I hate smoking. It is a horrible habit, and one that I’ve never once partaken, if I may add.

Basically, my gripe is nowadays when you want to enter a public building (a shopping center for example) you walk in with a headache, choking for breath, all the side effects of inhaling the smoke from others cigarettes – otherwise known as ‘passive smoking’.  Throw into the equation the putrid smell of cigarette smoke, it’s horrible.

Obviously it is the smokers choice of whether to smoke or not, this doesn’t bother me.  I’d rather people never smoked, but I guess someone has to prop up the public purse.  However, what really bothers me is that some people who choose to partake are so ignorant.

What I ask the smokers is that they refrain from standing at entrances/exits of public places; for the non-smokers it is horrible – for reasons defined above.

There are the people who stand at doorways smoking, but then there are the intensely ignorant people who think it is OK to blow the smoke into your face, or the people who don’t at least try to exhale the smoke in a direction which is clear; which at the front of busy shopping centers cannot be done!

Basically what I ask people to do is smoke in the designated smoking areas.  By the way, I do not want to tar all smokers with the same brush, some already do this.

Also, the Government could do with bringing in legislation in which states something akin to  “Smoking 30-meters from a public building is not permitted”; this is if they haven’t already – I had a look through the law, but nothing stood out at a quick glance.

Scottish legislation: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/legislation/scotland/acts2005/asp_20050013_en_2#pt1.

Sorry for the very unstructured rant!  This has been a pet-hate of mine for a while, however it was only aggravated today by a terribly ignorant individual.