smoking in bars again

[susiesusie]

Was wondering if the smoking ban has been relaxed for the winter.....

Went to a bar in the girne area last night and brought home the stench of inconsiderate peoples smoke all over my hair/skin and clothes reminiscent of old times.
Many thanks to that bar .....Wont be playing any more pool league matches there until this practice stops .
To be fair .. its now 3 bars i have had to suffer this whilst trying to enjoy my night out.
You know who you are . I have left my name for you all to see.
John holden ..... Girne.

[Deniz1]

Same in Komur restaurant that belongs to Lords hotel everyone eating and smoking at the same time inside it was awful

[Panchocat]

Mmmm! I know the problem and it is happening in restaurants too.
The lovely restaurant that is part of Lords Palace, the part that used to be Park Marina, allows smoking in the restaurant and the fug and stench is not nice when you are eating food.
Lords also allow smoking in Sky Bar even when the roof and windows are closed, the smell hits you when you walk in, again not nice as they serve food.
Also was wondering what the law is with e cigarettes or vapeing.
In the UK it is classed as smoking and you can't use them on aircraft either, so logically they shouldn't be indoors here.
In one local bar/ restaurant a gentleman sits at the bar and vapes while ironically the British tourists take theirs outside to smoke, vape or whatever it is called.
Anyone know the actual law on this?
Would the restaurant owner be fined?
I know the subject is a contentious one with smokers and non-smokers alike both will argue their side and rights, but what is the actual ruling?

[sophie]

Went to Uncle Sams on the Bellapaise Rd, two weeks ago and the smoking on the outside decking was dreadful because they had closed all the outside electrically operated shutters so in fact everyone was inside. I spoke to Manager who came and opened the electric windows next to us. I shouldn't have needed to ask though. Yes, I believe the No Smoking bans is gradually being eroded.

[CatalkoyChris]

I am a (part time) smoker and would not even consider smoking inside nowadays, nor smoking close to non-smokers.
I actually prefer going outside to smoke.

[MikeK]

I would not say the law has been relaxed, just that, as per usual here it is just another law made to be broken with no consequences for the offenders. There are more amnesty's issued here to law breakers than there was in the old wild west of America. Then there is the legal way to get past rules and regulations, by applying for a permit ( remember the "no construction work on a Sunday? you can if you apply for a permit), no doubt permits are available, (at a cost) for lots of other things. Who is responsible for "Policing" the smoking rule? could it be the Zabita? yes the ones that patrol Girne town center in pairs with their clip boards and no pens, busily texting on their phones whilst strolling in the sunshine!

[Ragged Robin]

As a fairly recent ex (heavy) smoker, I can see both points of view. But at least if there is smoking in a bar or restaurant you can vote with your feet.
There is no way I can get away from the exhaust fumes from all the vehicles that fill the front room of my house in summmer when I open the windows.

I wonder how many of those who are particularly violently anti smoking drive unnecessarly large vehicles and even think about what they are doing to the environment and other people?

[susiesusie]

You can't vote with your feet when you are playing a pool match ! You lose the game . Nobody cares whether you disapprove the smoke . Game over

[desih]

Totally agree with RaggedRobin.

[Philoz]

There is a huge difference between smoking and vaping.
Please dont mix the two up.
Vaping makes no smell or any pollution.
It has also helped many millions give up the weed.
Please give vapors a break,and dont class them as smokers,its totally different.

[cluffy]

Where are the bars that allow smoking inside? I`ll use them. I don`t smoke but prefer a policy of free choice. If you want to smoke - smoke. If you don`t like it, go somewhere else. These whingers who can`t put up with the atmosphere of a bar. A bar with smoke. What`s wrong with that. I hope they don't have alcohol in these bars too. They do? - disgusting!

[Panchocat]

Philoz, surely it is still putting something into the atmosphere.
Something is burning as there is an element inside and the law in the UK and presumably here, when it is followed, says no smoking. NOT no smoking tobacco. Therefore a vaper is presumably smoking......
Something was enveloping me from the vaper sitting next to me inside a restaurant last week! What is in the cloud or vapour?
You are banned from using them on aircraft so surely it follows that it should be classed as smoking.

[earlybird]

We ate in the Kitchen Catalkoy last week and a Brit sat behind us chain smoking. I know it was raining outside BUT we were eating and in the past when I did smoke, I would never have dreamt of smoking so close to people eating.

[Tolga's]

We never allow smoking inside, despite being a smoker. However maybe next winter we will be able to provide warmer facilities outside for smokers, however whatever the weather we have a strict non smoking policy inside.

[geroff]

If any one smokes next to me I might now just let off a few stink bombs !! What is wrong with these selfish smokers? Get up off your fat arses and go out side, don't enforce your filthy habit on others ....

