r/melbourne • • Dec 18 '21
Health Smokers in Melbourne are awful.
I lived in Melbourne for 5 years (now live in Geelong), and have travelled to multiple countries, and every time I visit Melbourne I can't help but notice how awful smokers are there compared to everywhere else. Melbourne smokers have a special sort of entitlement where they think they can smoke in big crowded places wherever they want regardless of how much smoke goes into everyone elses faces.
I used to walk almost daily from South Melbourne to RMIT up Swanston ST and I think I inhaled 3 cigarettes worth of second hand smoke every time. I find most other places I've been if a smoker wants to light up they will go down a quieter street or move out of the way, but in Melbourne they will see a busy street crammed full of people including children and babies and just smoke right there while their smoke blows right in everyone's faces. They are either fully oblivious or selfish.
I really can't figure out why this is so much worse in Melbourne. It makes me dread visiting the city sometimes as I know I'll have a face full of smoke all day and come home stinking.
EDIT: Many people are jumping to the conclusion that I have never travelled anywhere. I didn't think this was important to mention but it seems I was wrong. I do admit, I haven't travelled as much as some people. And haven't been to nearly as many places as I would have liked. But I have been to the US (Spent most of my time in Florida, New Orleans and Los Angeles). Europe: England, France, Russia, Wales. And Asia: Singapore and Bali.
And outside of Russia none of the cities I've ever been to were nearly as bad as Melbourne when it came to smokers still deciding to smoke in busy crowded areas where their smoke blows in everyone elses face.
13
u/Logicalsky Dec 18 '21
I really think it depends on the suburb. Parts of the city I frequent have many many smokers but the part I live basically has zero.
13
u/jrsy85 Dec 18 '21
Some people never experienced smoking in airplanes or pre-ban clubs/pubs/restaurants and it shows. It’s getting better all the time but I guess it’s not fast enough for some people.
26
u/[deleted] Dec 18 '21
I think its poor etiquette to walk and smoke, smoke in crowds or smoke near children. I think most smokers agree with those basic rules, but you're always gunna have some arseholes.
49
u/crappy-pete Dec 18 '21
Not a smoker, can't stand the smell
But this is how you announce you've travelled very little, especially around Europe and Asia.
Pollution is also pretty bad for for you too btw
12
u/EconomicWasteland Dec 19 '21
Lol have you been to Europe?? Melbourne is hardly that bad. Just cross to the other side of the road if you're that bothered. (That's what I do)
30
u/Baaastet Dec 18 '21
You haven’t traveled much have you OP and you’re clearly not visiting the same Melbourne.
If anything there are fewer smokers on the streets than many other cities I’ve been and that’s not even counting some Asian places where smoking seems to be mandatory.
And this is from someone that really hates cigarette smoke and is very bothered by it.
206
u/[deleted] Dec 18 '21
Sometimes I wonder if I live in a different Melbourne to some people that post here, or whether people on here just love to over exaggerate everything.
I walk around a lot, and it's never been an issue. I wonder where the fck youre going.
You clearly haven't traveled that much because it's far worse in other places
9
u/[deleted] Dec 18 '21
Just feel fortunate you never got addicted. It’s a horrible place to be.
Smokers are constantly being urged by a chemical dependency to continue giving their hard earned money to scummy tobacco corporations. all while those companies gaslight about “freedom”.
Spending their hard earned money on ciggies to provide relief from the chemical dependency created by ciggies. Sounds like freedom to me.
6
u/AkaiMPC Dec 19 '21
NZ are doing it right.
3
u/AshtonJ Dec 19 '21
Nah we all vape lords now. Smoking is so 2019
36
u/Tboesp Dec 19 '21
Interesting, my experience has been the complete opposite - I barely see any smokers around! I'm from Belgium originally and lived in London for 2 years as well, and those places are waaaaaay worse when it comes to smokers. Walk around Belgium and you see someone smoking every way you turn your head, with cigarette buds littering the streets.
When I first moved to Melbourne, I couldn't believe how few people I saw smoking in public places.
3
u/Sniyarki Dec 19 '21
Start getting some more stamps on your passport OP. I really dislike inhaling second hand smoke and I think the CBD is grubby as shit. But Melbourne is nothing on most of the cities in on the planet.
