Do you smoke?
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That depends on the nature of the car fumes and the second hand smoke. If you have to wait in a train station for 15 minutes morning and night with people smoking beside you, and constantly walk down narrow streets lined with pubs where you pass through a fog of smoke, then you are at a pretty serious risk of developing respiratory problems after a year or so. That wouldn't happen with car fumes unless you lived in a large town or city and did a lot of walking around in it.
I'm talking in a general day walking down a street. You're going to encounter much more car fumes than you will encounter cigarette smoke. What you described is just unusual.
Well to be fair, it will be taxpayers paying for it when you get lung cancer and have to take up hospital beds that people who didn't wilfully poison themselves could have had. (oh but don't tell me, you have private healthcare I suppose 
)
)This is an extremely common and flawed argument. Smokers pay huge amounts of tax on their cigarettes and if you've smoked enough to get lung cancer, then you can bet you've paid thousands extra in tax over the normal tax payer and are completely entitled to any necessary care.
A lot of things are caused by lifestyle choices, should we restrict care to those with bowel caner who had a bad diet? Those with skin cancer who spent time in the sun? Those with liver disease who drank alcohol? Few people have ideal lifestyles and thus that could be applied to numerous health concerns. It isn't how the NHS works.
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-1633429/Calculator-tax-pay-beer-wine-cigarettes-spirits.html
Use this calculator. You smoke 10 a day, £4 a pack. You will pay £853 per year in tax on these cigarettes. Say you smoke from the age of 18 to 65 and then you get lung cancer, you've paid an extra £40,091 in tax, just on cigarettes. They aren't exactly stealing all the tax payers money.
Original post by Kallisto
Most of members are non smokers, if the result of the poll is right. Who would have thought it? I would have thought that most of them are smokers. I'm surprised.
So am I. Maybe it's because I went to BRIT and ALL the art students smoked.
Original post by Little Wolf Taima
So am I. Maybe it's because I went to BRIT and ALL the art students smoked.
I'm surprise, because the most of people who I know are smokers. These people admire me, because I'm still a non smoker although I have smokers around my environment. To be honest I'm proud of myself.
Original post by Copperknickers
It's mine as well, because I have to walk past you in the street every day and breath in your cancerous fumes every time I walk into any sort of public building. By all means, smoke, but nowhere where non-smokers want to go. Also, littering is illegal, I don't know why smokers seem to think they are exempt from that law when they throw cigarette butts on the ground.
lol, I know people kill themselves by sucking on car exhausts, and by and large I'm more worried about them affecting me 'passively' than a wiff of a fag! After all the volume of exhaust smoke on the average street is far far more than that of even 20 people smoking all at once. And that is why anti pollution masks are hugely popular among people who worry about their health through passive pollutants.
Original post by Carrby
Oh yeah I'm not blaming cigarettes. I just think more people should complain about not getting the same breaks as smokers, whether that be to get rid of smoking breaks at work, or give non-smokers 10 minutes every now and again in the day to do something they like doing to relax.
When I worked in that sort of 'smokers get more breaks grr' environment I simply took 6-9 5 minute fag breaks over the day, and didn't take a 30-45 minute lunch like everyone else did lol. Quite a few smokers did/do the same as me as well.
Which tbh is a perfectly fair solution.
Original post by t0ffee
When I worked in that sort of 'smokers get more breaks grr' environment I simply took 6-9 5 minute fag breaks over the day, and didn't take a 30-45 minute lunch like everyone else did lol. Quite a few smokers did/do the same as me as well.
Which tbh is a perfectly fair solution.
Which tbh is a perfectly fair solution.
Wait, so you worked through lunch for the sake of having cigarette breaks?
Original post by Carrby
This always really annoyed me when I had my job. The other cleaners had a "cheeky fag" instead of taking their rubbish bags away, and then my boss told me to do it for them as I was still on the clock. I get that people can smoke if they want to, even if I think it's stupid, they can do what they like, but I just don't think it's fair that having an addictive habit like that entitles you to more time not doing work.
Yeah I don't think it's fair either. There's only two people at the bar I work at who don't smoke and they're always so tempted to start just for a five minute sit down :/
Original post by Kallisto
Most of members are non smokers, if the result of the poll is right. Who would have thought it? I would have thought that most of them are smokers. I'm surprised.
Na, smoking is being frowned upon more and more these days. I also suspect people have ticked no on the poll because they might not class a couple of cigarettes once a month when they drink as smoking.
Original post by Wilfred Little
Na, smoking is being frowned upon more and more these days. I also suspect people have ticked no on the poll because they might not class a couple of cigarettes once a month when they drink as smoking.
If it isn't smoking, what is it?
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Yes sadly enough I do...started 4 years ago when all my friends smoked and haven't really stopped since might have to en England though cause It's a little bit more expensive lol
This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App
This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App
I do smoke. 5 a day or so whilst at home and up to a pack a night if I'm out drinking. The summer holidays are particularly bad...
I've never had a smoking habit. I tried a couple of drags when I was about 12, coughed for ages and thought "I'm never doing that again". I also have had a few tokes of joints in the distant past to look cool back when I cared about that kind of thing.
I think it probably makes a difference that I come from a non-smoking family. I seem to remember my Nan used to smoke when I was very small. I think I remember her giving up, but she never smoked around me or my brother. You can tell she has smoked for a few years because of the lines around her mouth (another reason I wouldn't choose to smoke). So I'm not used to the smell of cigarettes and consequently think they smell disgusting.
