It's funny to think how times have changed.
In the mid 1980's I was in a children's home (here in the UK) and the rule they had was you could smoke if you were over 14 (the legal age at the time was 16.)
I had just turned 14 so puffed away (with the other kids who were old enough) in the living/tv room, with all the other children (some of them were only 7-8 years old) just sitting there breathing it all in. God knows if any of them had asthma or whatever. Nobody thought anything of it and it was just the way things were.
Up until about 15 years ago they allowed smoking on trains which was particularly handy as no matter how busy it got the smoking carriage never had many people in it so you were guaranteed a seat
. On the London double decker buses you could smoke on the top level.
They don't allow smoking in hospitals now (in the UK), when I had to go for an appointment a year or two ago it was snowing and when I arrived I was greeted by the sight of (among others) a woman with a portable drip and an old man in a wheelchair puffing away by the entrance. It was bitterly cold and was a particularly sad/pathetic thing to behold.
I had to go to hospital a couple of months back for a procedure and at the hospital I went to they have now banned smoking on all of their grounds, so you are supposed to traipse off site to have a ciggy. Nobody seemed to be paying the rules much heed though and everyone was just smoking outside the entrance as usual.
I think it's bollocks that they can't make an exception for hospitals. Fair enough if you are just visiting for a medical appointment/procedure and you'll be out in a few hours or whatever but what if you are stuck in there for months? Maybe on crutches or in a wheelchair or something. And what about the poor people who are terminal and haven't got long left, surely they could make an exception for them? Put out a covered shelter somewhere out the back or something?
In the mid 1980's I was in a children's home (here in the UK) and the rule they had was you could smoke if you were over 14 (the legal age at the time was 16.)
I had just turned 14 so puffed away (with the other kids who were old enough) in the living/tv room, with all the other children (some of them were only 7-8 years old) just sitting there breathing it all in. God knows if any of them had asthma or whatever. Nobody thought anything of it and it was just the way things were.
Up until about 15 years ago they allowed smoking on trains which was particularly handy as no matter how busy it got the smoking carriage never had many people in it so you were guaranteed a seat
. On the London double decker buses you could smoke on the top level.They don't allow smoking in hospitals now (in the UK), when I had to go for an appointment a year or two ago it was snowing and when I arrived I was greeted by the sight of (among others) a woman with a portable drip and an old man in a wheelchair puffing away by the entrance. It was bitterly cold and was a particularly sad/pathetic thing to behold.
I had to go to hospital a couple of months back for a procedure and at the hospital I went to they have now banned smoking on all of their grounds, so you are supposed to traipse off site to have a ciggy. Nobody seemed to be paying the rules much heed though and everyone was just smoking outside the entrance as usual.
I think it's bollocks that they can't make an exception for hospitals. Fair enough if you are just visiting for a medical appointment/procedure and you'll be out in a few hours or whatever but what if you are stuck in there for months? Maybe on crutches or in a wheelchair or something. And what about the poor people who are terminal and haven't got long left, surely they could make an exception for them? Put out a covered shelter somewhere out the back or something?