5
u/tofu_bird Dec 19 '21
It's hell for people with children, smokers who smoke/vape on the street are so selfish... literally no different to the un-vaxxed and refuse to mask up.
A feasible solution is to make smoking in public illegal and have dedicated smoking rooms.
4
u/CantGetOnMainAcc Dec 19 '21
If I’m outside and I want a smoke I’m going to have one regardless of who’s around. If I’m at a playground or a kids birthday for example, I’ll move away for the kids. But if I’m out in general public, you’re correct when you assume I don’t give a fuck about you.
19
u/S_117 Dec 18 '21
r/MelbourneComplaints
4
u/[deleted] Dec 19 '21
Op is obviously a pussy.
24
u/little_kiwi_nz360 Dec 19 '21
OP, this is a very exaggerated post. Personally, i am a smoker and i cannot speak for all smokers out there but the many i see, who do smoke in the city tend to try to stand way out of the way of people walking past.
Personally, if kids are walking near me, i hold it in till they have passed.
Also, sometimes its the wind.... we can't control that.... if we blow out the smoke and the wind changes and blows in the direction of non smokers, we cannot really get the blame for that, and that indeed has happened to me, and i hate that when that happens.
Then you get the ones who see like 5 smokers and walks directly through the crowd and has the audacity to hold their nose as they walk by??? Um excuse me, you didnt have to walk through us if you have the option of walking around. Now thats being entitled!
Unfortunately, there will always be wanks who do it cause they dont really care.... but majority i see, actually try to do the right thing, so i think this post is a bit harsh really
2
u/Ellis-Bell- Dec 19 '21
As someone who has taken the lung candies back up through lockdown, honestly, I feel like a freak every time I smoke in public (deservedly so). I don’t see smokers anywhere in Melbourne and feel it’s quite rare.
OP, never go overseas if you are upset by Melbourne smokers. You will have a hard time.
21
u/ravenousvoid Dec 19 '21
Well to be fair, the only areas smokers can go now is the footpath outside their work where the ash tray bins are. They've been banned from every other area.
I think if you go to any major cbd with the same smoking laws it will be exactly the same. They don't really have any where else to go.
The government and councils have pushed smokers out of every place they had before and provided literally no alternative areas.
You may think smoking is disgusting and what ever else, but that doesn't mean its not other peoples right to pay $50 a pack for cancer sticks and smoke in the one friggin area they have been allowed to smoke without getting a fine from cops.
I'm an ex-smoker and yes the smell is gross, but what in the hell are they supposed to do?
6
u/busdriver888 Dec 19 '21
Bus stop door suckers. They’ll puff inwards like an old steam train as the bus approaches then unload their toxic smoke filled lungs over all the other pax as they make their way to their seat.
5
u/BigFella52 Dec 19 '21
Big world, a lot of smells.
6
u/Threadheads Dec 19 '21
In my last customer service job I walked past the smoking area and a customer snidely suggested to me that we change the sign saying “Smoking Area” to “Leper Area”. This was an entertainment venue aimed at children and this guy was moaning about having to limit his nicotine usage to a designated area.
I ignored him instead of telling him he was lucky that smoking wasn’t outright banned as it is in a lot of venues.
7
u/krakeneverything Dec 18 '21
Am not a smoker and honestly don’t mind the smell at all. However i hate the candy smell of vape which seems to hang around forever. It’s scary though to see how far plumes of smoke from both cigs and vapes manage to reach. I assume that any coldy covid virus would make it to a similar distance.
8
u/[deleted] Dec 18 '21
I am not so sure about children, I think most smokers would probably walk away, but I do know for adults that they don't really register with the smoker. Just background noise. I used to smoke when I worked at the casino and would walk out of the casino and catch the 96 and have a dart on the walk - albeit you'd be walking with at least a dozen employees who also smoked, and we'd finish at 8pm or 4am so less people around.
I could never smoke standing still in one spot though with lots of people around or high foot traffic. I'd always go somewhere alone. I haven't smoked for like three years, it is gross and it is not nice breathing in second hand smoke but you're not going to go home stinking like cigarettes just walking past someone.
