Tobacco Bill

[Thespeckledkiwi]

Juan while I understand your argument, may I ask if you know anything remotely about asthma? Wood smoke, for reasons unexplained to me isn't as painful on my lung as cigarette smoke is. In fact, if I am exposed to a small amount of cigarette smoke (and believe me I am, both at the place I work and a place I visit my friends), and given the conditions outside, I can be in pain for more than a week. And I'm not talking about ouch, it hurts. I'm talking, I'm having deep REM sleep and then I get this sharp stabbing pain in the right side of my chest, that I can't breath for a couple minutes, waking up type of pain.

I also can lose my voice due to my lung not inflating enough. Cutting down even a small amount of cigarette smoke is very good for my health. I rather not be couped up inside a house.

I AM sorry to hear about your health problems, but I think that you are very much in the minority here, and a certain amount of responsibility must fall on those who wish to avoid cigarette smoke to... you know... AVOID it.

Oh I do avoid it, but it is difficult when people crowd around the doors or yes even smoke in their cars and I have my windows down (I do like driving with the windows down more than running the air). Yes, I can smell smoke coming from one car into my effin car EVEN if I pull up the window. It's fairly annoying, especially if it is extremely hot outside.

But when I can, I wear a ski mask...which kind of makes everyone around me very uncomfortable but for the most part for me, I like it because I can breath easier when I wear it but when it is summer out I can't really wear it because well it is hot outside. And if I wore anything else people would think I am trying to rob a place.

I also not really in the minority. Asthma patients have different type of attacks, depending on a lot of factors. Smoke being one of them.

And I'd also bet that smoking isn't the only thing that can trigger an episode - if that's not true of you, than it probably is in others with similar conditions. We can't be held responsible for you being sick to begin with.

Certainly not on both of your parts. For me, barometric pressure can play a factor BUT smoke can exasperate the condition even further and worse than just barometric pressure. The conditions can be varied as well. Allergies (ragweed, pollen and stuff) can also play a factor. But smoking for the most part is a component that can be controlled.

And yes, smokers can't be held responsible for me being sick to begin with, but they can be held responsible where they smoke.

I cannot be held responsible for a natural condition (or unnatural. Who the hell knows?) that I have no control over. I can't tell my lung not to flare up, I can't tell my lung to stop shooting stabbing pains into my chest. What I can do though, is to tell people to stop crowding the doors when they smoke or to stop blowing smoke in the wind so it hits my freaking face.

I have even gone as far as stop contact with many of my friends that do smoke. I am sadden by this and hopefully winter comes earlier this year, but I rarely am outside with many of my friends as they happen to smoke.

Look, most smokers are not evil-minded people. We're not out to cause discomfort, pain, or disgust in others. If you let it be known you have a problem with it, most of us will probably take it elsewhere, or even wait awhile. We already have TONS of restrictions placed on us and are taxed half to death every time we want to buy a pack. How much more difficult do you want to make our lives to make yours a little bit easier?

I agree with that, as I have said many of my friends do not smoke. I do find it funny that public consumption of alcohol is fined, along with many other things but not smoking.

 

[Garrovick]

I'd say basically no. The bill affects the manufacture of tobacco products, not the actual growing of the crop. But then in my State, the growing of tobacco died out decades ago as a widely grown cash crop anyway.

 

[James Wright]

Why can't they make tobacco products without all of the junk they add to get people hooked? I wonder what it was like in the early days of the U.S.?

James

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

If you don't want to be around someone who's smoking a cigarette, go stand somewhere else.

That's not always possible. What if I'm over at a friend's house and they start smoking? What am I gonna do, leave? I shouldn't have to choose between my friends and my health.

 

[Pingfah]

Er, no, if you're at your friends house and they want to smoke, you absolutely should have to choose between your friends and your health. They've got every right to smoke if they want to.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Some friends they are.

 

[Pingfah]

Yeah, how terrible for a smoker to want to smoke in their own house without their friends whining at them. Wankers!

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

And how terrible for me to NOT want to get lung cancer and die! WhatEVER was I thinking?!?

 

[Pingfah]

You're not gonna get lung cancer and die from being around the odd smoker in their house for god's sake. Stop being so hysterical.

If you don't like it meet up wth them in places they can't smoke. Don't whine at them about legal activities pursued in the comfort of their homes though, that is some self-entitled bullshit if I've ever heard any.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Fine. Whatever. But that also means that I can tell them NOT to smoke when they're at MY house...

 

[Pingfah]

Yeah, of course you can. What is this, an exercise in stating the frigging obvious?

 

[Yoda]

Well, sorry to say, friend, but that's the kind of thing that happens when you live in an apartment. A lot of times smells and even sounds won't go through from floor to floor, but in some you can smell offensive odors, hear offensive sounds, even see offensive things. Its life. People bother each other. You may be bothering someone else and not even know it.

I limit the volume when playing music or watching a movie specifically so that I don't bother other people who live in the building. The funny thing is, excessive noise is something I can be evicted for if people repeatedly complain. But for some reason someone piping their smoke into my apartment doesn't seem to rise to the same level.

It's just so annoying finding a reasonable enough apartment situation, and then a few months later the 'luck of the draw' gives you an inconsiderate smoker to deal with.

The place I lived previously was kind of a standard 'bunch of early-mid twenties' types renting rooms in a house. The house rules were no smoking. Then of course the lease holder's smoker sister moves in without any consultation . And naturally her 'smoking patio' happens to be right by my bedroom window. It was also amazing how all these cigarette butts ended up in the lawn all of a sudden that "weren't hers" as well. That was very plausible...

 

[Squiggy]

Now the flavored cigarette bootleggers will get rich while they shoot up the neighborhoods (with their 9mm pistols), the same way the marijuana, coke and meth dealers do already!

