I don't smoke but I'm curious to define popular OP was at work

OP and #1, I feel for you; I, too, get migraines from cigarette smoke. A lot of cities and locations -- including mine -- have laws or rules about how far from a doorway people must be while smoking outside. However, that doesn't help much when there's only one available walkway and smokers cluster along it. In such circumstances I just hold my breath and hope.

Because it’s not always an option. I am extremely sensitive to cigarette smoke too, I cough, sneeze and get asthma when I am in contact with it. I can’t count how many times I had to step aside a bus stop because people were smoking under, even if it was raining, or try to breathe as little as possible when walking past a group of smokers to enter a building. I couldn't care less if they wanna destroy their health, but it does annoy that I have to do so many tricks to avoid being in contact with them. Edit > Sorry that was for comment #27

I don't know if I'm actually allergic to smoke, but it makes me feel very light-headed in small amounts. Smoke-filled rooms actually make me faint. It's kind of scary, so I wish people could just move away from entrances to public places a tiny bit, just enough so that non-smokers can enter without actually breathing in the smoke.

I have pretty severe asthma, so I feel for you. I start coughing and wheezing, and it's earned me a few dirty looks. Assholes who smoke in bus shelters are the WORST - It's damn cold in Canada in the winter, you don't want to stand out in the bitter wind if you can help it. My brother is a smoker, he used to smoke on the front porch, but it'd end up coming in through my bedroom window (directly above) and making it hard to be in there. So I asked him about it, and now he either smokes on the back porch - which is away from any windows - or walks out by the road. It's not hard to be courteous. He lives in Halifax now, but he doesn't even smoke in his own house.

I get asthma attacks from cigarette smoke and crippling migraines from pot smoke! Going to outdoor concerts and other outdoor events is nearly impossible. People don't think or care about others when they do that stuff :

I meant to put thumbs up

#30 (and basically everyone else in this thread), I'd like to apologise to you on behalf of smokers. Personally, if there are other people in an area where I'm about to spark up, I'll ask if anyone minds me smoking and would like me to move away. I'm truly sorry that the smokers you have encountered are not so courteous. I can also, however, empathise with the smokers in OP's FML. Being told day in, day out that you are disgusting and unhealthy and inconsiderate and all-the-bastards-under-the-sun by people who choose to stand near you (when you clearly already have a lit cigarette) gets really ******* old sometimes.

I am SO relieved to read about so many other people who have severe reactions to cigarette smoke. I thought I was the only one. When I'm exposed to it, my throat and tongue swell and I lose my voice within seconds. The asthma kicks in and I have to attack the reaction aggressively, with antihistamines, steroid medication and more. If I don't, it escalates to the point of needing to use my EpiPen and ring an ambulance. Going to the supermarket is a military operation; I can't just go out when and where I want or need because of other people's habits. If someone walks past me who has just recently had a smoke, that is enough to trigger a reaction. The side effects from the meds I have to use are nasty, too. I don't understand why drinking alcohol is forbidden in public, but smoking is not. Smokers force their habit onto everyone else who happens to be close enough. It's plain wrong. They can choose to stop smoking. I can't choose to stop breathing.

My city just banned smoking inside or outside any public building...even if it's a private business. You have to do it in your car. It's wonderful.

I feel ya, I'm allergic to tobacco smoke, if I breathe some in, (I've never smoked in my life, just second hand by walking by someone) my throat starts constricting and I find it hard to breathe, so I agree, it should not be allowed outside popular buildings.

How did you find out the pot smoke? ;)

i do too the guy who say beside me in chem last yr always came in bathed in the smell

"How dare you cough to my sweet and healthy cigeratte smoke?"

I'm with 2. Some smokers still believe that the government paid the doctors to say that smoking is bad for you. My grandfather believed that theory and he gave my grandmother brain cancer by second hand smoke and he died 7 years later by dying of lung cancer. I'm severely allergic to smoke; I get rushed to the ER just to be able to breathe if I accidentally inhale second hand smoke. The smokers should be mindful of others; it's human decency.

Doubtful. I'm the same and actually had to be rushed to the hospital from my job because one of my brilliant coworkers decided to smoke in the bathroom because it was too cold outside. They still smoke just outside the entrance with the door open... some people are just self absorbed and inconsiderate.

