Hey smoking A-holes, bus stops are public places too. Every day someone has to walk up behind me and light one up. Within two mouthfuls of your smoke I’m into an asthma induced coughing fit and turning blue. Me turning around and glarring at you (because I can’t talk by this point and tell what a selfish self entitled prick you are) as I dig in my bag for my puffer, and you still don’t get it. You stand there like a deer in the head lights still puffing away. Next time you want to light up, use some f’n manners and ask the other people at the bus stop if they mind if you smoke or move as far from the bus stop as possible (down wind A’hole) before lighting up. I get it, it’s your right if you want to smoke that s**t, but don’t force me or my son to.
—Stick that F’N cig up your hole
This article appears in Sep 3-9, 2009.
If you have asthma, the onus is really on you to avoid the things that trigger it. You could politely ask that they move away in consideration of your condition. Also, (with the exception of asthma sufferers) I think people worry way too much about the effects of periodic exposure to second hand smoke when outside.
I agree. The shit we breathe in from car tailpipes is much worse than some dude lighting a cigarette.
Why do people have to defend the ignorance of smokers and always use car exhaust as the more evil of the two. Whenever I ask someone not to smoke in bus shelters, it’s usually followed with a prickish remark.
I’m not sure why smokers think they have the right to smoke inside the bus shelters, the rules are posted on the glass or on overhead signs. The shelters were installed to protect bus riders from weather, not to give smokers a place to puff away.
The worst ones I’ve noticed when it comes to getting told to fuck off when nicely asking someone to smoke outside are: Highfield Terminal, Bridge Terminal, and the shelters on both sides of Barrington St. by Scotia Square, and the shelter at South & Barrington.
I’m not defending their ignorance, just their right to smoke outside. If it was in a bus SHELTER and not just a bus stop, I’ll side with the OP. Smoking in shelters is against the rules and the signs are posted for a reason. As for the car exhaust thing, it’s meant to provide perspective to the argument. Smoking has been so vilified as cancer causing that non-smokers become paranoid and irrational. Inhaling a waft of second hand smoke as you walk down the sidewalk or as you enter a building a few times a day is not going to increase your risk of cancer by a significant margin. All the other pollutants in the air, like car exhaust, should be your bigger concern…if your health is the real reason you don’t like second hand smoke.
Also, smokers can be real dicks about being asked to stop smoking around you, but non-smokers can be just as dickish about asking.
if your not smoking inside the glass bus stop box thing, who cares? i think i am allowed to smoke on the sidewalk.
I’d be the last person to defend a smoker, but the tailpipe comparison is undeniably true.
Strange that their asthma is never triggered by all the diesel and gas exhaust (coming out in pounds) but a tiny bit of cigarette smoke damn near kills them. Yeah, right. Nice try. It’s outside so fuck off.
I have no problem with smokers at bus stops as long as they don’t keep pacing all around. At lacewood you’ll get people on the side stop going up and down the sidewalk and you can’t get away from them. Just stay in one fucking place! I’ll go down here *points to left* if you stay down there *points to right* and we’re cool. I mean if you want to suck on a cancer stick, be my guest — to each their own.
Cigarette smoke makes me sick to my stomach and I”ve actually barfed before from too much exposure (anyone remember smoking rooms at bars? For some reason all my friends who don’t smoke figure the cool people were in there), so just once I’d like to toss my cookies all over one of those inconsiderate smokers.
Or smokers who light up in front of their barely one month old new born. I’ve seen it. Good grief.
I hope every one of you inconsiderate p***ks get severe smoke induced asthma. I hope you enjoy cough all day, annoying all your coworkers, having to rely on medication help you breath or having to go to the hospital and miss work just because some A’hole can’t be considerate. My doctor says to avoid things that trigger my asthma (ie. cigarette smoke) but that’s a little hard during rush hour and someone comes up behind you and lights one up.
You having a cigarette is more important than someone else health. Get real. And those of you who posted ignorant comments are just as ignorant when someone asks you not to smoke near them. So go fuck yourself!
