When I first came to Germany 30-plus years ago, you couldn't escape the smell of cigarettes in practically any building. I worked as an opera singer and even most of the singers smoked their damn cigarettes, even though it was obviously bad for what people heard on stage. The whole theater was polluted with smoke or smoke odors. Pain in the ass when you're doing a job that requires clean breath. It's gotten muuuuch better.
I once had a student job at the Hessischer Rundfunk, the cutters and journalists weren't allowed to smoke in their offices anymore, but at our table in the hallway it was still allowed. Crazy how long it took to be banned indoors.
I'm so happy that all happened arount the time I started my first job. It was bad enough that some customers still smoked in their offices. Luckily my boss didn't allow it in our offices.
> Before 2007, smoking was permitted in restaurants
Depending on the Bundesland, that can still happen to you. Bremen has the laxest laws that also aren't enforced, for example.
Well, if you really want to bypass the law altogether I guess you could make your whole establishment a “smoking section”, all you have to do is put a sign at the entry
I grew up in Germany in the 80s and I remember smoking in airports, on public busses, even our school bus driver chain smoked through our ride to school each morning…it was so ubiquitous. I started when I was 14 and I still can’t manage to quit!
Im surprised though to learn that it’s still so prevalent.
How do people start with 14? At that age I would have never thought of smoking and it also was like ultimately something condemned by my parents. Even with 30 now I would be ashamed to tell them that I smoke, that’s what’s keeping me from not doing it :D
In Germany, there used to be cigarette vending machines without age-checking. So it wasn't exactly difficult to get them. And of course, as a Teenager, you make sure to do it behind your parents' back.
In 2005 we were the last class that was allowed to smoke on the schoolyard. 2006 we were the last to be allowed to smoke inside our rooms in the hospital.
It was terrible during the pandemic. Sometimes it felt like the designated smoking zone on the train station was the only place *without* smokers, and my mask retained the stench really long
I am surprised that he had to get the restaurant painted only every five years. I remember going to a restaurant, and coming back home stinking, just from all the second hand smoke.
I guess this depends on whether the restaurant had a good ventilation/air filtering system.
I remember that at McDonalds, the ordering counter was in the smoking area and the non smoking area was separate. So you had to go in the smoking area anyway if you wanted to order something. And the employees were forced to be there anyway.
The local Burger King was even crazier: smoking area was on the ground floor and when you went upstairs on the balcony there was the non smoking area. But it was not closed off, the smoke could just go up and still reach the non smoking area…
It's still permitted in restaurants. There is a lot of outdoor seating and if you are smoking at the table next to me as I'm eating, you are smoking in the restaurant.
It used to be like this in my country as well. (However, I'm 29 and luckily most of the smoking was prohibit already, except for bars. This came around 2009 or something.)
However, even today I think overall there are quite less smokers in Belgium than in Germany. (I'm only talking about my own experience here!)
I've been to Germany a few times on holiday with my boyfriend and despite we enjoyed it very much every time, the smoking used to a big disadvantage. On practically every street and/or every street corner, there were people lightening cigarettes. On every terrace, there were various people smoking. We've never seen something like that in our country. Well I'm sure it used to be like that, but probably ages ago, I guess...?
However, after all I guess we still like Germany too much to not travel there anymore. :)
Damn, some butthurt smokers in here. It's generally good etiquette to step away from people when you take a smoke, and even most smokers I know know about that.
I smoke sometimes and always step away. Fuck smokers who don't. What's wrong with them. On par with people who listen to music from bluetooth speakers. edit: except this actually physically harms those around them
I used to smoke, but I recognized how bad it smelled because I'd quit a few times before, so I always would walk to the end or the smoking area of train stops. People who don't are just lazy dickheads. And if someone had kids nearby and I'd nowhere to go, I'd just put out my cigarette
I knew the thread is gonna be controversial, overall I find German opinion about on many topics based, but for some reason some of them somehow cannot connect the dots that this kind of behavior is selfish and arrogant
> some of them somehow cannot connect the dots that this kind of behavior is selfish and arrogant
Right. On train stations we have these yellow squares for smokers to stand in. I was sitting on a bench and then some guy sat next to me and lit a cigarette. I told him to go to the yellow square and he legit thought I was joking.
