than the health of the masses
it will never be banned so us non smokers are forced to tolerate their nasty habit
Posted by Andy-Laa (Member # 31511) on :
quote:Originally posted by Michael P: it will never be banned so us non smokers are forced to tolerate their nasty habit
Such martyrs.
Posted by Andy-Laa (Member # 31511) on :
quote:Originally posted by the_foot_fetishist: Smoking is no good for you, though I don't believe in second-hand smoke? How is it possible that second-hand smoke harms those who inhale the smoke from a smoker more than it does to those who actually smoke the damn thing? If second-hand smoke is more dangerous than first-hand smoke, then how come I don't hear about deaths being related to it? If it was more dangerous, shouldn't there be some law to ban people from smoking at all to prevent others from becoming more sick?
I don't get it.
I'll put your mind at ease with simple logic.
Okay how smoking works is: you inhale the smoke, so that the nicotine along with the nasty shit is all in your lungs, yes? What do you breathe out then? The stuff that can't get stuck in your lungs otherwise you wouldn't breathe out anything. Seriously - ask a mate who smokes to try and hold his breath with smoke-filled lungs for as long as he can, he will not be able to get it all stuck in his body. Second hand smoke does bollock-all.
Posted by Michael P (Member # 1922) on :
quote:Originally posted by Andy-Laa:
quote:Originally posted by Michael P: it will never be banned so us non smokers are forced to tolerate their nasty habit
Such martyrs.
i do make a point to let these people know i don't approve of their nasty habit
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