If you’re outside then fucking deal with it, especially you Rude People Suck. The outside is HUGE, and if I want to have a smoke before the bus, and I’m not in a shelter, you can all kiss my smokin’ hot ass.
Actually, the no smoking rule goes beyond the physical shelter and applies to the terminals, as well. Here’s what the rule states on the HRM site:
Smoking
Passengers are not permitted to smoke while on transit vehicles, bus shelters and terminals, or ferry terminals in accordance with the Fares & Property By-law, prohibiting smoking in public transportation vehicles and facilities. Violators will be subject to a maximum penalty of $1000 under the by-law.
So, really, the smokers are not abiding by the bylaw. I know they don’t care, but just wanted to point that out.
Let’s be absolutely honest here. The car exhaust comparison is just two wrongs trying to make a right. Smoking is not permitted on transit property. This is so that we all have the opportunity to the equality of breathing the same quality of air. This equality becomes compromised when a smoker lights up.
One wonders why smokers are so willing to continue to allow ‘big tobacco’ to manipulate their lives. Smoking is the equivalent of willingly signing away years off the length of your life. All for the profits of the tobacco companies. One’s life should be worth more.
For those that like to defend their actions on the basis that their actions are legal, please keep in mind that it is within the law for you to be a total fucking asshole. There are many many things that an asshole does that are legal, but please do not think for a moment, that their being within the law somehow makes you any less the asshole that you are.
From the comments on LTWWB from the smoking crowd it’s clear to me that most smokers are inconsiderate assholes.
If you want to fuck up your own health FINE, but I’ve always said this and I’ll say it now: the right to breathe clean air trumps YOUR “right” to smoke. Is it really THAT hard to go puff on your death stick somewhere away from the general populace? Stop being so fucking inconsiderate.
floyd, i made you my friend. i have no idea what the fuck that function is for.
You actually think that standing next to someone having a smoke outside a couple times a day is going to “fuck up your health’, lol?
Where’s your proof?
And don’t bother citing some “study” by an anti-smoking group, involving mice living in a shoe-box full of cigar smoke their entire lives…show me a study that PROVES that the minute trace amounts of smoke you would get is going to “fuck up your health”…Good luck with that…
The fact is, you just don’t LIKE the smell…just like I don’t like your cheap perfume/bus fumes and coffee-breath…
I agree with not smoking in bus shelters. I hate to even admit it but I’m one of those people that the scent free places were made for although I’m never a bitch about. I have asthma and lots of allergies, cigarette smoke and perfume being 2 of my many and I have to say I would take smokers over heavy perfume wearers any day!! There is nothing worse then being stuck on a bus with someone wearing way too much perfume.
Holy shit Frosty, got enough keyboards there??
Actually the whole bus terminal bylaw may be true but is a farce, as I constantly see bus drivers smoke get off their buses and smoke where they please. Listen, this province has come a long way by banning indoor smoking in public places. Although I don’t smoke, I will say that it seems petty to complain about smoking outside. Move away from a smoker if it bothers you that much. Let people live!
Yeah, I know that the odds of anyone being charged under the bylaw at the terminals is pretty much zilch, but I just wanted to point out that the rule doesn’t just apply to inside the shelter. I do exactly what you suggest when someone’s smoking, I move to another spot. Problem solved. Inside the shelter is a different matter, though. I’m not going to stand in the rain or cold while someone makes a little smoke haze in there. They want to smoke, they have to do it outside. That’s just courtesy in such a small enclosed space.
The smoker didn’t ‘”sneak up behind you”, OP. You were in public. Stay cognizant of where you are and who is around you. I know you learned this before your mommy ever let you leave the house.
The smoker is NOT responsible for your asthma, controlling it, figuring out what has triggered it nor why you cast stink-eye all around. I know it’s a big disappointment… that the rest of the world is not paying special attention to your boohoo special needs but where there’s no expectation there’s no disappointment. The next time you leave the house prepare to take care of your special self because, obviously, the rest of us could give a rat’s ass what your special needs are.