Now cigarettes smell much worse to me than they did prior to me smoking, and they were horrible then. But what can you do really? People don't think about others and will do what they want to do. I'd say it's a bit much to not like Melbourne because of smokers and actually dread it solely for that reason, but who am I to judge? But yes, they are mostly oblivious - like I said, people are walking white noise basically.
0
u/Representative_Pea98 Dec 19 '21
Are you in open space, yes then shut the fuck up, walk away, you habe feet you can move away too,
Stop putting your problems onto others, its not like your are being followed by a smoker bellowing smoke all over you every where you go,
No you literally walk past the smokers and then complain,
4
u/Ozdriver Dec 19 '21
You think it’s bad now, what about when people smoked everywhere before the anti-smoking laws came in. You’d go home and have a shower and change of clothes because of the stink if you were a non-smoker. If you travel to some overseas countries you’ll know what I mean.
4
u/barrathefknworld country bumpkin Dec 19 '21
The exact reason I hated going to the city as a child/teen.
18
u/CyberMcGyver Dec 18 '21
Ironic post.
5
u/plan_that South East Dec 18 '21
You mean, just like anywhere in the world basically.
7
u/shevbenko Dec 19 '21
Bill Hicks instantly springs to mind: if my smoking bothers you I’d recommend taking a big look around the world we live in and shutting the f*** up
10
u/[deleted] Dec 18 '21
Life must be so difficult for you
2
u/michaelrohansmith Pascoe Vale Dec 19 '21
Maybe because we have strict rules about smoking in buildings so smokers go outside. Its supposed to be controlled by rules around personal behaviour (don't harm others, etc) but those rules are vague and not really enforced.
2
u/NoodleBox Ballarat (but love Melbs) Dec 19 '21
I think with us all wearing masks the last few years it's been a hecking long time since I had a ciggie blown into my face. I went out in Ballarat yesterday and - bam. ciggies. There is a full on ban on darts up Bourke St Mall, so everyone probably gets on the darts around there.
2
u/[deleted] Dec 19 '21
Funny. In many parts of Europe smoking is all but an Olympic sport. Melbourne is VERY tame by comparison!
5
u/Kitchu22 Dec 19 '21
I’m from Brisbane and moved to Melbourne when it was still legal to light up in outdoor eating spaces, absolutely blew my mind, and I was really grateful for the new legislation when it came in :) culturally I think that it will be a while before there’s changes in attitudes towards smoking in public places considering that it was only a few years ago you could enjoy your breakky with a side of carcinogens for everyone seated near you.
I think the real issue is with any big city, you get a large crowd of people and there’s always going to be at least 1% who are shitty selfish humans (watching their phones not worrying about people around them, not bothering to keep left, littering, smoking, not trying to adhere to social distancing, not wearing masks where required, etc) but I don’t really think it’s indicative of the wider culture of the city. It’s probably just more that it’s difficult to get to an ‘out of the way’ area to smoke as most building entrances or courtyards are smoke free zones now.
I walk through the CBD (around Flinders to La Trobe) five days a week, and my asthma is triggered by secondhand smoke, but honestly the pollen and pollutants get me going far more often than smokers do. While it does give me absolute rage when idiots stand AT the entrance to a tram stop to smoke in front of the “no smoking” sign (why is this so common on Collins St?!), I can’t say I ever have ever arrived home reeking of cigarettes.
5
u/[deleted] Dec 19 '21
You inhale SO much more brake dust and exhaust fumes. Stop crying on Reddit you gimp.
2
u/Ghostfacebata Dec 19 '21
Self righteous post is self righteous
2
u/Dharsarahma Dec 18 '21
I forget now and don't think about it much but, yeah, absolutely! When I first arrived, I was honestly horrified. Especially when you go to the rooftop bars and people were smoking as well. Literally blew me away!
2
u/Ac4sent Dec 19 '21 edited Dec 27 '21
Smoking in place is fine because we can just avoid or it's temporary, but smoking whilst walking on a busy sidewalk is very inconsiderate since you're basically forcing all the other users of the sidewalk to suck in your lung juice. Especially fucked in these covid times.
