* the smoking ban is only a bollox....
ITS just over a year since the smoking ban in the workplace was brought in here and being a smoker I hate it just as much as last year.
I am 34 and in all my working life, I have NEVER worked in any company where smoking was permitted and I have always found that completely acceptable and sensible. However last year's ban hit pubs. This did not extend to prisons and hotels. Though there is a lot of nonsense concerning hotel staff who have to wait for an hour before entering a room where a smoker has been staying.
Now when I say I am a smoker, I am not inconsiderate when I do smoke. I would never dream of being in someone's face whilst have a puff as it is something I hate myself. However I do like a smoke when having a drink. I believe the emphasis should have been placed on pub owners to install suitable air purifying units, its about time that was done here anyway. Ireland is freezing in the winter and (often) humid, clammy and warm in the summer, with no sign of air conditioning units.
The cafe society aspect of the smoking ban came into the fore last summer, which was a lovely one here. And many pubs opened the sections in front of their pubs with tables, canopies and outdoor heaters. One of the worst parts of this is the fact that non-smokers are taking over some of these sections. While I realise that it is unfair to expect these people to get back into the smoke-free pubs which so many of them took wild pleasure in poking the smokers in their company in the eye about, it is even less fair that I cannot sit in predesignated seating outside enjoying the pint I have bought in the pub, all because non smokers are taking up the seats. I would have no problem letting them have outside seating whilst I sit inside, but feck off back into the smelly pub with you all.
And speaking of smelly, the foul stench of Irish pubs was unmasked after the introduction of the smoking ban. Auld farting guinness drinkers have been polluting the air and now with the smell of ciggies gone, we are all gagging on the underlying odour of the Irish pub.
Between all that and the outrageous price of a drink here, staying in is the new going out. You can smoke, listen to whatever music you want and you are not lining the pockets of some rich pub owner.
Certainly there are some positive points to the smoking ban, the craic outside pubs, clubs, etc, the emergence of a cafe society, however, there's nothing worse than enjoying a pint and having to leave to go outside for a ciggie in the cold, wet evening. Does that balance all this out, nope, not for me anyway.
1 comment:
Hi,
We've had bans slowly coming in force in pubs here, I think it will be a complete ban in 2007 but all pubs have non smoking sections - which funnily enough have less patrons - as well as separate smoking sections. I have to admit that although second hand smoke is an issue, there are many other factors that cause health problems. The other thing that really 'gets me' is that people know, more so in the last ten years, of the smoking 'dangers' and yet they will work in a pub with full knowledge but when bans are announced they become the most fervent smoking Nazi's. The other thing are the legalities, everything can be used to jumpstart a lawsuit these day's, it's a joke. One time I was smoking at a table outside my local McDonalds only because I couldn't make it to the other normal cafe (because I had a broken toe and had to wait for X rays) and I had this teenager lecture me (I was 31) and I emphasised I was sitting outside, which I was. He went on and on and I became so annoyed. He requested or demanded for me to put my cigarette out, I asked him to 'make me' and he kind of slunk away crestfallen, but because of that scenario I did put it out because the enjoyment was dampened. It didn't make me stop smoking, but the attitude made me more stubborn lol.
It gets cold here, although not as cold as Ireland (I'd imagine, due to geography) so yeah, it makes me wonder. The other thing I discovered with cigarette companies? I looked into it and found that Phillip Morris is also associated with BirdsEye, makes of 'fresh' frozen food, as well as 'Kraft' and it's all hypocritical really. I wish these anti smoking lobbies would have balls and boycott these other umbrella companies, but they don't. Governments don't have the balls to do it because these corporations would remove some of their contracts.
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