What do you do when people light up a cigarette near you?

Question

Quietly put up with it? Politely put up with it and say nothing out loud? Enjoy their smoke? Pretend you don't mind? Bluntly tell them they stink? Politely ask them to move away? Just say nothing and move away yourself? Glare at them and say nothing out loud? Be rude and snap at them? Tell them quietly that you do not want them to smoke around you? Lecture them openly about how dumb it is to smoke cigarettes? Just passively endure their smoke as if it is not harming you? Pretend you do not even know that it is harming you? Tell them you would prefer that they do not smoke their cigarettes around you? Tell them honestly that they are being foolish if they smoke their cigarettes even when they are not around you? Feel concerned that they are harming themselves? Just not care if they choose to harm themselves, even when you care about their well-being?

There are so many options. What do you consider the right way to react?

Some answers refer to "smoking and nonsmoking areas". But whoa, why should any public space or any place shared with others be considered a smoking area? Why isn't clean smoke-free air accepted as the default condition? Can't the smokers just create private places where they smoke, in the same way that opium addicts used to maintain opium dens in Chinatown where they did not bother others?

Smokers do *not* have equal rights to the rest of the poulation who prefer cleanliness. There is *no* law anywhere that defines cigarette smoking as a "right". It is just a dirty personal habit. Like picking your nose and spitting and farting, it is something you may feel the need to do in private but you do *not* have some "right" to force others to participate in it without their consent. Smokers need to realize this fact and learn to just go away and smoke away from the rest of us if they are too dumb to just quit the habit.

Answer 1

It depends on whether you're both in a no smoking area or not. If they light up in a no-smoking area, I'd say something. If it's in a public area where smoking is permitted, I wouldn't say anything, as disgusting as it is...

Answer 2

If you are in a place where smoking is permitted, you do not have the right to ask them to move away or to say anything to them. The onus is on you to either move away or not be in a place where people are going to smoke. The only time you would be able to ask them to move is if they were smoking where it is not permitted.

However, if the smoker is in a group that you are part of, they should ask whether anybody minds them smoking. If even one person says "yes", they should then either wait or move away.

Edit: You ask why there should be smoking areas - because smokers have rights too. I could ask why there have to be non-smoking areas - exept I don't. The fact is, a designated smoking area is not a part of a "public place". Mostly they are in out-of-the-way corners so that non-smokers don't suffer the smell and smoke. And why SHOULD we "just create private places where they smoke, in the same way that opium addicts used to maintain opium dens in Chinatown"? We only have tiny spaces in which to smoke and people seem to want to deny us even that. What next - make smoking illegal?

I only answered this question so that people could see that there are considerate smokers who smoke only the designated places and are mindful of others. It seems it's going to turn into a full-scale argument, though, so I bow. Adios

2nd Edit: I thought I could leave this alone; I was wrong, forgive me. I do not have a habit, I have an addiction, as do other smokers - nicotine IS a drug - which creates a dependancy - albeit a legal one - for now.

YES we DO have the same rights as non-smokers. Are you trying to say that the entire atmosphere belongs to you and you alone? Shock! Horror! It doesn't! Get used to it! We may have less space to smoke in, year by year, but we ARE still here, we are not sub-human and we have the right to do WHAT we choose, WHEN we choose, within the confines of the law.

I respect YOUR right to not have to breathe my smoke, why can't you respect MY right TO smoke, if I so wish?

Oh, one more thing - smoking has nothing whatsoever to do with cleanliness - look the word up in your dictionary.

PS You talk a good argument, but can you keep it up?

Answer 3

My opinion is that if it is an area where smoking is permitted (say, a bar), then your choice is to either put up with it or leave. You can tell someone not to smoke in your house, and you can complain if you are in a non-smoking area of a restaurant and smoke is drifting toward you (complain to the manager and get a different table, that is), but if someone is smoking in a place where it is allowed, you really have nothing to say about it.

This is a consumer driven society. If you don't want to be around smoke, don't patronize businesses that permit it. If enough people agree with you, then businesses will cater more toward non-smokers. If you don't like people smoking outdoors in public areas, your only choice is to petition the local authorities to change the rules.

Essentially, what I'm saying is that if you don't like it, address the correct party. Doing any of the things you list (glaring, snapping, etc) will only serve to make you look like a jerk and will not serve your cause at all. Addressing your concerns to the people who can actually do something about it--in a civil manner--is the only way to go.

Answer 4

While walking to work in town one day, I lit my cigarette. Since I don't smoke in my place of business or any restaurant that I dine in or any public building, I didn't expect to be chastised by the elderly man that suddenly appeared from around the corner.
"Can't go anywhere these days without having to smell a stinking cigarette," he grumbled at me.
"Had I wanted the opinion of the town monkey," I retorted, "I would have thrown a penny in your cup."
Rude interference from unwarranted sources is often met with an equal or greater level or retaliation. I suggest that you just mind your own business and change your cologne because the smoker was probably trying to neutralize your odor.

Answer 5

I would probably light one myself!!!

I, for one, I'm tired to be discriminated against because I smoke! I have the same rights that non smokers do. Non smokers should accommodate us smokers, instead of the other way around.
Aspartame, and all sugar substitutes, are the cause of many type of cancers, birth defects, and mental illnesses, far more than any tobacco use will ever do, but you don't see anyone wanting to ban it, do you???

Answer 6

You sound like a lot of fun to be around...

What other things do people who have to share YOUR world do that you can write 200 words or more on?

Answer 7

you don't like it just walk a way
if it is smoking area you have no right to give dirty look or ...

Answer 8

If I cant leave, I ask them to stop or say to my kids, "Look, that person is smoking. It is very bad for you, it rots you lungs, gives you nasty breath, and above all very stinky!"

Answer 9

Smack them with a kumquat or whack them with a leg of bologna.

Answer 10

Ask them for a puff?