Smoke alarm

Retorted another: ‘I object to militant smokers too but do you ever think about your air when driving a car? If you do drive, you’re causing more pollution than even the most dedicated smoker. Do you shout at yourself every morning, demonising yourself for your weak will in not being able to catch a bus? If you don’t drive a car, do you turn your nose up at your neighbours who do? Or do you, as most of us suspect, apply a different and certainly hypocritical set of morals to other pollutants and polluters?’

But talking about the rights of smokers to puff ignores the health implications. And smoking can have heartbreaking consequences. ‘I’m not going to preach to anyone as I don’t have the right,’ says one ex-smoker. ‘I was a heavy smoker until 1986 when I was seriously ill with bronchitis and pleurisy. I was told if I didn’t stop smoking in six months I would be dead. It took that long to stop and it was hell on earth, but I did it. Great, you’re thinking, but it wasn’t. In 1987 I started wheezing again and I was eventually told I had bronchial asthma. Today, it’s just as bad and I have “died” on three occasions. There isn’t a day that doesn’t go by without an attack. Most are mild, but I also end up in A&E. I regret the day I started smoking. I had such dreams of a future with my son but I blew that. Still, I don’t dwell on what life could have been like, I’m just lucky to be alive.’

The last word goes to another iVillager who has seen the price of smoking first-hand. ‘My father died of lung cancer due to smoking. The cancer also had metastasised his bones. He died trussed up in the hospital bed, unable to move any limbs due to the fact that the cancer had eaten away at his limbs and bones.
‘Yet he begged the nurse for a cigarette.’

Are you trying to quit? Why not get some extra support from fellow iVillagers on the Stop Smoking Message board. Take a look at some of the LIVE discussions happening right now on the board: