You hit the nail on the head there, Leon - it looks like all the petty little people (hmmmm.... nearly wrote 'poephols'.... Freudian slip!) who have an axe to grind and with unresolved personal issues are the ones with the aggressive and hate-filled attitudes.

And no, I'm not a smoker - I'm an ex-smoker. By choice - not forced to stop.

I just find it SO amusing that the same people who are so vehemently against smoking don't seem to be able to bring that same passion to the table when discussing (just one example) 'drink-driving' or even 'drug-driving' - which kills thousands of people in this country every year! Somehow, it's still ok for THEM to have a couple of drinks before venturing out on to the roads in their 2-tonne missiles... But Heaven Forbid you should smell tobacco smoke anywhere.... Has anybody mentioned that braai-smoke is arguably just as carcinogenic as tobacco-smoke?

It's really a case of people making tobacco-smoking the scapegoat and creating a HUGE fuss about it, in the hope that their own personal vice(s) escape scrutiny methinks.

This is a difficult one. I am a smoker but I don't smoke near my son and if he comes close I ask nicely not to as I am smoking. He is healthy and does not have asthma but my nephew has and his parents don't smoke nor do they allow anyone to - so not sure what the answer is here.

Good one, SimoneA - a lot of people weren't aware of the SERIOUS negative effects of smoking when they originally started (anti-tobacco propagandising has only REALLY gained pace in the last decade), and once hooked on Nicotine and the rest of those chemicals, it's a HUGE battle to quit. In fact, quitting smoking without supportive medical care can even bring on psychosis in certain individuals.

It's a lot like people telling alcoholics "Why don't you cut down?" - or "Just have ONE drink" - if you understand ANYTHING about chemical addiction, you'll know that this is naive ignorance showing itself. It just doesn't work that way.

Some people can give up easily - it doesn't mean that they are morally superior in any way (although they would like to believe so) - it just means that their body reacts to certain chemicals differently. Seeing as we don't choose HOW our bodies are constructed and how they react to various stimuli, it's like girls claiming moral superiority over boys (or vice-versa) on the basis of gender and not behaviour - nonsensical at best.

And to equate an addiction over which an individual is powerless with child-abuse, is childish.

Irresponsible behaviour around children - which includes smoking carelessly, drinking alcohol, watching inappropriate shows, allowing inappropriate media to be seen, eating too much, driving recklessly, drugging (including prescription medication), eating junk food (like McDonald's and Kentucky), and even swearing - on the other hand, CAN be construed as such. But the same people who would brand all smokers as child-abusers are rather keen to have the spotlight focussed on smokers to the exclusion of all else, so that their OWN shortcomings are overlooked.

Rather childish behaviour, actually - if YOU (the hypothetical anti-smoker out there) don't like smoking, your immediate reaction is to call for it to be banned, to demonise it, to decry it, and generally focus attention on it. The problem is, no matter WHAT you yourself do, somebody ELSE somewhere doesn't like it, and would like it to be banned - so if you take YOUR behaviour to its logical conclusion, eventually everything that anybody anywhere could take a dislike to and object to, will be banned. What kind of a life do you think THAT will lead to?

C'mon, grow up - smoking is a drug addiction, and smokers deserve HELP, not this unrelenting barrage of negativity and arrogant aggression. You don't treat people with anorexia like that - and they are JUST as helpless over their condition.

Fac ut vivas - Get a life!

This whole smoking thing on this page as well as in South-Africa is getting out of hand. Whether a person smokes or not does not define their character. I firmly believe that any and all smokers should respect non-smokers and smoke outside. No smoking is cars, houses. near innocent children, offices and restaurnts should be tolerated. Scientific tests have proven over and over that it is more difficult to stop smoking than it is to stop drinking. The father in question in trying to accomodate the situation without help from the mother. He respects her and the kids by smoking outside, can she respect him enough to keep the kids inside for that 10 minutes? To divorce over matters such as smoke or to even suggest it dafamates the sanctity of marriage. Husbands and wifes forgive each other for things such as adultry, abuse and much more...but SMOKING is worse thatn murder. No person has been killed by a smoking driver, beaten to death by a smoking husband, no child raped by a smoking rapist and the list goes on. As I said...to smoke you need to be considerate towards non-smokers, but the non-smokers should worry about more important things in life that smoking. O yes, for the record, I'm a smoking mother and have 2 healthy boys, who owns an electric sigarette as to not harm my children or offend non-smokers, I smoke outside and do not smoke in my car. Does that make me a bad person?

@ Guest :10 May 2010 02:06:16 PM

I think you need a box of RATEX and eat it slowly. Perhaps wash it down with JIK !!!!

People like you are the reason some species eat their young. IDIOT!!!!