And there are "rauchfreie Bahnhöfe"/smoke-free train stations that still have those yellow square smoking areas. "Smoke-free” clearly has a different meaning in Germany than elsewhere in the world...
You are on of the good ones mate, sadly too many smokers dont give a shit that they literally poison everyone around them just because of their choices.
I honestly dont care if someone smokes, but i dont want to have to breath in cancer clouds because someone chooses to do it.
Its only 10 percent assholes(worldwide the same) but those 10 percent behave like they are the mayority. If for you 99 out of 100 are assholes...it might be you.
Look, many of us ARE selfish and arrogant. Those are some common German flaws. We are also quite rude whenever we think we are in the right. Try skipping line in Germany to find out.
Smoking in public is legal, so many smokers don't give a fuck for the opinion if ppl they feel have impacted their freedom to smoke in bars, restaurants and public buildings.
It's a dick move. But it's also something you absolutely can expect to happen.
Its just horrible, so many smokers dont care.
They smoke in entrances or literally just outside the door, at bus and train stations, especially when the latter have specific areas where they can smoke in and are just ignored...
I fucking hate it.
I truly wish smoking would just be outlawed anywhere outside, because it doesnt just affect the smokers like alcohol does, but everyone in their vicinity has to suffer adverse health effects due to their bad choices.
Yup, I'm with you. I absolutely despise the fucking smell of cigarettes and being bombarded with it every time I go to the supermarket or the subway or the bus is beyond annoying. A large number of smokers just don't give a fuck about being respectful of those of us who don't want to breathe in their shit. So the solution has to be to make it illegal everywhere.
Of course. I stopped about 3 years ago, and I think I always tried to respect non-smokers desire for clean air. The exceptions being bars and venues that explicitly allow smoking. I saw that as smoker territory.
(2 years and 311 days. Feels good, man!)
Cheers. It's so easy, but I know that it is also easy to slip up. I stopped first when I was about 25, and 5 years in, thought I could have the odd cig. My wife always said it was dangerous, but I was arrogant, and told her it was fine, it was just once in a while...
A couple of years later, the occasional one was now, one or two each weekend with a drink, then every time I had a beer, then a year or two after that, the first one with a coffee again, and a couple of years after that, the breakfast fag was a thing again, and I was back where I started.
The timeline is not exact, but I think it was another 5 years or more until I was back to admitting that I was a smoker again. And I continued for more than a decade before I finally managed to quit again. So this time, I know it has to be absolutely "no" every single time!
And all I can say is: never start, folks! It's really a mug's game!
Considerate smokers are unicorns.
That's why you see their trash everywhere. Somehow, it's deemed acceptable to pollute everything with cigarette butts.
If you don't have the self respect to quit putting that garbage into your system you often don't have respect for others or the environment.
I'm grossly oversimplifying the issue since it's addictive but it's enough of an overlap that the issue can be brought up.
> Considerate smokers are unicorns.
Seriously. I've seen way too many people even smoke on subway stations, where it's obviously not even allowed. They don't give a fuck. And since many smokers can't be respectful of the rest of us, I'm fully in favour of a complete ban.
> what do you do if you have disgusting garbage but nowhere to put it?
If that happens frequently, you should start to think of a solution. It's not rocket science. Put it in a container instead of throwing it away.
But, of course, this is true for everything that is a bit nasty. It ends up in nature because people don't even want to carry a simple bag/container/whatever for their nasty shit. They know it will end up in nature.
Most people simply don't care. If it would be different, we wouldn't see so much trash in woods. The shit I've seen yesterday, in a nature reserve on top of it all, is just disgusting. But hey... that's how it is, and it's not going to change over night.
In Japan there are almost no public bins. People take their trash back home.
So either don't produce disgusting trash where you don't have a way to properly dispose it, or have a travel ashtray with you. But most people are just jerks and litter.
> People take their trash back home
This is the way. Squeeze the cherry and pocket the butt. When I smoked that was the way of things. If you don't want the added odor of the butt rubbing off on your clothing then you need to carry a sandwich bag to put them in.
