2nd smoke from smokers & sensitivity

[colorisnt]

I guess where I am from, I am so used to people thinking smoking is their God given right that it doesn't surprise me to see smokers. A lot more young people DID smoke in the UK, which was really unfortunate. However, if I was waiting for a bus and was unable to move and someone was smoking, I could nicely ask them to put out the cig in the meantime with little issue after explaining my allergy.

That wouldn't happen in my hometown. I have been spat at, sexually harrassed, you name it. When I was a teenager, I couldn't leave my house without a fear of a life-threatening attack. At school, kids and teachers alike smoked in the bathrooms, so I couldn't even use the bathroom at school! Where I got my BA (IU Bloomington) everything is smoke free. Where I am getting my PhD it is the same, so huge sell there.

I guess it doesn't bother me that they smoke outside because I can quickly get the heck out of dodge, but oye. Smoking indoors scares the crap out of me. I can't get out and often will get too exposed before I even know it is too bad and end up in the hospital. It terrifies me.

[Cataboo]

Maybe its' different on the coasts of the US or the DC area. Cigarette smoke wasn't around that much when I was young - so definitely no smoking anywhere near schools. Grad school, I worked in a cancer center - so there was no smoking anywhere near the entry ways of the building. My current workplace is a smoke free campus - so you see the smokers lurking out in the corner of the parking lots hiding behind dumpsters trying to get their fix.

When I was really young (late 70's), I know my parents used to have parties and they'd allow people to smoke in the house - but only in the sunroom or rooms they could ventilate and get teh smoke out of easily, and they'd send all us kids either to the basement or outside if someone was smoking. Probably by mid-80s they didn't allow anyone to smoke in the house anymore.

I've run into the attitude that smoking is someone's god given right in Europe way more than I have ever run into it in the US. The only place around the US that I've run into it is in the local Vietnamese community/shopping center - Basically a huge shopping mall full of Vietnamese restaurants and stores. Vietnamese men will sit and light up inside in the hallways underneath signs saying in like 4 languages "NO SMOKING" - and everyone tosses their trash on the floor instead of into garbage cans that are conveniently placed ever however long. Just the 3rd world mentality at play... But the restaurants have to follow health department rules and are no smoking.

[colorisnt]

Yeah, no smoking regs here. We try to get tourists into the area from Chicago, but it is hard when everything is laden in smoke. Our ex-mayor tried to even get the civic auditorium to go smoke free and it was completely shot down. There was a huge protest. when he mentioned a smoking ban, the whole town went nuts.

He was not re-elected. Government buildings were not even smoke free until the mid-90's I believe. And there is no requirement for a smoke free workplace. MI and IL are smoke free, which is great. Indiana will never be this way - especially this county. I've actually never lived anywhere else where smoking was such a right.

That said, my best friend is visiting this summer (from the UK). She smokes, but never around others (no one else in her family smokes). She is truly trying to quit and has several times, but always goes back sadly. Well, anyway, she was FLOORED that you could smoke in areas where children would be present or indoors when you are trying to eat. I think she said smoking while eating was "disgusting". That was funny to me, as she smokes. However, she doesn't think everyone should have to choose to smoke because one person decided to do it.