PDA

View Full Version : w.o.l.--anyone there? and SMOKING BAN!!!



cathidaw
15-06-2007, 03:22 AM
I DONT SMOKE but Ithink the complete ban is a mistake.I understand how difficult it is to give up.
My father smoked like a chimney and he gave up many times--said it would kill him. He died aged 86.
I HAVE A PLAN !!
WE SHOULD HAVE DESIGNATED ROOMS EVERYWHERE, in towns, offices. hospitals factories etc. Sealed rooms , or little huts with ventilators in the roofs where smokers can go when they are desperate. Somewhere where they can go for a half hour or so-for a small fee -and puff a way to their heart's discontent ,with like minded people. Also making new friends
OK it would be fuggy but no-one would notice or complain, unless someone on the bus sat next to them in their kippered clothes.

In America for instance-on some trains there are smoking carriages. Special ly equipped with tables chairs and lots of large ash trays. where people can go for a desperate drag. No food or drink allowed-and they are watched. They are well used.
Some are disgustingly basic with stub proof tables and chairs bolted down. Others are surprisingly pleasant, pungent but Idont think they would notice.

Anyone found smoking elswhere on the train is put off at the next stop.
Not funny if they are on a 2,3,or more day, journey across country.

Iwas reading about patients in hospitals standing or sitting outside smoking -knee deep in dog ends. Can't be healthy...and what about cross infection from the public who are there too. MRSA and other bugs taken back to the wards---and they cut down visiting times to keep the general public out.

A special room for smokers on each ward with no TV or other distraction ,sealed off from the ward with a ventilator in the roof or ceiling would be a better idea, allowing patients to smoke for a short period, if they agreed to undertake treatment --patches etc whilst they are there.
I'm digressing now...
In my other life Iwas a nurse . Patients were definitely not allowed to smoke.
How they managed with an addiction I dont know- but they did.
Also visitors were restricted, and Never allowed to sit on beds.
Hygiene was at least 75% better to in those days.
I say bring back the Matrons---dragons that they were!
:clapping: :clapping: :clapping:

IS ANYONE THERE ON W.O.L?

Shizara
15-06-2007, 09:48 AM
First.... I'm here!! :woohoo1:

Smoking, a subject in itself that is more complex than people just giving the filthy habit up. I don't smoke, but my parents certainly did. My father drank too much too. He said that giving up his drink was bad enough and he had his times where he lapsed back to it, but giving up smoking cigarettes was even harder. For a while he was puffing through a carton - 200 cigarettes - in 3 days. That means he was almost non stop smoking. You can imagine the state of the house. After he moved out and I cleaned the house I was shocked at the amount of nicotine 'bleeding' from the bathroom walls when I steamed the room up.

The front of Birmingham New Street Station has become a very 'smelly alley'. Some days it is unbelievably bad. Try having to queue up there for a while waiting for a replacement bus service to get home because for one of a number of reasons your train service isn't going to happen.

My first day in the UK. I had to get a train from London to Edinburgh. A full open fare and on to a blue train. - Didn't realize that it wasn't just the railway, that chunks of it were run by different companies. Anyway, it was standing room only from London. A great first time experience at a price. There was a smoking carriage but as there were so many standing in the vestibules there was no distinction between smoking and non smoking as all doors were open. A few hours late, standing all the way from London to Edinburgh in a smoky train and I was wheezing well. At the bed and breakfast I was told by the proprietor "We don't allow smoking in our rooms." I was taken aback then realized I probably smelled like an ashtray. It was hard to reassure her I was a non smoker, but I tried to explain. She then offered to wash my clothes for me next day and I was very thankful.

Now, as much as I hate, loathe and detest being subjected to smoke I do understand the need that smokers have for a 'fix' and I know from living with my father how hard it can be to quit. It isn't just the nicotine 'fix' it is also a habit, something associated with say socialising, having a coffee or tea etc. The war period promoted it in a big way with the use of servicemen/women and actors/actresses showing it to be a cool thing to do.

Am of two minds over closed rooms. I have seen them in workplaces. The rooms in themselves smell really bad but when the users open the door some of it wafts out. Some places have a corner outside have containers for the butts but it is amazing how many are stubbed out on the ground.

All very catch 22. To be able to smoke is seen to be a right but equally not being subjected to secondhand smoke should be a right.