Most smokers don't care, and think people who don't smoke are lying and there is 'no such thing as an allergy' I think it would be pointless to say anything. Just better to walk away and move on with your day

I'm a smoker and yeah most of us are jerks, but if someone tells is they have an allergy, we apologize and get out of the way. Smokers get touchy about it because we get lectured all the time. We know it's bad for us, we don't need to be reminded but most of the ones I know don't want to mess with someone else's health.

nice to paint all smokers with the same brush. yes I am a smoker...the evil! gasp! I do wish I never started but alas...I smoke. as one friend stated..'I never really understood addiction until I started smoking and then tried to quit'. It is that hard and that addictive. Anyways. Not all smokers are evil obnoxious bastards that are completely inconsiderate to non smokers. I smoke in designated areas. I only smoke outside, away from doorways, open windows and away from where ppl are standing around as well. It is my choice to smoke but I am conscience about the fact others don't and may not tolerate smoke well. I do not smoke in my house...ever. I ask if I am with a non smoking friend if they mind if I have a cig if we are outside. but here is the thing. Smoking is legal. We did get pushed out of well, everywhere for where we can do this legal thing, and yes it is unhealthy, fulky aware of that fact but excuse me, while I battle with my brain and nocotine addiction for ways and willpower to quit, do not give evil glares and bitching for being outside in an unsheltered freezing ass cold windy area with the designated ashtray to indulge in my pitiful expensive habit either. I understand some areas are not in an ideal place but, give and take ppl. how about a sheltered smoking area...a windbreak even for smokers to huddle in away from doorways away from non smokers so never the twain shall meet when crossing such disputed territory? if I can go through such pains to be courteous and polite and make sure my habit isn't intruding upon others (unless they purposely go thru an out of the way full on smoking area...the ydi) then, you non smokers can give a little too.

If you go to a sauna it helps quit because the nicotine comes out in the sweat. But i may be wrong. Its worth a shot if you want to quit though. Takes 30 days to break a habit, why not start now. ( if you don't want to quit I'm not getting up in your business, it just sounded like you wanted to.)

I'd cough because I tend to choke on cigarette smoke, stuff's hard to breathe. Least they didn't get beaten to a pulp, that's apparently how some people 'defend their habit'.

What about OP's right to breathe? What about my right to breathe without dying from an asthma attack? Smoking in public is selfish and inconsiderate of other people. I don't care about those vapor cigarettes, but that wasn't used in OP's situation.

So I am self-righteous for wanting to leave the house without constantly using my inhaler because other people have made the CHOICE to prevent me from breathing? I think you are the self-righteous one.

#84- I'm pretty sure people who smoke don't consciously think to themselves "Hmm, lets see who we can't NOT let breathe today."

76 you can't seriously try to compare a habit like smoking to a race which you are born with, and religion which you are usually raised with. If the boss made the grounds smoke free smokers could always walk out to their car and smoke there. Had to do that when I worked at Walmart a few years ago. I have since quit smoking and see both sides of it. Makes me sick, headache, coughing, stuffy nose, and can barely breathe around it now. Just because you still choose to smoke doesn't mean everyone else does, it isn't discrimination when they ban it from properties. Also, the peanut butter argument, several schools and school districts don't allow peanut butter sandwiches or snacks of any kind in school because of peanut allergies.

Actually I'm not at all concerned about that. You are attempting to lump things together that don't belong. You go from smoking, which affects everyone around the smoker, to drinkers, exercise supplements and skateboards? Drinking only hurts your body when done regularly or in excess, unless you drink and drive, which is illegal, as it should be. Exercise supplements as in protein and creatine, or diet pills? Either way still only affects the user not those around the user. Skateboards being banned is the worst argument yet. You can't skateboard on some properties, and that is the right of the business to say you can't skate on their property. Slippery slope argument doesn't work in this situation. Smoking is banned from some places, can't smoke in any establishment besides bars in my town, and can't smoke on the sidewalks or outside of buildings anymore either. They are protecting those who choose to breathe clean air. As for the peanuts, considering someone's child could die as a result of being exposed to another child's peanut lunch/snack it should be kept at home.

You don't always have a choice if you HAVE to go somewhere. I live in a city and if you need to walk anywhere there is no avoiding a cloud of cigarette smoke on every block. Also #90 I never said they suffocate me on purpose because I know they don't, I'm not stupid.

I know people don't make a point of blowing smoke in my face. I wish everyone used the vapor cigarettes because those don't stink or give me asthma attacks and I give people a lot of respect for using those. :)

OP should just ask the boss to make a smokers area outside of the building away from the door, and explain her situation. Taking away their privilege to smoke is a bit wrong. I'm a smoker myself and I always smoke outside the door, but when someone walks by without a cigarette in their hands I hold it in until they pass or I move where the wind blows away from the person. If some coughed while near me while I'm smoking, I would 'nip' it out and finish it when they are gone. (I'm a considerate person when it comes to others well being)

Thats kind of mean to call people who smoke disgusting....i know people who smoke who are cleaner than people who don't. Is it a disgusting habit? Yes. But then again I'm sure we all do something that really irritates or disgusts people...