[johnerebus]

One for Cluffy and one for Ragged Robin. Cluffy ("A bar with smoke. What`s wrong with that?") Ragged Robin, I've just been discharged from an ICU again - that's 5 time this year. The reason for admittance, COPD - buggered up lungs from cigarette smoke and heart disease from the same cause. Do you wanna have freedom of choice to harm others with passive smoking that will be fatal believe me?
Ragged Robin "But at least if there is smoking in a bar or restaurant you can vote with your feet." Do neither of you understand the seriousness and harm of smoking? Crikey have I been transported back in time to the bad old days and the ignorance of smoking? Just visit any hospital respiratory ward today to witness lung damage done. COPD, caused by cigarette smoking, is now the 3rd largest killer in the West after cancer and heart attack.
Let's have Barbara Windsor star in, "Carry On Killing Them by Blowing Smoke Over them" What a larf eh? real freedom of choice to kill others. It kills me.

[Johnny Lee]

There should be bars where if a person wishes to smoke they can. May be it would have helped the pub trade in the UK to survive. People talk about the cost of smoking to the N.H.S. . How much does alcohol abuse cost the Health Service ?? . Domestic incidents, Accidents, Street violence , the list is endless.

Take a trip to any UK casualty dept. on a Friday or Saturday night.

I sing and DJ in Sh Boom on Saturdays,last night it got very busy later on, I noticed most of the clientele were smokers. Many of them I think coming from other bars were they are forced to go outside to smoke.

[johnerebus]

Do you still not get the health damage - cancer, heart disease, emphysema - cased by smoking? For a majority it's an expensive way of slow accumulative suicide. Let's get real, SMOKING KILLS. It's Russian Roulette. So please keep your smoking gun pointed away from me and only use it where you will not affect others who do not smoke.

[Panchocat]

Thanks for giving the heads up that Sh Boom is one to avoid!
Your point about the British pub trade ignores that they have all made good provision for smokers but the decline in UK pub trade is down to two things, the cost of alcohol and drink drive laws, taxis in the UK are also a lot more expensive than here so people choose to buy alcohol at the supermarket and drink at home.

[elizabeth]

Thanks for giving the heads up that Sh Boom is one to avoid!,
Yes, a big thank you for that

How is it that people complain about others ignoring the laws, such as wearing seatbelts and using phones while driving etc yet feel it's ok to disregard the law on smoking in bars.
Smoking is a filthy, smelly, dangerous habit, but if people choose to continue despite all the health warnings then that's fine, but other people choose not to risk their lives by doing it , if people want to smoke then they should smoke outside the premises, that is the law.

[turtle]

I wonder if the smokers would accept it if I walked into a bar and dropped my trousers and took a dump in the middle of the bar....

Thought not

[waddo]

Turtle, if that's what you want to do then go for it! Doubt it would smell much worse than the barrage of perfumes and aftershaves do after all. As a hayfever suffer I want all smoking banned - and I am a smoker, sadly started at age 15 on joining the military but it will kill me one day I suppose - but also want all the flowers ripped up, the olive trees cut down and anything that causes me distress to be made against the law! Smoke free zones should be set up everywhere so no more fires or bar-b-ques either.

Well, it's either that or just carry on as normal, avoid the smells and dangers that I don't like or will harm me and live and let live. I won't smoke in non-smoking areas and always try to avoid my bad habit causing any harm or distress to others anyway. This is a topic that crops up every year about this time of year and I always wonder why???

[turtle]

Waddo, glad to hear you are considerate enough not to smoke when others are eating but I fear you are in the minority,...the bottom line here is if owners allow smoking then there is not much we can do about it other than refuse to eat there that's what we do.....ashtrays on tables we are out of there..... booking or not.

It would be a big help if members started to post on here if a restaurant will not allow smoking in their establishment.

I sympathise with your complaint,... my son suffered terribly with it for years as a kid but modern meds seems to have got it under control much better now....... but you really do need to stop or cut down with the

[waddo]

Turtle, not what you would call a heavy smoker, I roll my own (very thin because I never had the cash to roll fat fags as a lad) and smoke em about halfway down then put em out and chuck them in the bin! When I was 40 my doc told me NOT to stop - he was not a smoker - because the damage of 25 years abuse was done anyway. When I was 55 the local "Stop Smoking Nurse" in the doctors tried to bully me into stopping, wrong approach with me I am afraid, did not work. I promised myself I would stop when I became an OAP - another promise broken! Now I cut down every year and at this year's 70th birthday I am really going to give it another go, have been thinking about it hard this time as I am finding I can not keep up with 50/60 year olds on the badminton court as well as I used to, so we will see. But after 55 years of abuse and not too many years ahead anyway I still wonder why I bother either smoking or not smoking. Too be honest it is a 55 year Habit now and I think that would be true of most elderly smokers - so why don't we just stop? We all know it is a drug and we all look down on those who use "recreational" drugs but our Habit is just the same. Peer pressure just forces us to continue, over here cheap tobacco helps us to continue, it's a difficult circle to break. I have tried many times over the years to put an end to it but always failed, the sudden stop, the slow reduction, the miracle of the "Vape", the chewing gum (disgusting stuff), the patch and the "guaranteed method books" have all failed along with the hypnosis which was a total wash out, what is left? Would love to hear from some Ex-Smokers as to how they did it and then maybe, just maybe all us smokers who want to quit could try something new!! Worth a shot anyway?

