Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 81 total)
  • Smoking in kids playgrounds?
  • geetee1972
    Free Member

    Is it acceptable for parents to smoke in kids playgrouns? One of the younger mums was doing it in the small play area next to our local suypermarket yesterday (by small I mean it’s maybe 10m square so small enough for you to clearly smell the smoke.

    My instinct was to think that it was just wrong. I didn’t say anything but it got my heckles up. I wanted to say that what you do around your own kids is one thing but don’t exposre mine to your cancer candy.

    bravohotel8er
    Free Member

    Matter of opinion really, I think it’s wrong and would never smoke around children (back when I did smoke), but other people think differently.

    I’m always astonished at the amount of women who still think it’s okay to smoke whilst pregnant!

    stevewhyte
    Free Member

    MTFU and do it, stop greeting on here a about what you would like to do.

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middling Edition

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middlin...
    Latest Singletrack Videos
    Onzadog
    Free Member

    Not a parent so I guess I’m not qualified to comment on this but I’d say it’s clearly in the wrong box. just another illustration of how people just don’t engage their brains or have any awareness of the world around them. we’re to blame though for evolving a society where people can get by without ever having to put their brains in gear. use it or lose it. too many people have taken the second option.

    maccruiskeen
    Full Member

    Its sliding scale of right and wrong really so you won’t get two people (who smoke) who’ll agree who you should smoke amongst. Is it better that the woman smokes in the playground instead of in the car with her kids on the way to the playground? One of the consequences of the smoking in public buildings legislation is that its made smoking indoors at all, even ones own home, pretty taboo, so by result outdoors anywhere is the lesser evil.

    If you have kids its doesn’t make that much difference that you smoke near them or not, partly because you end up with a lot of the constituents of the smoke on your skin and clothes and kids are very huggy, partly because kids who take up smoking are often the children of parents who smoke (even parents who try to hide their smoking from their children), and that is a much more tangible effect than anything passive

    But if you don’t smoke near children why smoke near anyone or anything? So why smoke at all – unless you are fundamentally unhappy. If you are fundimentally unhappy, who give a flyer what some random in a playground thinks

    RobHilton
    Free Member

    One of my friends went out with a teacher who used to smoke weed while on playground duty – the school found it unacceptable. Only suspended her for a while for it though.

    We thought it was funny at the time, but now I’m all grown up I can see what a twait she was.

    Nobeerinthefridge
    Free Member

    Much preferable to the nitwits that bring their dogs into the playground.

    mrlebowski
    Free Member

    Playgrounds are outside right?

    anagallis_arvensis
    Full Member

    Much preferable to the nitwits that bring their dogs into the playground.

    Is it? A dog could be perfectly harmless cig smoke is always harmful. I think both are wrong but what do you do? Say anything and no doubt you’ll get a mouthful, unless your willing to slap the person you might just as well leave.

    deadlydarcy
    Free Member

    Playgrounds are outside right?

    Yep, but (what mccruiskeen says really), the smoking ban has made those who don’t like smoke/smoking even more conscious of the smell of it. Even smokers realise how cigarette smoke smells now that pubs/restaurants/bookies haven’t got a permanent haze of it inside.

    Exposing your kids to cigarette smoke isn’t a great idea, though given how many of us grew up being exposed to it and are “fine”, maybe the dangers are overplayed, and anyway, as we all know, statistics don’t matter when it comes to the safety and well-being of our kids. 🙂 I’d hazard that exposing them to the sight of you smoking would seem to normalise it and even though they’re “not allowed” to smoke, they may feel that it’s something that they’ll be able to do when they’re older. I know it normalised it for me to see my dad and all his mates puffing away. Without exception, every single one of my peers had a go at smoking – some of us toughed it out and got hooked. Some of us saw sense and never took it up.

    If you smoke outside in a playground, let’s face it someone is going to get a whiff of your exhaled smoke. Chances are, despite that one whiff not really amounting to any harm, he or she is not going to enjoy it. So why would you want to do it. Just leave your child inside, go and stand downwind of the playground and have your fag if you’re that desperate. Smoking in a playground doesn’t make you an evil person, but it shows that you don’t particularly care too much for the feelings of others.

    patriotpro
    Free Member

    geetee1972 – Member
    Is it acceptable for parents to smoke in kids playgrouns?

    No.

    It is prohibited at my girls’ school.

    sparkyrhino
    Full Member

    As a smoker i wouldn’t light up around kids.just in case they tried to tap me up for one.
    On a related theme the decision in Australia, to make all cig packs a standard colour and have a prominant pictures of smoking related diseases.great idea,but will it work?

    glupton1976
    Free Member

    This thread is comedy gold.

    davidtaylforth
    Free Member

    Definitely acceptable. It’ll toughen your kids up. Character building stuff. Its not going to do them any harm.

    antigee
    Full Member

    in aus and this is our “local” (actually quite big area) council

    YOUR SAY: Boroondara passes state’s toughest anti-smoking laws
    Council

    28 Aug 12 @ 10:00am by Greg Gliddon
    BOROONDARA councillors unanimously passed the state’s toughest anti-smoking laws in an historic vote last night.