If you think this is cold imagine telling it to a bum who claims to “need” your change then kindly fuck off.. and take your puffer with you, you might need it.
know what fool, there is a thing called breeze,and air currents at work around you and all the rest of us. if it was as you say, then the person had to be less than 2 inches from your face, for you to get any fumes or smoke at all. it is a natural proven fact, that air circulates at a given speed and will fill in a void between you and a smoker, all within a very, very, short time. if you come on here to bitch about smoking, please do so. but remember the fact remains, that air does move around you, at all times. and furthermore, if smoking so offends you, you might want to seriously thnk of moving off planet, because we all know, it will be around for a long time. and i hope to hell, that we won’t hear your whining every other fucking day. other than that, have a good one, i have to grab a drag, before my bus comes.
I would have kept puffing and let you choke too.
Spot on Pretty Kitty! I have stated for years that my right to life will ALWAYS exceed a smokers right to smoke in my vicinity. Nice to see I am not the only one who thinks this way.
LOL, trying to talk logic and sense to a group of people that have willingly chosen to suck toxic chemicals into their lungs.
Good luck with that, they are never going to admit their problem is actually a problem and that it is also a problem for everyone around them.
They are just too fabulous and cool for that, not to mention…they have their personal rights that apparently supersede the rights every other person on the planet that happens to be down range of these “breezes” that magically transport their smoke to “somewhere else”.
You can’t talk sense to a moron, they have to realize they are a moron first and then accept that fact.
Der?: It’s not their fault. Smokers are manipulated by ‘big tobacco companies’ who purposely add chemicals to make them more addicted to keep the profits rolling in! Once addicted, they are like sheep. Baaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Every person on the planet who doesn’t live within your sensible bubble must have something seriously wrong with them, right, Oceanlady? Right DER? That’s what you want all free thinking Canadian to believe, right? One could say the same of those crazy people who dare to drink alcohol or listen to loud music or drive fast or swim without a life jacket. Or check out all the sheep in line at McDonalds! Baaaa indeed! (sugar whores) Your perfection is astounding me and I’m just not worthy to breath any more. Thanks for enlightening me in how to become a judgmental asshole much too concerned with what other people are doing *gag*
“Big Tobacco” doesn’t have any power anymore. Non-smokers are running the show now.
Your outside & someone smoking bothers you…WHY DON”T YOU MOVE !
Your the one with the problem…or better yet go into a bar sit down & catch your breath ! You and all the other ass*&^$ are responsible for there no longer being “smoking rooms” you have no one to blame except yourself & your ilk .
Smokers are people too.
They have IMO as much right to be outdoors as you do & if you don’t like being around where one is smoking MOVE !
I’m an exsmoker & I find being around cigarette smoke makes me gag now…that’s my F’in problem not anyone elses… I don’t like it I simply move away from it.
Its time all you nonsmoking ass)(*&$ wake up & smell the damn coffee, all the people outside smoking on the sidewalks, near doorways, alleys & just generally out in public are there because of a STUPID , completely unnecessary prohibition.
Let’s all lobby for smokers to have their own smoking rooms etc. They’ll be happy & you (or at least I) will be too.
“show me a study that PROVES that the minute trace amounts of smoke you would get is going to “fuck up your health”.”
Show me a study that satisfies your strict criteria that shows second hand smoke does NOT have negative health effects.
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence…especially if the studies have not been done.
“”LOL, trying to talk logic and sense to a group of people that have willingly chosen to suck toxic chemicals into their lungs. “”
I agree, and that’s why I have lived away from the snarling traffic, smokey high-emission diesel buses, and shit-filled harbours of cities like Halifax for most of my life.
