Pollyana

A ban on smoking in Brisbane's Queen Street Mall will take effect from September.

The State Government has approved the Brisbane City Council's request to ban smoking in the mall. The Council will fine people $200 if they refuse to put out their cigarettes.


Is this really fair? I'm not a smoker but I do have friends who are - do people think its fair to ban smoking in pedestrian malls, specially open-air ones?

sonlymewalter

don't smoke any more but smoking these days is seen as worse than being a mass child killer

Bloody stupid that people can't let others live their own lives. smoking outside aint a sin

DeadVim

I'm afraid I'm going to have sound like a self-righteous ex-smoker and say 'Yes'. Walking through the mall you can't escape the stink of tobacco.

Dope, however, has a much nicer smell and this should be an exception.

sonlymewalter

ae we talking inside or outside cos Ive never smelt smoke outside...

DeadVim

Outside, I find it especially bad in the summer humidity.

I'm not advocating outside bans everywhere but on a case-by-case basis.

Nothing to do with that passive smoking malarky either, purely the smell.

sonlymewalter

never noticed it

maybe we should ban smelly people, folk eating burgers which smell, folk drinking cos that stinks too, cars cos the petrol stinks, perfume cos that stinks.....

Bernieboy

Got to agree with DV(sorry mate) but i remember when i lived in Brisbane just how bad the mall stank of ciggie smoke

DeadVim

I know all the arguments, I've used them plenty of times

moneypenny20

I think it's great. Wide open spaces I have no issues with but just outside shopping centres and pedestrian bits like Queen Street is just horrible to walk through. Smoking sections should be placed further away from shop/restaurant entrances than they currently are - currently you have to walk through the fog just to get inside a doorway and it pisses me off.

sonlymewalter

defo there should be designated places so people don't eat or walk through it. But stopping it altogether outside

moneypenny20

The trouble is, aside from me thinking the distance from the door should be greater, is that in something like Queen Street, if you go to the distance required from the door on one side, you would be encroaching on the distance from the door on the other side. Iyswim. Banning it completely is the only thing that makes sense. People have a big problem if they can't do without a fag on a shopping trip on one street.

Kim67

I think it's great, the Queen Street Mall stinks of cigarette smoke and having a child with a lung condition, makes it impossible to go shopping in the city without breathing it in.

fish.01

Walking down the mall last weekend my wife and i really noticed the smell and i often enjoy the smell but this was too much...people sit in the seats in the middle of the mall a lot of the way down and it means you can't sit down anywhere with kids and shopping and it was getting up my nose and making me want to leave.

The old me who was a smoker would have been pi33ed off with the ban as I would have had to go miles to smoke and then back again over and over so i reckon a compromise where a couple of spots, maybe one top, one bottom are for smokers and the rest smoke free so other people can sit down as well would be good. When I smoked I didn't realise how far it travelled and how uncomfortable it could be for others.

Pollyana

Agreeing with DV I know you hate the smell......I remember that!

We had a safety guy from Queensland Fire at work today, giving us all a lecture in how not to use the lift if the building is burning. The bit that got me though was the fact he suggested people take their cigarettes with them when evacuating but leave everything else behind. He said if there was a real fire we would all be desperate for a smoke and no-one would bother about no smoking rules, and we could all smoke to our hearts content! Wasn't really interested in his safety stuff after that; the mere assumption that everyone smokes and have nothing more important to take with them than their fags......

the troubadour

Not a smoker but am against state intervention controlling the habits and legal freedoms of adults.
One thing smoking to my mind is quite a social occassion in the sense that smokers often communicate between drags with one another.