    As reported in the Progress Leader on August 21, the new laws mean, as of today, smoking is prohibited within 10m of children’s playground’s, barbecues and picnic tables and illegal within 5m of an entrance to a municipal building, taxi rank or public transport stop.

    do people take any notice? sort of – at playground yesterday morning a mum went off to the bench by the basketball court to light up..
    tram and bus stops – well i wait for youngest who rides to school by a tram stop and people seem to want their fix before getting on the smoke free tram
    my uk experience in sheffield
    ice sheffied – big signs outside by kids queue – please do not smoke totally ignored
    outside childrens hospital – big signs – kids will copy – totally ignored
    school playground – no – adjacent path – smokers yes

    actually all it takes is foot in front of other for about 3 minutes away from playground / entrance
    i worked in offices that were full of smoke and would like my kids not to be exposed to it

    edit – yes cigs are in plain packs

    tails
    Free Member

    great idea,but will it work?

    It will to new smokers when you go past chocolate you notice all the shiny wrappers I imagine the same is true for cigarettes, it should be a paid for prescription only drug.

    jon1973
    Free Member

    Prescription drug? What exactly would be the medical basis for prescribing cigarettes, as oppose to things to help you stop for example? Will chemists be dispensing them?

    Make them harder to buy, plain packaging and not on display. Increase the tax. Massive fines for selling to underage. But prescribing them defies logic.

    jota180
    Free Member

    Make them harder to buy, plain packaging and not on display. Increase the tax. Massive fines for selling to underage. But prescribing them defies logic.

    Apart from the fines for selling to under-age, the rest is just nannying, folks can do what the hell they like with their own money and health in the case of smoking as far as I’m concerned.
    Same with booze etc.

    zilog6128
    Full Member

    folks can do what the hell they like with their own money and health in the case of smoking as far as I’m concerned

    in the cases of both smoking and drinking though it isn’t just their own health that’s being affected is it? Also health conditions caused by enjoying both these pastimes affect all tax-payers financially. Not that anyone dumb enough to be smoking in a playground will be paying any taxes of course. People need nannying because they are too f-ing stupid to take care of themselves and those around them.

    maccruiskeen
    Full Member

    Prescription drug? What exactly would be the medical basis for prescribing cigarettes, as oppose to things to help you stop for example? Will chemists be dispensing them?

    [video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AH9_KhvtFYM[/video]

    shotsaway
    Free Member

    folks can do what the hell they like with their own money and health in the case of smoking as far as I’m concerned

    in the cases of both smoking and drinking though it isn’t just their own health that’s being affected is it? Also health conditions caused by enjoying both these pastimes affect all tax-payers financially.

    I remember a story about this on BBC Breakfast about 5 years ago and the story seemed to indicate otherwise.

    The story was about the effects on the economy of banning smoking altogether. If the government banned smoking it would cost us more as taxpayers and from memory they said that smokers paid significant amounts of tax, which helps top up the governments coffers. Yes they do cost more in health care but these health care costs tend to be short term. The government also benefit as smokers tend to die earlier and therefore the government pay less out in pension payments.

    The story basically mentioned that if smoking was banned,everybody would end up paying more tax. The tax income from cigarettes would dry up immediately but it would take 50 years for all smoking related illnesses to reduce/disappear.

    Drac
    Full Member

    Prescription drug? What exactly would be the medical basis for prescribing cigarettes, as oppose to things to help you stop for example? Will chemists be dispensing them?

    My Dad use to work on the old TB wards, they prescribed Benson and Hedges back then to help remove the phlegm. Of course they no longer have isolated wards in the middle of the countryside for people with TB, never mind treating them with cigs.

    Yes they do cost more in health care but these health care costs tend to be short term.

    Really which ones then?

    cheekyboy
    Free Member

    There are plenty of playgrounds near me that have a constant whiff of pot smoke never mind tab smoke, maybe a cadre of grim faced diversity trained smoke rangers should be deployed, route em out and thrash em publicly.

    PiknMix
    Free Member

    I am trying to kick the habit at the moment, slipped back into it through some troubling times.

    I wouldn’t smoke near anyone, when I am I make a point of standing away from people.
    Its my choice to smoke and wouldn’t inflict it on others.

    That being said, I wouldn’t mind if anyone else was. You make your own choices on what you think is acceptable, I’m not in the position to judge that.

    eta

    There are plenty of playgrounds near me that have a constant whiff of pot smoke never mind tab smoke, maybe a cadre of grim faced diversity trained smoke rangers should be deployed, route em out and thrash em publicly.

