Why do tobacco nazis get so upset about smoking when many of them have habits FAR worse than smoking?

Question

Worse habit than smoking - Being a pompous blowhard who thinks he knows what's best for other people.

Answer 1

I agree...how about the 400 pounder stuffing his face with a big mac and a couple of apple pies in the other hand. While driving!

Answer 2

Some people feel that other people smoking imperils them. For them it is rather like having a neighbour who likes to play with explosives.

This is based on two main issues, the first being the risks of second hand smoke and the second being the cost to them of the illnesses that arise from tobacco use.

The risks of second hand smoke are established beyond reasonable doubt by reputable and duplicated research. Those who object totheir air being contaminated with carcinogens may object only to the smell, but usually they also fear the cancers that such smoke carries.

As a surgical technician I can attest that the lungs of a smoker are vile and disgusting, and make the OR stink unbelievably. How anybody can expect to continue breathing with them is a mystery. I feel it is not unreasonable to dread having such a condition visited on you, and very unreasonable to assert a "right" to pass this condition along to others.

The second issue is the social cost. The cost of smoking is enormous in health care resources, and we all as users of the hospital systems must pay for the smokers' pleasures. It is once again very reasonable for those paying the bills to object when someone keeps driving up the costs by destroying their lung capacity.

Given the above I submit that tobacco smoking is simply not a reasonable activity. It is as self destructive as jumping off the Golden Gates in that some might survive, but most will not. A reasoning person does not take those kind of chances.

When faced with an unreasoning activity some people get upset, as you put it. This is because they expect others to be reasonable, which is a strange attitude given the totally opposite examples history keeps offering us.

Permit me an analogy. We are living in a time when the planet is actually overheating due to our producing energy faster than the atmosphere can bleed it off into space. This is very similar to smoking, in that we know that we should stop using all these "labour saving" devices, but we won't. This will kill all of us in time, but we will not stop and will object that we have a "right" to drive, use cellphones, run air conditioners and so on, whether it kills others or not.

How does this differ from the smoker who doesn't care if her dies twenty years too young, gasping for breath and not getting any air? It does not, really.

I guess that is the explanation for the following answer: people get upset about smoking because they themselves do not want the smokers' latent deathwise to spill over on them, and they actually think that something can be done to save their own lives.

A more useful question would be why does anybody put known poisons into their system? It absolutely baffles me, whether we are talking about tobacco, crack or refined sugar, even though I myself have a sweet tooth and like the occasional reefer.

Answer 3

I'm allergic to tobacco and tobacco smoke. I am so glad that they are getting tougher on smoking in public areas. I don't care if you want to pollute your own body, just do it where it doesn't effect me. But that hasn't been the case. No matter where you go there is always some inconsiderate fool that smoked somewhere that I had to go or be. Now at least there is a little protection from the government because god forbid if you asked someone to smoke elsewhere and infringe on their "rights" to kill themselves.

Answer 4

yeah, your right. I mean, blowing air out their pieholes is really bad for their health. Not to mention the health of anyone standing in their vicinity breathing in the noxious fumes of their breath..... by the way, that's sarcasm. Smokers are the ones that are ruining the health of people standing near them while they smoke. I personally don't care about the smoker's health, as it's their choice to destroy their lungs, throat and anything else that they can with their smoking. However, for the 4 year old child walking past them who doesn't have a choice.... that's wrong.

Answer 5

As a former smoker, I agree with Nancy Kays comments!!

Second hand cigarette smoke DOES effect others as proven by medical research.

"Second hand smoke is a toxic cocktail consisting of poisons and carcinogens. There are over 4000 chemical compounds in second hand smoke; 200 of which are known to be poisonous, and upwards of 60 have been identified as carcinogens.

When a cigarette is smoked, about half of the smoke is inhaled/exhaled (mainstream smoke) by the smoker and the other half floats around in the air (sidestream smoke).

Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) plays a part in more health problems than you might realize. The following facts point out why it is so important to have smoking bans in place and that no one should be forced to breathe in air tainted with cigarette smoke.

~Heart disease mortality - an estimated 35,000 to 62,000 deaths are caused from heart disease in people who are not current smokers, but who are exposed to ETS
~Acute and chronic coronary heart disease
~Passive smoking has been linked to the narrowing of the carotid arteries, which carry blood to the brain
~Exposure to second hand smoke hastens hardening of the arteries, a condition known as artherosclerosis
~Continual exposure to ETS has been shown to nearly double the chance of heart attack.

What you do with YOUR body is your business.....what you do with MINE is not!

Best wishes!

Answer 6

you're inner anger is blossoming into something.....

keep at it......

who's being the nazi blowhard now, you.

My answer is this, because I can do whatever I want, all of my other bad habits don't make me smell like smoke, or make me smell somebody who smells like smoke/crap. If I crapped in my pants and sat next to you you would be pissed, that's the way I see it. Go smoke naked in the wilderness someplace. That actually sounds like fun.

Answer 7

I'm a smoker and I like the idea of banning smoking from indoor areas. Their bad habits do not make other people physically sick. Nobody is getting a black lung from them speaking their mind.

Answer 8

I cannot believe people are still this stupid. Cigarette smoke kills the people around them - you do not have the right to kill other people. Smokers rights? Stupidest thing I have ever heard. If someone over eats or drinks too much, they are not affecting others. Thank god only about 20-24 percent of adults smoke now this figure will go down down down as smokers die off and people become more aware. Your addiction to this drug has made you as blind as can be.

Answer 9

Because they don't like the smell, or maybe because some of them are reformed smokers themselves, and don't want the temptation, or sometimes because they are actually concerned about the dangers of second hand smoke, and also because they resent having to pay for the costs of health care for smokers, which are passed on to the rest of us.

Answer 10

amen!! let's see.... obesity, drinking, and being a liberal are a few things that come to mind as being worse habits than smoking. second hand smoke??? no, there isn't such a thing as second hand drinking, but there is such a thing as drunk driving. and no one is saying that non-smokers just need to put up with being around someone that does... but, raising cig taxes for no logical reasons, BANNING smoking in places... that's crap.