Ah.... ignore my request above (note to self: Read first Fats!) quick point: isn’t advertising a part of social change?
True but if advertising didn’t work then they wouldn’t spend so much money on it. They know what they’re doing
Remember when smoking was allowed upstairs on buses? And in the cinema they'd ask you if you were smoking or non smoking? As if it made any difference sitting on the non smoking side, as the clouds of smoke basically filled the room. When I was growing up, non smoking adults were probably in the minority.
Smoking was particularly common among NHS staff, especially on the wards. As for the lab, I remember my boss setting off the smoke alarms once after puffing on his pipe underneath one, which led to the fire brigade sending four pumps and a turntable ladder out, standard practice for a hospital shout. We had wooden work benches in those days, most of which had scorch marks where people left their cigarettes to burn while they did some work. When the ban first came in, there were special smoking areas created, one of which was a windowless room next to the canteen, which you can imagine was like the Black Hole of Calcutta at lunchtimes. Nowadays the RUH, like most hospitals, is a completely smoke-free site (apart from the psychiatric wing, which is exempt), and it’s hard to remember how awful it must have been for non-smokers.
The main thing I remember about life pre-smoking ban was being asked if you wanted smoking or non smoking tables in restaurants. But it really made no difference, and if you ended up being anywhere near a particularly puffy table then it completely ruined your meal. Maybe I was just too young but I don't really remember it anywhere else.
I have quite fond memories of snooker players puffing away during frames. Darts was a massive piss-up as I remember.
The ban on indoor smoking had the greatest effect on the number of smokers in my opinion. Smoking used to be considered cool....not so much now that you have to leave a convivial group of friends in order to huddle outside in the wind and rain looking like a saddo.
Currently, in Spain, smoking in public spaces has been banned and people being fined when in breach of the rule. I believe this is a reaction to the spike in coronavirus, as smoking means removing your mask, which is mandatory in outside spaces, in most regions. Not sure if you can smoke in the outside space of a bar/restaurant. This from 13th July. https://www.thelocal.es/20200713/where-in-spain-are-face-masks-compulsory-in-all-public-spaces
Things I recall from pre-ban and post-ban When most airlines had banned smoking we flew Egypt Air and discovered there was a smoking section on the plane near the back and we were in the next row All the smokers sat in the non-smoking section at the front and came to the back for a fag and then went back to their lovely smoke free section at the back I asked if we could be moved and they said no as it would unbalance the plane For a time after the ban started a lot of pubs smelled rank. The smoke had shielded us from the natural odour of the English boozer After the ban, when I still smoked a bit I liked going to the smoking areas as you always got chatting to a fellow puffer If I talked to strangers in the pub otherwise, they usually gave me that 'Oh **** there's a stranger talking to me' scared look and slinked off Smoking zones at 90s clubs were a great place to have a fag and talk nonsense to strangers, before returning to the madness of the dance floor