    That is a very narrow minded opinion… I am in regular contact with hundreds of people who gain huge medical benefits from smoking green. How can a plant be illegal 😉

    qwerty
    Free Member

    💡 The kiddies heads are a good height for an ash tray though.

    jonahtonto
    Free Member

    making ciggie packs uninteresting is stupid. just ban tobacco. totally. make it illegal. sure people will grumble for about 6 months but **** ’em its for the best we all know that. i smoke by the way and even though i keep giving up it always gets me again. just ban it

    scuzz
    Free Member

    Has anyone got any science to back up this perceived risk to children who are outside, with small periods of exposure?

    Is the cancer risk statistically significant over that from the general levels of air pollution in this country?

    Or is this just a love-in?

    Squidlord
    Free Member

    I had teachers who went around in a constant haze of pipe smoke, including during lessons.

    Never did me any harm… kids these days… nanny state… bring back national service… yaddayaddayadda.

    😉

    deadlydarcy
    Free Member

    Has anyone got any science to back up this perceived risk to children who are outside, with small periods of exposure?

    Yes, I’m sure somebody has. Try quoting them to a non-smoking parent as a puff of your (figuratively, not literally) exhaled smoke passes around his or her kid. I’m sure it’ll go down well. 🙂

    tails
    Free Member

    Prescription drug? What exactly would be the medical basis for prescribing cigarettes, as oppose to things to help you stop for example? Will chemists be dispensing them?

    Make them harder to buy, plain packaging and not on display. Increase the tax. Massive fines for selling to underage. But prescribing them defies logic.

    In a similar vein that skag heads are supplied methadone, just smokers would have to pay for their drug. I think it would cut smoking considerably as people just wouldn’t go get the prescription. The medical basis being drug addiction. Increasing tax does not work as can be seen now.

    maccruiskeen
    Full Member

    Increasing tax does not work as can be seen now.

    deadlydarcy
    Free Member

    I think it would cut smoking considerably

    And increase smuggled cheap evil counterfeit ciggies from the Far East. And massively decrease tax receipts. I dunno what the balance of what revenue it generates versus the cost of treating smoking related disease is though…

    nealglover
    Free Member

    Increasing tax does not work as can be seen now.

    You mean with tax on cigarettes increasing all the time, and the number of smokers consistently decreasing ?

    (Edit- bit too slow, nice graph above to illustrate my point, before I made it 😉 )

    tails
    Free Member

    So do you think its the main concern of smokers, I don’t know any as in zero smokers who have said I’m packing up its too expensive. People who I know that try and stop do so for health benefits not monetary, they moan about the cost but keep buying them!

    nealglover
    Free Member

    Your friends are a very small focus group.

    That’s known as Anecdotal evidence. But the simple fact is that as tax on cigarettes has risen, the number of smokers has dropped (the percentage of the population that smoke has dropped)

    There may be other factors, but you simply cannot say with any factual accuracy that raising the tax doesn’t work.

    for another piece of useless anecdotal evidence, I gave up 3 1/2 years ago, because I couldn’t afford it anymore 😉

    butcher
    Full Member

    Smoking outdoors I’d say is probably no worse than driving. Driving certainly kills a lot more kids, and that’s without considering the toxins it produces.

    geetee1972
    Free Member

    Scuzz I don’t think the issue for me was the exposure to the smoke more the exposure to someone smoking. It’s such a mind dumbingly moronic habit that I just don’t even want my kids seeing other people smoke much like I would not want them seeing other people drunk.

    The effects on children in small enclosed spaces like cars has been shown to be very bad though.

    ampthill
    Full Member

    I’m amazed its not a no smoking site. Or site with a deignated outside smoking area

    On the cost front…

    the story I heard was that the NHS spends more on smokers but that this is paid for out of the extra tax they pay

    But the huge saving to the goverment is on pensions as they die so much younger

    druidh
    Free Member

    Surely the biggest problem of parents & teachers smoking in the playground is having to share their ciggues with kids?

    buzz1024
    Free Member

    funny – seems that it’s more socially acceptable these days to be a druggie rather than a smoker (which if my memory serves me correctly is still legal). Kids seeing (not talking about them being exposed to smoke in a confined space) someone smoking is pretty low down on the list of undesirable things for them to be exposed to – idiot drivers, idiots spitting in the street, self righteous w*****s on bikes, jakies drinking buckie, charity muggers, religeous nutters, obese school run mums, smelly people – where do we stop? – we all need to live together and that takes all types – stop trying to impose your views and opinions on others who don’t give a sh1t!

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 81 total)

The topic ‘Smoking in kids playgrounds?’ is closed to new replies.