I've never felt any pressure to smoke, I can't imagine what would persuade me to do so. I see people sneaking off for a ciggy break at work and standing alone in the rain, then coming back reeking and chewing gum to get a tang off their breath and think "you poor sod, why do you do it to yourself?". That's putting aside the health argument, which I don't hold an awful lot of sway with because, to be honest, you could get hit by a tram tomorrow (classic Corrie).
I can roll a ****ing awesome joint though, picked up from living with a proper pothead for many years who would often get so stoned he couldn't roll his own and would make me roll them for him in advance
I would count smoking cannabis as smoking, I can't see how it "doesn't count". You're lighting something on fire, putting one half of it in your mouth and breathing in. Similarly people who say "Well I only smoke one a fortnight/when I'm drunk". Firstly how does alcohol affect whether you smoke or not? Sure, it lowers your inhibitions, but I genuinely don't see the connection between that and smoking unless its to "look cool", which to be honest is a pretty lame excuse to do anything. Secondly you can't smoke in or even near most venues now, so it seems like a pretty antisocial thing to in general. Thirdly: You. Are. A. Smoker. If you smoke you're a smoker. No getting on your high horse like you are better than 'addicted' smokers. You're a smoker just the same as someone who smokes three packs a day
I think it probably makes a difference that I come from a non-smoking family. I seem to remember my Nan used to smoke when I was very small. I think I remember her giving up, but she never smoked around me or my brother. You can tell she has smoked for a few years because of the lines around her mouth (another reason I wouldn't choose to smoke). So I'm not used to the smell of cigarettes and consequently think they smell disgusting.
I've never felt any pressure to smoke, I can't imagine what would persuade me to do so. I see people sneaking off for a ciggy break at work and standing alone in the rain, then coming back reeking and chewing gum to get a tang off their breath and think "you poor sod, why do you do it to yourself?". That's putting aside the health argument, which I don't hold an awful lot of sway with because, to be honest, you could get hit by a tram tomorrow (classic Corrie).
I can roll a ****ing awesome joint though, picked up from living with a proper pothead for many years who would often get so stoned he couldn't roll his own and would make me roll them for him in advance
I would count smoking cannabis as smoking, I can't see how it "doesn't count". You're lighting something on fire, putting one half of it in your mouth and breathing in. Similarly people who say "Well I only smoke one a fortnight/when I'm drunk". Firstly how does alcohol affect whether you smoke or not? Sure, it lowers your inhibitions, but I genuinely don't see the connection between that and smoking unless its to "look cool", which to be honest is a pretty lame excuse to do anything. Secondly you can't smoke in or even near most venues now, so it seems like a pretty antisocial thing to in general. Thirdly: You. Are. A. Smoker. If you smoke you're a smoker. No getting on your high horse like you are better than 'addicted' smokers. You're a smoker just the same as someone who smokes three packs a day
Original post by Carrby
Wait, so you worked through lunch for the sake of having cigarette breaks?
Yup. I don't really see the point of lunch breaks anyway. It takes me five minutes to eat and after that it is either eating into my pay or simply a waste of time.
Original post by t0ffee
Yup. I don't really see the point of lunch breaks anyway. It takes me five minutes to eat and after that it is either eating into my pay or simply a waste of time.
So do you get paid throughout your 5 minute breaks? Also, not having a longer wind-down break while at work contributes to work related stress, which is probably not helping that feeling of needing a cigarette at work.
Original post by Vohamanah
Thirdly: You. Are. A. Smoker. If you smoke you're a smoker. No getting on your high horse like you are better than 'addicted' smokers. You're a smoker just the same as someone who smokes three packs a day
The general meaning of 'a smoker' is 'for all intents and purposes are you a smoker' - far more of a lifestyle thing!
Someone who hasn't bought a pack of fags in a year, who had a couple at his mates two weeks ago and may or may not the next time he goes on a big night out can't really be labelled a smoker, because it's pretty meaningless if thats your criteria.
You'd be better off labeling people like that 'people who have had cigarettes before and may have the odd one again'.
Just as if you had a few tokes on a friends joint a month ago, and you might find yourself in a situation where you will do the same in a month or two's time you aren't really a stoner or someone who smokes cannabis in any meaningful way.
Being a smoker is more than not saying 'I'l never smoke again' or 'I haven't ever smoked and I never will'.
Original post by Carrby
So do you get paid throughout your 5 minute breaks? Also, not having a longer wind-down break while at work contributes to work related stress, which is probably not helping that feeling of needing a cigarette at work.
I think its the other way round. I find exam revision quite allegorical - most people wouldn't revise for 4 hours and take an hour off, they'd do lots of short bursts and short breaks (and that is how people are advised to revise). Plus you always have to wind yourself back up again and get back to work after lunch.
Also from a physiological point of view, it is much healthier to walk around for 5 minutes of every hour than sit in a chair for 4 then walk for half an hour, then sit in a chair for the other 4 (imagining that I am not in fact smoking, just walking around for 5 minutes of every hour).
I do lots of different types of jobs lol. If people are paid for their breaks then yeah I get paid, if not I don't.
To be honest, I never did, didn't even try it, wasn't even curious. It just doesn't appeal to me and why people do it. Maybe it has a lot to do with the way my parents brought me up, especially my mother's deep hatred for it 
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