Comments on: Butting out

By: Edosan

Edosan — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 12:27:28 +0000

Yes good news indeed, especially abou the amount of teenagers who aren’t taking it up, however, Steve, why did you have to use the word ‘productivity’ in the post. I can see it now, “give up something that adds a bit of enjoyment to your day so that you can be more productive!” There are plenty of good reasons to give up smoking. I don’t like that one so much.

By: uroskin

uroskin — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 03:56:36 +0000

Only 5 years ago in a Barcelona we asked for a smoke-free table and the waiter obliged by simply removing the ashtray.

By: Julie

Julie — Sat, 31 May 2008 23:21:25 +0000

Thanks Lyn, I used to work in a yacht club where they had the ridiculous smoking area thing going on – a rope that cordoned off the smokers from the non-smokers. Didn’t seem to keep the smoke in though.

By: Changes to society « the Nicholas O’Kane blog

Changes to society « the Nicholas O’Kane blog — Sat, 31 May 2008 10:22:48 +0000

[...] in the news, just out yesterday, is a new survey showing the percentage of New Zealanders who smoke falling to [...]

By: Lyn

Lyn — Sat, 31 May 2008 05:41:37 +0000

Seconding Julie, I’m sure the ban on smoking in pubs and bars is a huge part of this, and as an ex-waitress I’m really pleased that all the people who work in hospo can now add another 10 years to their life-expectancy…

By: randal

randal — Sat, 31 May 2008 04:25:55 +0000

my apologies kerry…you are right. time to accept that this nation has a lot of bad habits.

By: Julie

Julie — Sat, 31 May 2008 04:25:27 +0000

Hopefully this will, combined with the smokefree workplaces legislation, begin to decrease the number of people getting lung cancer, and other smoking-related illnesses. We probably won’t see much impact on those stats for some years yet though I imagine, so I hope we won’t see any short-sighted thinking from future govts that overturn the ban on smoking in bars and restaurants, arguing that the deaths haven’t reduced much. With these long-term illnesses, which can take years to manifest, of course it is going to take a long time to prove the benefits statistically.

I’ve never smoked – watching my Nana get sick every winter and struggle every World Smokefree day to give up put me well off. For some the chemical addiction is too strong to break no matter how hard they try. I know some people who just gave up cold turkey and never went back, yet others have made many attempts to quit but always end up back puffing away again. Just in case I’m one of those who can’t quit I’ve not given it a go, and I don’t regret it.

And isn’t it so much nicer to go out now that you don’t come home reeking of someone else’s cigarettes? Must be much better working in bars and restaurants now too.

By: kk

kk — Sat, 31 May 2008 01:52:33 +0000

does that include greater freedom of guns, or maybe greater freedom to discharge waste?

By: randal

randal — Sat, 31 May 2008 00:29:17 +0000

this is a free country and people shuld be allowd to do what they like without being persecuted by do gooders and social scientists who think thye know what is good for everybody and silly old people who think they know everything.

By: Kerry

Kerry — Fri, 30 May 2008 23:56:24 +0000

SMoking related disease in Maori men and women is very high though, and young PAcific and Maori do smoke at hight rates. Maori women have the highest rates of lung cancer in the world

We badly need to reduce the smoking rates in several populations, where the percentage who smoke is much higher than 19%

But yes! Great news! And enouraging, because my perception is that many more young people and 30 soemthings are smoking than ever used to when I was classified as a young person.

By: Tane

Tane — Fri, 30 May 2008 05:01:09 +0000

Howso?

By: insider

insider — Fri, 30 May 2008 04:55:22 +0000

Tane’s hanging in there obdurately I note though

By: A breath of fresh air « Jafapete’s Weblog

A breath of fresh air « Jafapete’s Weblog — Fri, 30 May 2008 04:15:46 +0000

[...] attributed to secondhand smoke.” Then there’s the often delibiltating disease. And as The Standard notes, these drops are good news for our quality of life and productivity [...]

By: Ari

Ari — Fri, 30 May 2008 03:41:55 +0000

Sweet. It’s really inspiring to see how attitudes have changed on this. Every smoker I’ve talked to about it wants to quit.

By: gobsmacked

gobsmacked — Fri, 30 May 2008 03:35:08 +0000

And let’s not forget that many politicians were against smokefree legislation, either voting against, or tediously decrying the “Nanny state” (while carefully avoiding specifics or alternatives).

e.g. “National’s political correctness eradicator, Wayne Mapp, is eyeing changes to the ban on smoking in bars and restaurants which he says is an example of the â€˜nanny state’.” (NZ Herald, 29 October 2005).

Note that they are not talking about changing the laws any more. No surprise there.