“”Let’s all lobby for smokers to have their own smoking rooms etc. “”
Great idea! Oh wait, We already had that, with proper ventilation, but the anti-smoking brigade lobbied hard and long, and wasted the millions of dollars that bars and restaurants spent on them. And now everyone is forced to smoke outside doorways and…erm…in bus shelters…
“”Show me a study that satisfies your strict criteria that shows second hand smoke does NOT have negative health effects””
Can’t prove a negative, mate…the onus should be on the affirmative case. Nor can I “prove” there’s no god(s), Easter Bunnies or smiling Germans…
“””You can’t talk sense to a moron…””
Really? Even with your GIANT BRAIN? Can’t you, like, use hand gestures to help us understand you better? Maybe speak slowly and loudly, like you do when on a foreign holiday?
“”Holy shit Frosty, got enough keyboards there??””
Enough for what? There are 22 in that pic, in my singer’s studio, all hooked up and functioal…and yes, I CAN play them all at once, lol…although I admit that in the one song where I do so, some of them are limited to wind noises, jungle sounds and subsonic drones…
Don’t worry, there’s more in the closet, gear room, MY studio, my GF’s house, my mom’s (she plays too!) and, of course I have a trail of “left-behinds” from London to Panama… you play?
Kay, your such a bitch… No wonder you have all these negative outlooks towards others… they probably all hate you… Also I dont think you need to be enlightened to be judgemental, your way ahead of them already… Do you ever have anything fucking positive to say or are you really that much of an egotistical bitch (putting it lightly)…
I dont know why I’m even bothering, just cranky I guess…
And futhermore second hand smoke is detrimental for your health and everyone knows it. If you smoke and just dont give a shit about others then just buck up and say that, dont make pathetic excuses or say it has no effect…
People you have got to realize that most people are out for themselves and couldn’t give a shit how they affect others. No point in bickering about it, proved by the majority of comments on this and other threads…
Kay, above was kinda rude but it goes a long way to be somewhat of an adult when making a point, not spewing BS everywhere like your in junior high…
“”And futhermore second hand smoke is detrimental for your health and everyone knows it.””
We do?
Even second hand smoke outdoors, for a few minutes waiting for a bus, twice a day?
Prove it, and then send your results to the proper journals for peer-review (although I’m not sure you’re qualified – your grammar and baseless generalizations in your post indicates that in fact, you are not), a Nobel prize for medicine awaits you if you can do what no-one else has…
Nor can you prove there IS a God or an Easter Bunny.
Frosty, my point was that the studies likely don’t exist, thus nothing is discovered, discussed or proven either way. A well designed study (preferably studies) concluding there are no ill-effects of minor exposure to second hand smoke would be more useful than the hand waving and speculation we are forced to do now. Otherwise, if you go on the conclusions of an enormous body of evidence, all signs point to exposure to cigarette smoke is bad for you. People extrapolate (often incorrectly) that these ill-effects are going to happen to them with very small and sporadic exposure to smoke…I would love to see some data discussing the subject either way.
Logic, I think if you look at the data about second hand smoke you will find that the studies examining the effects of it typically look at prolonged exposure in an enclosed space. It is highly unlikely that catching the occasional waft of smoke outside is going to affect your long term health in any real way. It takes habitual smokers years to develop the most severe illnesses associated with smoking and some smokers live to very old ages without serious smoking-related disease. Not smoking is clearly preferable, but non-smokers need to maintain some perspective before they treat smokers as selfish-people-hurting-bastards.
Kay…do us a favor and actually please do stop breathing, you are so retarded that you even have “Special K” as your pic…you’re “special all right. You are the most sanctimonious poster here as well as the biggest hypocrite so please spare us your boring bullshit and suck on a plastic bag.
Frosty: I always did find it odd they took the smoking rooms away…seemed like a perfectly sound idea to me…sure they stank like nothing else, but that was only inside them.
Posters bitching about “Smokers have as much right out doors too”, yes you are right…to a degree, as long as it isn’t in an area SPECIFICALLY stating that there is no smoking. Bus shelters etc and doorways are a prime example, fucking get it through your addiction addled heads that you can smoke 16 feet away and it would end this ridiculous sticking point between smokers and nons. Apparently 16-18 feet is enough distance that the smoke will dissipate enough to be less of an irritant to the sensitive. I for one am an smoker and it’s only the smell that I dislike…I don’t devolve into fits of coughing, but there are plenty of people that have respiratory systems that simply cannot handle the various NASTY chemicals that are in cigarette smoke. Read the side of the pack, it’s not pretty, better yet go to the New Infirmary and check out the wards for the smokers there…I used to work as a patient attendant at the various hospitals and it’s because of that why I quit…SCARY shit, no jokes.