[fatouche]

Waddo, the way I stopped was the way that I also stopped drinking almost 8 years ago. I stopped one day at a time; saying never again is just too much to take on. So keep it in the day. Tell yourself "Just for today I won't smoke.". Every day is a new day, and it's the only day you ever have to worry about. The days become weeks, the weeks months and the months years.I stopped smoking on 11th September 2012, and I haven't looked back. The trouble with the gums, the patches etc is that they're put on the market to create a new addiction, so going cold turkey is the best way (not to mention the cheapest to stop). Try it, it does work if you really want it to. I wish you success.

[mrsgee]

Here is a story that may inspire anyone who thinks they cannot stop smoking. I have never smoked, a being severe asthmatic am glad of that although I know of many asthmatics that do....The story though is this....My father never smoked until the age of 20 when he was in the Normandy landings. He was shelled and buried alive on the beach. Thankfully he was dug out quickly, but the first thing they did was put a cigarette in his mouth, to calm him. He smoked for over 60 years since that day. Many years later, he lost his wife (my mother) of over 50 years, to cancer of the oesophagus. A few months after her death, and over 80 years old, of his own volition he went to a non smoking clinic and got patches. Whether it was the patches or his own determination, or guilt because he felt that he had caused the cancer through passive smoking, I really can't say....but, he stopped, not gradually, he just stopped. I ever admired him for doing that. He sadly passed away eventually at the age of 91.....of heart failure and emphysema......a good age, but all too little too late.

[waddo]

mrsgee, many thanks indeed, it all helps in it's own way for one who want's to stop. I did try the non smoking clinic myself but my first visit came as a shock when I was told that I had to wait 7 weeks and cut down by half in that time before they would help me further with patches! The nurse there totally missed the point on how difficult it was just to make up your mind to go there in the first place and cry for help. I will give it a good go this year but have a couple of months left yet before start date to keep convincing myself it is what I WANT to do - I already know it is what I should do.

[johnerebus]

Waddo, I'm a smoking cessation bloke and also a life coach and an ex smoker - 50 years @ 20 a day un-tipped. If you want to write down every day the benefits to you of smoking and the negatives it will focus your mind powerfully. Do this at the same time every day and slowly concentrate on the benefits of not smoking, i.e. better health, more cash in pocket etc. Also think of working towards something rather than giving up something. Giving up something is a painful process so best to look for benefits. This way you'll reprogram your thinking and strengthen you resolve to live a healthier and hopefully longer life

[waddo]

Many thanks to all. I have an action plan now - going to cut/paste all the advice and ideas I get from this thread into one document and read the damn thing every day - right up to my Birthday - then on that fateful day, I will stop smoking, just for a day, then follow it with another and another till I have lost count of the day's. I will try to write down the benefits (but to be honest I can't think of any REAL benefits) of smoking and also the benefits of not and add them to my daily tasks of not smoking today!!! It has got to be worth a try and then another and another.................

[mrsgee]

Well keep us posted Waddo, and we can give you encouragement.....well done, in advance..

[Mowgli597]

I was always told the first fifty-plus years are the worst.

I couldn't possibly say, being a non/never-smoker myself.

Hope this helps

[johnerebus]

By the third day of stopping all nicotine has gone / been purged from your system. drink lots of water to help get rid of the residual nicotine. Your cells are not then crying out for more nicotine. What remains is the HABIT - "What do I do with my fingers etc." Good Luck waddo

[johnerebus]

Info for Raged Robin, Desih and Cluffy. It's not about freedom of choice it's about causing others harm

According to research, 14 million Americans have COPD and 5 million have chronic heart failure. Despite the fact that both share smoking as a common risk factor, .

[aussiejock]

Hi all I have been a smoker for over 57 years sometimes I think about giving the cigarettes away, but I must confess I love smoking, I enjoy the taste smell and throat hit I get, I only smoke loose tobacco 50 gram packs Champion Ruby, and the cost in Australia is around 195lira a pack, we spend around 500 lira a week sometimes more I know that a lot of folks may think this is immoral to spend that type of money on tobacco but smoking gives me a lot of pleasure, and as I said I really enjoy my smoking. But I would never smoke in a restaurant, I would only smoke in Bars or restaurants that have designated smoking areas, ie outside or away from eating areas, I know there are people who hate smokers with a vengeance I can understand this, but it's legal to smoke and I think we only have a very few countries that have banned smoking all together, maybe in another 20 years or so the world will ban Cigarettes, but until then I will enjoy my smoking, I am not trying to get at the none smokers, just trying to get them to understand that a lot of people smoke in this world, we all should do the right thing and keep away from areas that cater for food ie Restaurants, markets, food halls, or gatherings, and if we do then we should have the right to smoke without the criticism, just because we are smokers does not give people the right to chastise us at every given turn. I laugh at some of the criticism smokers receive, beyond words the animosity and sometimes the vile rhetoric from the mouths of none smokers.

thanks Robert