THE smoking ban has changed smoking.
Now, smokers stand outside without the glass of beer or cup of tea that used to accompany a cigarette.
Watch them pulling on their fags and you will see how without the cup that cheers, or the beer, the cigarette is all there is. It's cold outside, and the smoker puffs at his smoke the quicker to be done and back into the warmth and his pals.
Smoking is therefore more intense, more smoke is inhaled, more pulls are made on each cigarette and smokers are harmed more than they were.
They do it voluntarily, though they are addicted. Nevertheless, they inevitably take in more smoke per cigarette than was usual before they were excluded from tap rooms and cafes.
To bring this back to previous levels of inhalation, cigarettes could and should be shorter; contain less and cost less.
A shorter cigarette would bring smoke inhalation per cigarette back to pre-ban levels.
With less tobacco in each smoke, less tax would need to be levied, the NHS would be less inundated with smokers suffering smoking-related complaints, smokers would have cut down almost without knowing it, there would be less smoke wafting about to be passively inhaled by the rest of us, and the environment would benefit.
Governments have the power and the ability to enforce such changes.
They should be forced to do so by all of us – smokers and non-smokers alike.
Robert L Fielding,
3 Balta Crescent,
Cambuslang.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article