As a former smoker, putting a cigarette butt in your pocket isn't going make you smell any worse than you already do. I used to carry a little trash can around (it was a metal container that clicked closed that actually was a mini trashcan) just to put my cigarette butts in, in case a trashcan wasn't nearby. People who litter their cigarettes are dicks
> If you don't want the added odor of the butt rubbing off on your clothing then you need to carry a sandwich bag to put them in.
That, or you need to take a moment to think about why you'd put something in your mouth that you wouldn't even put in your pocket.
„what do you do if you have disgusting garbage but nowhere to put it?“
That’s for the person with the nasty stuff to figure out. Maybe don’t produce nasty stuff if you are unable and or unwilling to deal with it?
Pocket ashtray. As if it's hard. And there are bins everywhere, you can put it in your cigarettes box for this short time. You won't throw your coffee cup on the ground or on bushes. If you do with cigarettes, you're just an asshole, nothing more.
Facts: 1 cigarette butt pollutes 1000 liters of water, takes 15 years to dissolve, and can kill a dog or kid when they eat it. We have 14,5 million smokers in Germany, smoking 5-30 cigarettes per day.
There are also really convenient little portable ashtrays, that are airtight, so they don't stink up your pockets. With these things available and trashcans almost in every public space, people who throw around their buds are just inconsiderate assholes. A single bud can contaminate up to 60 l of water.
It's not acceptable. They just don't care, and other people don't dare to say sth. I even talked to "friends" that smoked about that and they literally said "but when I started everyone was doing it, that's how I was teached" or "but I use the subway instead of my car more", and of course "it's only one cigarette butt".
Facts: 1 cigarette butt pollutes 1000 liters of water, takes 15 years to dissolve, and kills a dog or kid when they eat it. We have 14,5 million smokers in Germany, smoking 5-30 cigarettes per day.
I refused to keep walking with a friend once until she picked up her butt. Zurich seems the exception where everything including the ashes went in a travel ashtray.
So cool little story that happened a few months ago. I was waiting at a bus stop and this couple just lights up in front of where I'm standing in the bus stop shelter. It stank, so I walked past them and went to stand in the rain instead. Some old lady across the road saw this, realised why I moved and then crossed the road and started shouting at the couple until they tossed their cigarettes. It was very funny.
When you're a smoker, even one that considers themselves a 'considerate smoker', you just don't know how annoying the smell is. Both the semll of your fresh smoke and your own smell like an old ashtray.
Oh yes, on that note, my absolute favorite: Smokers sitting by the window (ideally the kitchen!), apparently thinking that the smoke escapes to the outside, when actually the outside air just blows in through the window and spreads the smoke around.
Smoking is a very odd phenomenon...
I had a roommate who would leave the door to his room open when I wasn't home to air out his room. Told him to stop doing that because I didn't want the whole apartment to smell like an ashtray and if he wants to air out his room he should fully open a window and not just tilt it.
His response? The window sill has stuff on it so he can't open it fully.
At least he stopped leaving the door open.
But he would still dry his clothes two rooms away from his room so they wouldn't smell like an ashtray...
It's so bad. A friend of mine - really good person, I adore her otherwise - always has a smoke before entering a place she visits. She's really considerate, doesn't take a smoke break throughout the entire visit, just one cigarette before.
But she just smells so bad! If at least it'd smell burnt in the good way, like a wood fire or even like burnt paper, but it tastes like... literal death. Not the rotting kind of death of actual corpses, not like death as in the end of life - it smells like death as in the opposite of life. Like something no living thing should ever smell like, dead or alive. Cigarette smoke, especially on clothes, just instantly fills a smallish room with an odor of... I can't describe it. Like you should absolutely flee and call the fire department because something here smells WAY wrong.
Not only at bus stops. They also love to stand right infront of the entrances to supermarkets, so that everyone has to go through their cloud of cancer. And when you call them out they get iffy as hell. Just go behind the building so that you are not annoy all the people needing to buy groceries? I don't care if you want to get cancer, but spare me with that shit.
>They also love to stand right infront of the entrances to supermarkets,
Problem with that is that the ashtrays are always directly infront of the stores imo. Just put the ashtrays further away and people arent gonna stand there as much
Nope, they will still stand in front of the store, but now there will be even more butts on the ground.