Wow that's a little harsh and I am a non smoker.

Oh my gosh that's brilliant! I wish my job would do that. Technically they aren't allowed to smoke on company property at all but they still do... right in front of the main door.

I'd rather be a smoker than a judgmental ass like you! I get that cigarette smoke is unpleasant and that some folks are allergic to it, but smoking a cigarette is still perfectly legal if you are over the age of 18 and outside or on your own property. I know that's all changing, and I think that sucks (because our behavior is over-legislated, not because it's an inconvenience) but smoking is still legal. Harassment, on the other hand, is not.

#6, wow, just wow. I get that your ' coffee breaks' are justifiable but you, ma'am, you are a dick.

6, how would you like it if I called you a dirty **** because you use to strip? Or that you are filth and deplorable? I don't actually feel that way, but I'm sure you wouldn't appreciate it. Now, get off your ******* high horse and get over yourself.

I smoke. I don't take a lunch, I am too busy.I take a break when i get a chance maybe twice a day, maybe 5 minutes each. I won't smoke next to people unless they are smoking. I will not smoke next to a door. I do not smoke in my house. I make sure all my butts go into the ashtray or a garbage. My habit is a bad habit. If you have never been addicted to anything then you have no room to judge anyone else. Your attitude towards other human beings is the only disgusting thing I see.

I have never been a smoker, but I accept people who smoke. I know it is an addiction and treat it accordingly. I however, work around highly flammable gas and lighting up to smoke could kill people. But even I allow smoking away from the gas lines. Non-smokers have to get along with smokers. As long ad the smokers smoke away from main routes of foot traffic and its not around the gas then I do not care. Course, I am not allergic.

You judgemental, condescending bitch. One of my Uncles was a smoker. In fact, he later died of lung cancer. Did I agree with his habits? Of course not, but it had nothing to do with what kind of person he was. He was one of the greatest people I've had the pleasure of knowing. Frankly, I would rather breath in a lungful of second-hand smoke than listen the utter shite that is spewing from your mouth. Your snobbish stupidity is more disgusting than the smokers you unjustly brand. In closing, go **** yourself.

Seems like you have a disgusting personality #6

I wish the people at my job who smoked were as courteous as you are. My shift partner smokes about 8-10 cigarettes during our shift and can't be bothered to go all the way outside or shut the door behind him. He also doesn't bother putting out his cigarette when he goes to punch out so I have to stand behind him or walk past him and his lit cigarette on my way home. If you want to smoke fine, personal choice addiction I get it. But its people like those I work with who cause non smokers and those of us who are allergic to complain so much.

You smell a LAWSUIT? I smell a judgemental, holier than thou snob. I don't smoke. I have never smoked a damned thing. I agree, our world could do without it. It is beneficial for no one and the only reason it isn't completely eradicated is because those big cigg companies are making billions on your addiction. But there is no reason to be such an ass hat. I have not and will never participate in smoking. But if I ever see you, having your non smoke break, I am going to start putting in complaints about being forced to watch these disgusting people waste their time and brains standing around doing nothing. If one of my employees had cried about wanting to go outside to stand there for a few minutes, I would have said sure, just don't come back.

I feel sorry for you. The hate and judgement you carry in your heart. I'm sure those smokers never judged you for being on that pole, sweetheart.

"Butt sucking filth" that's a disgusting thing to say.

Who the hell do you think you are to judge another human being on what they do with their body or lives? God I don't smoke and never will or have, but I wouldn't say something like that. It is their choice. You are right though, I smell a lawsuit too. I hope all the smoking people sue the company for harassment and you lose your job. Maybe you will have some time to sit back and think on the bad judgmental person you are!!

If the company doesn't have a policy about smoking, then the lawsuit would be thrown out. If they have a designated area for smoking and they were outside of it, then maybe a lawsuit to the company for not enforcing the policy may work. But it is pretty harsh for a lawsuit..

6- you are disgusting for being so judgmental. I use to smoke but quit. 2 years ago. I always smoked in the designated area and never smoked in front if non smokers. I am not disgusting and I am not a horrible person. Stop being such a jerk and having so much hate.

They were totally assholes, but they kind of do have a reason to think they were being picked on. My work has a policy of no smoking within 20ft of entrances. So I stand in the grass, well away from walkways and entrances and windows that open. People still come over to me and bitch about it even though they had no reason to even come near me. Still, they were assholes and OP should tell them so. Smoking is fine, we know what it does to us, just as long as we're not messing with other people and they really should have been standing somewhere else

118- I get that some people actually are rude, but all the OP did was cough. I just don't see how they would automatically assume he was being rude. You make a good point though.