No smoking ban comes in on 1st January 2011

Littletrog - I, too, am an enthusiastic smoker and have been since I was about 14 (nearly 50 years ago - guess I'm lucky still to be around!). I'm also an intelligent adult, although I guess those two statements are mutually exclusive. Unusually for me, I haven't done the research before making the statement, but I'm fairly sure that the link between passive smoking and various nasty diseases has been conclusively proved. My grandfather died of lung cancer at the age of 42, having never smoked in his life and, yes, it's known that certain people have a predisposition, maybe genetically caused, towards cancer, but I would never use any of that stuff as a justification for smoking. There is no justification - it's a daft thing to do, and if I were 14 all over again I'd probably never start, but I actively enjoy it and have absolutely no desire to live to 103, stricken with Alzheimer's and a burden on my children. The minute I'm diagnosed with some nasty smoking-related and terminal disease, I'll sell the house & buy a one-way ticket to Zurich - after doing a trip down the Nile, visiting India and Morocco again and various other journeys, if I have time - preferably with my grandchildren in tow. My husband has a degenerative disease of the brain which will eventually kill him, slowly and horribly. He started smoking again when he was diagnosed, after having stopped for 25 years, and I can completely understand why. There's absolutely no good reason for smoking (and certainly none for inflicting it on other people, who have the right to make their own choices) - but there are worse ways to die.

On the other hand - Sharon: respect!!

A filthy, health damaging, smelly anti-social habit that costs a fortune and makes millions of people unhappy, either they smoke and can't give up or don't smoke and are sick of other peoples smoke. I have now smoked for 40+ years and still can't give up. I have given up far worse than smoking. One day "they" will get found out putting some chemical in them that makes them more addictive than anything else I have used (and that's a lot I can tell you). Anyway gotta stop to find my ciggies!!!.

More addictive than heroin?... sure I read that in a medical journal somewhere.
4,000 chemicals identified.
One of the main ones is toluene.. is that rocket fuel?
I remember reading all this stuff but be damned if I can accredit it to any publication.

Yes Rosie, more addictive than Heroin, cocaine, alchohol etc.. Most people in the rehabs I had contact with still smoked despite wishing to stop. you can take heroin all your life (and some have) and it will not kill you, only dirty needles and manky heroin or overdoses do that. Heroin is also cheaper at source and only affects those taking it (Physical health wise that is, I won't include ill health through stress suffered by relatives of heroin users or maniac pushers killing all and sundry.). So which one can ANYONE buy over the counter anywhere?. I wouldn't mind a ban on selling ciggies, but that would create the same underground situation as other illegal sustances. Time for a ciggie after that rant!!

As an asthma sufferer who loves bar crawling I have to admit that I´ll be glad if they bring in the ban - at the moment if I want to be smoke-free I have to drink at home - not my idea of fun.

Well originally, the Government were going to enforce 'smoking' and 'non smoking' area in pubs, restaurants etc. but then they suddenly changed their minds and declared that all public places are non smoking except for private clubs, some Government offices etc. so really that is not fair. One rule for one, and one for the other.

On another note, anyone noticed that when a child is in a buggy and you are waiting to cross a road and cars are belching out exhaust fumes that are blasting in the child's face because they are almost at the same level? Anyone ever mentioned what harm that could do to the child?

.......3 years in a buggy ocassionally sitting at the roadside cannot compare with the same child being in the company of 'smoking' parents and others, 24/7 for the first 5 years of it's life. And yes, the dangers of exhaust fumes and the effect on health are also well documented. Actually, the child in a buggy is probably less likely to suffer ill effects than he would by sitting IN the car with the windows shut and an adult or two, smoking cigarettes.

My rant for the day. I'm one of those naughty, reformed, (40 years) smokers

And aren't us reformed smokers the worst????!!x

The amount lost would be far less than the cost of treating all the people who are affected by smoking related illnesses.And the cost to the tax payer related to cleaning up all the smoking paraphernalia discarded in the streets.

Ian - that's a fallacy. Most smokers don't live long enough to be a burden on the state - after a lifetime of paying mega-taxes on the weed, which subsidise the NHS. Smokers cost the state less than people who live to a ripe old age but need total support & expensive medication for years and years. I'm not advocating smoking - just putting it into perspective.

I am a none smoker gave up 5 yrs ago, i know what its like to enjoy a ciggy it is your choice wether you smoke or not not someone telling you can or cant.
Bring back the old snug bars totally blocked of from the other bars with bar staff that smoke and good extraction. i am ex landlady and if still had my pub thats what i would do

I to am an ex-smoker and yes I now hate it,but what I have said,and I mean it,is that I will start again on my one hundredth birthday.

you go for it i may join you mmmmmmmmmmmmm