Another thought that I do have is that the government makes a small fortune from the tax on cigarettes. They will replace it somewhere and we will all likely finish up paying it.

As for hospitals and scary matrons..................

BRING BACK THE SCARY MATRON!!

They kept standards high and nurses / cleaning staff on their toes. I am not really sure why the standard slipped from not allowing visitors to sit on beds to letting them do so. Restriction of visiting hours to certain times wasn't such a bad thing. I seem to remember visiting hours being either a period after lunch or in the evening and yes, hygiene was indeed at least 75% better. Though, cleaning staff were much more thorough. I don't remember seeing grime on skirting boards and blood splashes on walls. On the morning rounds doctors washed hands again if examining the next patient.

Yes, Matron was a dragon, scary and breathing fire if you weren't up to standard but it was done with the best interests of the patient.

cathidaw
15-06-2007, 11:27 PM
Talking of scary matrons.......
In my other life Iwas a nurse.
Istarted as a very green cadet nurse straight from school.The matron had a down on me from the a start. I was too boisterous -noisy-untidy-unpunctual-----you name it that was what she thought Iwas.
Ithink I was too young too, and at that age very small. Imust admit that Inever walked if Icould run along the corridors.( quote-a nurse never runs)
Ioften wonder why Iwas kept on.
She terrified me and everyone else ,but we respected her. the hospital ran like clockwork, and it was clean.
No agency nurses or cleaners in those days. The cleaners had been there for years and took pride in 'their' wards.
One day this Matron told me that I was insubordinate and I was intrigued thinking it was something good for once. Ihad never heard the word before so when I went home that evening Itold my mum. She handed me the dictionary with a pained look.
When some years later I left, the Matron said she was very sad
Igrew up there -as much as we ever do.
Yes- bring them back.

dj support
17-06-2007, 07:18 PM
the smoking ban will save many lives, make going out into town alot more pleasurable and equipment i work with that gets ruined by smoke last alot longer!!!

virtually all pubs are coated yellow with tar they look awfull and hopefully will have a lick of paint when the ban comes in!!

I used to work at libertys in town and i did it for 3 years because i enjoyed the job but had to leave because smokers were killing me in the last 2 christmas shifts i worked i suffered bronchtis (a smokers illness) 99% postivly got from all the smoke which ruined my christmases as its really a horrible illness!

and smoking breaks?!?! are they law??? why should i slave away all day with only a legally required break with no litlle rests inbetween?? but smokers have 5 minutes every few hours for a "fag"???????

its about time smokers where punished and stopped ruining other peoples lives! Grrr it annoys me so much...

cathidaw
18-06-2007, 12:23 AM
I have just been listening to Joanna Lumly's idea for addicted smokers.
She suggests a 'bike shed' type of building attached to the backs of offices and shops etc, (outside of course) with a chimney, where smokers can go and puff away, because otherwise addicts will find a way around the ban.

dj support
18-06-2007, 12:28 AM
well aslong as they get no special privelages then thats ok but then again why should they have a 'nice summer house' built for them??? pah

cathidaw
18-06-2007, 12:31 AM
Idont think she meant a summer house.Remember the old bike sheds at school..tin roofs and so cold. Maybe it would put them off if it was so uncomfortable.

dj support
18-06-2007, 12:39 AM
smokers tend to get what they want tho in a month the'd have heating and a tv installed!

cathidaw
18-06-2007, 01:01 AM
You are probably right. Laws are made in this country but they are not upheld.There will definately be an uproar and then a compromise.
Idont know what the answer is. Ihave worked with addicts -not smokers Imay say.and it is difficult to give up.
My parents both smoked heavily and when I was about 14 Ihad a tooth out with gas. The dentist asked me how long Ihad been smoking as I coughed and hacked like an old man under the anaesthetic. He didn't believe me when I said never.
No -one had heard of passive smoking in those days.
Fortunately apart from a few early years being 'chesty' I have been ok.
Filthy habit-but so much revenue the government gets -They will get around it somehow.

chillitt
18-06-2007, 12:25 PM
smoking is bad for you and the enviroment so ban it. hooray!! now, whats next.. Privately owned cars, flights abroad for holidays, alchohol, fried food, chocolate... take your pick. If you accept the premise of this act, we will end up living in padded houses with all risk, choice and enjoyment eliminated in the name of 'choice' (see the other thread on the smoking ban..)