Smoking in a bus shelter is plain outright ass-hattery and one of these days the odds are that some non-smoker is going to be in a downright psychotic mood and pop you one…trust me I have witnessed it actually TWICE, was totally shocked myself but not as much as the smokers with the smashed noses filled with cigarette remains. Luckily one of those incidents was caught on film and the crazy dude was charged…but the smoker also got a fine and I lost several hours providing a deposition for the cops.
Nope, don’t play. Sounds like quite the collection.
I’d like you kay-bashers disagree with even a single sentence I’ve offered to this post or even allude to something I’ve said because right now you both sound like incredibly stupid sheep. Baaaaa DER?
Oh, and L0GiC, “Do you ever have anything fucking positive to say…” No I don’t have anything fucking flowery to add to LTWWB posts. There are other blogs for that. Please look up “bitch” then figure out why we do it before you decide to come back.
A don’t think smoking rooms were particularly good for smokers though. The ventilation never seemed to be good enough to get rid of the haze of smoke.
Cigarette smoke makes my tummy hurt, and kills my blood vessels. Enough of it will make me go blind.
I don’t know how much will or will not damage my body, but I know a few puffs make me wanna barf so….go smoke someplace else — If you were there first, I’ll just move off to the side, if I was there first find someplace else to smoke. And if I move away from you, don’t fucking follow me.
I don’t care who smokes….I’m willing to cooperate if you are — I’ll stand someplace, and you stand someplace else.
Not quite sure how Kay’s avatar/pic is any better or worse than a small kitten with photo-shopped milk pails, lol…but either way I’d hadn’t noticed either. until you brought it up 🙂
The funny part of the “smoking areas” was that they always seemed to have wayyy more than the 20-25% of the population that apparently smokes (or admits it in polls)…hmmm
Personally, I am happy to stand off to the side in the rain/snow etc to have a smoke. Not because of any fear of some psychopath “punching” me, more because of the stench of BO/cheap perfume, and my general dislike for crowds…I DO thinks it’s ridiculous to have these blanket bans, a la 5 meters, which places me basically in the middle of the street!
Fortunately I live back in the woods (like Matthew’s “troll”), and can smoke, drink, make bonfires and even dance around them nekkid (more troll-like behaviour) if I choose…
Miles…good post at 5:00 PM.
…as for the “poor ventilation”…yeah maybe sometimes, but there were plenty where it was fine. Some clubs spent literally thousands on smoking rooms, only to have them disallowed a couple years later, unfairly I thought.
MaL Rat – no, it LOOKS like quite a collection – it SOUNDS like a freaking cacaphony…
I think it would be funny if the smoke that came out of cigarettes was pink.
Scratch that, rainbow.
Hey Dino, guess what? The colour of smoke that comes out of cigarettes IS every colour of the rainbow… Take a close look on a sunny day, and you will see. It probably has something to do with the the 600+ chemical additives in every stick… As a former smoker, I invite all you current addicts to wiki or google and read that list of shit you are putting into your body and the atmosphere with every drag you take….
Aw shucks qwerty….
I think everyone pretty much agrees that smoking, especially a lot, is bad for us, thanks Floyd…
Try to catch up, would you?
Kay, just because MANY people dislike you and think you are one of the worst things about LTWWB, it doesn’t make us all sheep. It means that the problem is you…not the rest of the World…or sorry the rest of Halifax, which you so clearly hate, well I think it is because you are in real life as you are here: insufferable and unpleasant and thus your experience in this city has been one of “You get what you give”.
Frosty…I wish I had a job that I could live in the country, or at least past the city limits. I am very tired of seeing the self-entitled making rush hour traffic worse with their antics.