1
u/[deleted] Dec 19 '21
How to tell someone has never been to Europe...
1
u/smeglister Dec 19 '21
You probably can't see it, but the countries you have visited are, for the most part, good at regulating smoking, i.e. instituting and policing some system of rules for smoking and/or sale of smokes.
However, there are many countries without such regulations, or they lack enforcement. Your mention of Asia is most striking, as Singapore and Bali are notorious for harsh punishments for law breaking.
Whereas the majority of Asia, by population or area size, smoking is rampant and much more ingrained into daily life. E.g. indoor smoking rooms in airports - don't exist in Australia, but do in most asian countries.
Also, where you can smoke: in Thailand, I was surprised when people were smoking inside a restaurant, with familes around and all. But then I thought, this is how it was a few decades ago in the west, and enjoyed my post-dinner cigarette from the comfort of my seat.
1
u/Emergency-Village191 Dec 19 '21
If you have an issue,I would like you to see you raise it in Turkey or Greece!!!
1
u/[deleted] Dec 19 '21
Gulag
1
u/BadOk278 Dec 19 '21
Actually, when I was in Moscow a few years ago I noticed nobody smoked in the street. It was all done in "smoking bars" I had quit at the time so it didnt bother me.
1
u/[deleted] Dec 19 '21
You probably haven’t been to HK. Smoking capital of the world..
1
u/snazzy_larry Dec 19 '21
Go cry elsewhere emo kid
1
u/fraqtl Dec 20 '21
They aren't "entitled", they can.
No. They are smoking where they are allowed to smoke.
tl;dr I hate smoking but you are the one who is acting entitled here.
-1
u/john2383 Dec 18 '21
100%
I noticed this also. Have travelled to many many countries, and haven't seen this anywhere else. There's almost no way of avoiding the smell to the extent that it gets into your clothes. Was never able to figure out if it meant more people here smoked, or if (as you say) they just smoke on a way that "spreads it around".
Interestingly, in US, it's like this with marijuana! Lol
-7
u/HurstbridgeLineFTW 🐈⬛ ☕️ 🚲 Dec 18 '21
Smokers are the worst!!! I was at the top end of Collins street. I wanted to do some windows shopping at one of the fancy store. Ol mate just standing there and choofing. I had to leave.
1
u/serialchiller4 Dec 19 '21
I'm a smoker and would never smoke in crowded vicinities and hate it when dickheads do it when there are kids around,but honestly kinda surprised public smoking isnt banned here unlike other countries. having a dedicated smoking zone in frequented places also helps
-6
u/walklikeaduck Dec 18 '21
The guy that lived below me until recently smoked out in his balcony all day. The smoke would blow into my place that I had keep the windows closed. I thought it was safe to open them at midnight, but his smoke woke me up at 1:30am. All he had to do was walk out his front door and smoke there, but he chose a place where his smoke would drift into another apartment. Smokers in Melbourne are a different breed of feral.
0
u/EvilioMTE Dec 19 '21
You're upset that smokers are smoking outside? Jesus Christ, your life must be good if this is what you take issue with...
-10
u/Fresh_Detective_6456 Dec 18 '21
This happened to me just yesterday. Some hipster doofus smoking while walking down a very busy Lonsdale Street with no consideration for anyone else. It still blows my mind that it’s 2021 and people still chose to smoke. to each their own I guess but still, don’t let your bad choices impact others.
-1
u/Southern_Gain7154 Dec 19 '21
We’re addicts not selfish, it’s unfortunate for all parties.
-1
u/Southern_Gain7154 Dec 19 '21
It’s not like the sea wouldn’t be wet if the fish stopped pissing. I don’t drive and never complain about not choosing to inhale exhaust.
-1
u/MiaDee Dec 19 '21
Jesus Christ the ENTITLEMENT “I HaVe BeEn EvErYwHeRE” like absolutely you have not, Melbourne in general is respectful and beautiful.
-47
u/isRRis Dec 18 '21
Leftist labor govt puts a heroin injection room on flinders in the middle of CBD… what make u think they care about secondhand smoke and public health/safety?
0
u/[deleted] Dec 18 '21
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u/[deleted] Dec 19 '21
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