This is one of the silliest things I've ever read, and since I spend most of my time in TNZ that's saying something.

 

[DeafPoet]

Well, sorry to say, friend, but that's the kind of thing that happens when you live in an apartment. A lot of times smells and even sounds won't go through from floor to floor, but in some you can smell offensive odors, hear offensive sounds, even see offensive things. Its life. People bother each other. You may be bothering someone else and not even know it.

I limit the volume when playing music or watching a movie specifically so that I don't bother other people who live in the building. The funny thing is, excessive noise is something I can be evicted for if people repeatedly complain. But for some reason someone piping their smoke into my apartment doesn't seem to rise to the same level.

It's just so annoying finding a reasonable enough apartment situation, and then a few months later the 'luck of the draw' gives you an inconsiderate smoker to deal with.

The place I lived previously was kind of a standard 'bunch of early-mid twenties' types renting rooms in a house. The house rules were no smoking. Then of course the lease holder's smoker sister moves in without any consultation . And naturally her 'smoking patio' happens to be right by my bedroom window. It was also amazing how all these cigarette butts ended up in the lawn all of a sudden that "weren't hers" as well. That was very plausible...

I'm sympathetic to the average non-smoker, but it sounds like you need to lighten up, man.

What type of building do you live in? An apartment proper? Or is it a house situation? Is the tenant below you violating building rules by smoking indoors? If not, did you know the rules when you moved in?

 

[Holdfast]

Tobacco Bill

I say the tobacco industry should start a new advertising campaign centred on their new "everyman" superhero: Tobacco Bill. He'd kick back with a few smokes after a hard day's vigilante crimefighting. It would SO rock.

"Is it a Bird?"
"Is it a Plane?"
"No, it's Tobacco Bill!!!"

("you can tell by the smoke contrails")

 

[DeafPoet]

Tobacco Bill

I say the tobacco industry should start a new advertising campaign centred on their new "everyman" superhero: Tobacco Bill. He'd kick back with a few smokes after a hard day's vigilante crimefighting. It would SO rock.

"Is it a Bird?"
"Is it a Plane?"
"No, it's Tobacco Bill!!!"

("you can tell by the smoke contrails")

Is he the ambiguously sexual sidekick of Camel Joe?

 

[Holdfast]

Tobacco Bill

I say the tobacco industry should start a new advertising campaign centred on their new "everyman" superhero: Tobacco Bill. He'd kick back with a few smokes after a hard day's vigilante crimefighting. It would SO rock.

"Is it a Bird?"
"Is it a Plane?"
"No, it's Tobacco Bill!!!"

("you can tell by the smoke contrails")

Is he the ambiguously sexual sidekick of Camel Joe?

The ad campaign just went viral.

 

[Yoda]

Well, sorry to say, friend, but that's the kind of thing that happens when you live in an apartment. A lot of times smells and even sounds won't go through from floor to floor, but in some you can smell offensive odors, hear offensive sounds, even see offensive things. Its life. People bother each other. You may be bothering someone else and not even know it.

I limit the volume when playing music or watching a movie specifically so that I don't bother other people who live in the building. The funny thing is, excessive noise is something I can be evicted for if people repeatedly complain. But for some reason someone piping their smoke into my apartment doesn't seem to rise to the same level.

It's just so annoying finding a reasonable enough apartment situation, and then a few months later the 'luck of the draw' gives you an inconsiderate smoker to deal with.

The place I lived previously was kind of a standard 'bunch of early-mid twenties' types renting rooms in a house. The house rules were no smoking. Then of course the lease holder's smoker sister moves in without any consultation . And naturally her 'smoking patio' happens to be right by my bedroom window. It was also amazing how all these cigarette butts ended up in the lawn all of a sudden that "weren't hers" as well. That was very plausible...

I'm sympathetic to the average non-smoker, but it sounds like you need to lighten up, man.

What type of building do you live in? An apartment proper? Or is it a house situation? Is the tenant below you violating building rules by smoking indoors? If not, did you know the rules when you moved in?

An apartment proper. The shared house was the previous situation. I'm pretty sure smoking indoors doesn't violate any apartment policy, as that sort of thing seems very non-standard around here. And I'll 'lighten up' when I don't wake up at 3am coughing because after I fell asleep my entire apartment ended up smelling like an ashtray. It seems like the smoke seeps in pretty easily through the floor/walls, I didn't think it could be that bad. Seems like generally very solid construction, and sound has to be really loud to carry from one apartment to the next.

Having the 'right' to smoke in your own place is fine, but it really should be up to you to make sure it doesn't get into someone else's space.

 

[JuanBolio]

If you don't want to be around someone who's smoking a cigarette, go stand somewhere else.

That's not always possible. What if I'm over at a friend's house and they start smoking? What am I gonna do, leave? I shouldn't have to choose between my friends and my health.

So you think you have the right to legislate what people can and cant do in their own homes? Sorry, but you can do what you like and forbid what you like in your own home - your friends have the same right.

 

[Venardhi]

An apartment proper. The shared house was the previous situation. I'm pretty sure smoking indoors doesn't violate any apartment policy, as that sort of thing seems very non-standard around here. And I'll 'lighten up' when I don't wake up at 3am coughing because after I fell asleep my entire apartment ended up smelling like an ashtray. It seems like the smoke seeps in pretty easily through the floor/walls, I didn't think it could be that bad. Seems like generally very solid construction, and sound has to be really loud to carry from one apartment to the next.

Having the 'right' to smoke in your own place is fine, but it really should be up to you to make sure it doesn't get into someone else's space.

I may be off the mark here, but have you tried talking to your land lord and the tenant below you to work out some kind of compromise? I know communication is scary but it does tend to help in these situations.