I think the smoke room poplulations were inflated for two reasons…friends tagging along to continue drunken ramblings andor to have a smoke because many “non smokers” puff like madmenwomen when they have a few tipsy tickets.
Kay: You said > “Every person on the planet who doesn’t live within your sensible bubble must have something seriously wrong with them, right, Oceanlady?”
I fail to see anything in my posts that could be construed as a personal attack on you or anyone else. I am merely stating some facts. I am questioning your need to launch a personal attack on me. Is it because you are a smoker?
Most smokers I know are quick to be defensive about their habit. Most smokers I know do not want to admit their weakness to their habit. Instead of getting defensive to those who merely state the unpopular truths about smoking, smokers should be getting angry that their daily lives (as well as their longevity) and money are being manipulated by ‘big tobacco’. Smokers could be using that anger to take control back of their lives and money by quitting. Some eventually ‘get it’. Others never will.
I just think it would be a step forward for all smokers to look beyond their daily addiction to see the big picture and how it ultimately affects them as an individual. Imagine laying on your deathbed from a preventable smoking related illness before your teenage son has even graduated high school. It is too late then to wish you had never heard of cigarettes! This has happened in my family. Do you think ‘big tobacco’ cared as they laughed their way to the bank??? “Sensible bubble?” No. Just forward thinking. Some of us are capable of it. Others not.
Nowhere have I implied that those who are not “must have something seriously wrong with them”. This might be your belief, but please don’t seek to impose this upon me. It has been my experience through life that those who make such accusations are usually directed by their owm narrow views, not the accused’s.
So, it’s bad for smokers “to allow ‘big tobacco’ to manipulate their lives” because they should have Oceanlady and Health Canada do it for them instead. It’s a drastic and silly analogy, I know, but how else to let you be you and let me be me and everybody realize the buck stops at education. I need not your judgment of the non-criminal choices I make as a smoker and I extend the same to you as a non-smoker. I know the risks. I now know how to fit in to non-smoking work place and I’m all for it. I have no plan to quit. Why should that have to be okay with you? Why should I care if you’re okay with my personal choices? (I should point out I’d never go out of my way to blow smoke in your face.)
My family has been affected in both ways. Lost my grandmother to lung cancer becuase she was a smoker. My grandfather still lives and smokes like a chimney. Try telling HIM anything! Never has he had any kind of smoking related, respiratory or cardiac issues. Ever! But it’s not my place to force him into anything and it’s not yours either. The best we can do, and retain our freedom at the same time, is educate and do it well. I think I side for the public advertising ban and other deterrents for children as well because these measures reinforce the education while still allowing adults to govern themselves. You’ll notice Oceanlady’s social approval is NOT on this wish-list of governmental objectives related to the safety of a smoking public.
And for the record I responded to your comments Oceanlady, “One wonders why smokers are so willing to continue to allow ‘big tobacco’ to manipulate their lives. …One’s life should be worth more.”… because you imply smokers are simply stupid while cognizant of big tobacco’s influence on their lives so have some kind of death wish. I think your judgment of a smokers choice is flawed. We do NOT all wish for the same experiences in this life…. also, by asking a question I am NOT mounting a personal attack. It is my experience people who jump to this conclusion when confronted even slightly have a tiny little ego’s and constantly play the victim. whatever.
Yeah…’whatever’…you just so eloquently proved my point Kay. Thanks.
Kay, there is quite a difference between bitching, and being a bitch, you are the latter… While this is a place to bitch, one does not have to be a bitch to comment…
And why so many Kay haters? well thats obviously because we’re all haligonians (aka sheep) who can’t form their own opinions. Once one starts hating, the rest follow suit… Baaahhhhhhh!!!
Sorry, LOGiC, I couldn’t hear you over the sound of the electric shears; I’m helping in making a sweater for Kay’s hubby for Xmas.
Lol, make sure you keep enough on your back NGF, our winters here are pretty cold!
I’d prefer if the smokers would just stay at either end of the terminal (bridge terminal in particular) and not smoke in between. Ugh.