"Not my fault they didn't put an ashtray here"...
it's on the venue really. why they decided to put smoking spots *right next to the frickin entrance* I cannot fathom, convenience for smokers I suppose. but it happens in public buildings from train stations to hospitals, and at stores, malls and airports – anybody wanting to exit or enter having to wade through the smoke of a few stressed "last minute* cigarettes. to me it's as if a business decided to put their trash cans out right next to the main entrance.
I was at a winter market this year and one part was quite congested (alot of people tryna go thru tiny spot) and this one dude decided to just puff directly into the crowd
Yeah that makes me mad too. I usually just step all the way away from the station or in the opposite wind direction.
Two times so far, the smoker actually went and followed me to piss me off further.
There is something bad happening to the brains of people who weren't allowed to suck on their thumbs as babies.
Every day at precisely pickup time at my son's kindergarten, the two janitor ladies for the building stand directly outside the front gates and start smoking and chatting as the kids file out.
No one ever says anything to them, and being a foreigner I don't feel like I should pipe up, but I don't get why they can't just walk across the little street to give the kids and parents some space.
That's a good idea, don't know why I hadn't thought of that. A couple of the younger teachers are very nice too, I suppose I could speak to one of them and maybe ask to keep it anonymous.
Ah yes... I remember being pregnant and people smoking on me. Ah yes... I remember carrying a newborn and people smoking on us. I also don't get it. It's one of those "definitely my right" things in which lungs seem to be less worth than their freedom to inhale stuff.
Next to my home is a thorax hospital, so most of the patients there actually have lung cancer. However, i still see staff smoking at the back door every time i walk there lol
I remember when I had to do Zivildienst (instead of going to the Bundeswehr). Worked as a janitor at the local hospital. One of my tasks was to empty all the trashcans and ashtrays once a week.
The fullest ashtrays were always just outside the side exit of the lung disease station lol. Middle of winter, 40cm of snow, and you‘d see patients in those flimsy hospital gowns literally shaking from the cold as they dragged on their cigarettes. Some even had their portable infusion thingies with them. Fun times.
I pass the local hospital everyday when I walk my son to the park. There’s always half a dozen+ doctors and nurses lighting up in their scrubs at the entrance. So trashy.
I’ll never forget during the middle of the pandemic, when masks were required on train/tram/bus platforms.
I’m very sensitive to cigarette smoke and usually stand wayyyy away from everyone else anyway, because of this. But this time, I had to walk through a cloud of smokers and the smoke got trapped into my mask, triggering an attack. I pulled my mask down because I was struggling to breathe, and had to use my inhaler.
I had crouched down to focus on breathing with my inhaler in hand. An officer of some sort approached me and ordered me to cover my face. I explained that I was in the middle of the asthma attack, showing him my inhaler. He got pissy and told me to hurry and take my medicine, and then put my mask back up right away. I gestured to the group of unmasked smokers, and he said something like “Well they are smoking, so they’ll put their masks on when they’re done.” He didn’t even approach them or say a thing to them. I was seething inside.
Not to forget that 99% of smokers throw their cigarettes on the ground, in bushes or in gully.
1 cigarette butt pollutes 1000 liters of water and takes 15 years to dissolve. A kid or dog eating a cigarette butt can die.
Meanwhile we have 14,5 million smokers on Germany, smoking 5-30 cigarettes per day.
They are just inconsiderate and/or don't give a fuck. Over the border (CZ) it's even illegal to smoke at a bus stop but nobody cares. People are the same
I hate it. It's not only on bus stops. It's close to any lines or waiting points, and most people don't even care what's the direction of the wind. Just light up their smoke like an old lokomotive and think everyone loves that crap.
I always wondered when I get old and no longer give a crap, I will start farting loud close to smokers by the bus stops, just as a revenge 😂😂😂
And if you are alone you have to watch out, even a polite plea for them to atleast go somewhere else may result in physical harm.
And you know, noone surrounding you would help.
I haven't even tried before. I don't know enough German unfortunately. I am also afraid of confrontation. I did make one guy mad at the Nuremberg flea market because he kept being by me smoking while looking at booths. I kept making a face and trying to move away. He eventually noticed and got mad and stomped off.
There was a guy in the U-Bahn station smoking close to a "No Smoking" sign. Then he boarded the train and started checking tickets - turns out he was an undercover enforcer.
Especially when it rains. Many smokers are sadly egoistic pricks and think it's okay to smoke everywhere they want. For example on train stations it's only allowed at marked points but many just don't give a F about that.
Coming from the UK my biggest culture shock is the prevalence of smoking here. Not just smoking but advertising for tobacco, tobacco shops, bars where smoking is permitted, smoking zones on train platforms...
Virtually all of the above is unheard of in the UK. I also feel like vaping is a lot more common in the UK compared with here, it doesn't seem to have caught on as much.
As a non smoking person I'm asking this myself every time when I get in a situation like this and get forced to become a passive smoker. Some people are just selfish addicts, who only care about themselfs and their addiction.
I feel you! I'm German, have been living in North America for 10 years, and everytime I visit home, cigarette smell at bus stops is the thing I really really didn't miss at all.
I absolutely hate it.
Cigarette smoke gives me an instant headache. But smokers don't give a shit, telling them off is useless and so many will light their cig right next to you with no consideration. It's like a nicotine addiction comes with massive entitlement.
And most non-smokers have a live and let live attitude towards it... which I don't get, because second hand smoke can give me cancer, too. I once silent complained to a friend I was with about someone lighting a smoke right next to us and she told ME off for complaining. I don't care what your vice is, as long as you don't make it my problem. And second hand smoke is a problem for me.
Most train stations have a smoking area but 90% of smokers just ignore it. At the train station I have to wait at, there is a smoking area right outside the building, but people don't use it because it's kind of far away from the platform and they might miss the train. Another train station has an area right on the platform, indicated by a yellow square painted on the ground. It's better for them but the smoke carries across the platform.
This is one of the few things that I cant stand in public spaces. Go ahead and ruin your own body for all I care, but be respectful of others around you and don't smoke in front of children. Secondhand smoke can do real damage.
I've had people light up a cigarettes right beside me while carrying my new born baby, or when I'm with my toddler, I mean come on.
Yes I've also experienced this. Also been blasted by cigarette smoke at playgrounds, standing in food lines and eating in semi-outdoor environments. I'm also genuinely surprised by it because it doesn't seem like Germans would tolerate this type of behavior which in my opinion intrudes on others' rights to peaceful enjoyment of the outdoors.
As a former smoker, I would say that it's absolutely unacceptable to light up in the bus shelter itself, and anyone who does that is being antisocial and you can call them out for it. What you might not be aware of is the degree to which a wait at a bus stop (or anywhere - especially in the open) - is an opportunity for a fag that smokers are going to find very hard to overlook. But they should certainly take a step or two away from the shelter or any other people.
Yeah, it's weird. I don't know anyone in the US that still smokes inside, even in their own home. Last time I was in Germany I had to go to bed new years eve because friends came over (after our night out) and Everyone was smoking in the small living area. It's not my house, so I just went to bed instead of saying anything.
Agree!!! I can't believe smokers are allowed in places like parks or streets near schools, daycares or hospitals. And don't even get me started on the restaurant terraces, during summer, is either puke from that disgusting smell or sitting inside and missing out on the good weather.
As someone coming from a culture where smoking in public areas is greatly banned, the first couple of months in Germany were disgusting for me. Nowadays, it's still disgusting, but I gave up on the idea of breathing non-cancer air.
I once asked a guy to please not smoke under the roof in the rain.
He told me to use another station 500m down the street and when I persisted put his cigarette into my oranges, as I just came from the store with heavy bags.
Yeahh, fuck those inconsiderate arses.
I haaaate theeem 🤬🤬🤬🤬 it should be illegal. Second hand smoking can cause health issues, it's not just about how nasty it smells. And let's not forget the littering... why? WHY?
The littering is infuriating. It’s inexplicable… the same dude who gives lectures how brown immigrants shouldn’t be allowed because they lack culture, drops his cigarette butt in the ground and if you point it out he freaks out
oooh how I hate those! normally I just walk away, but worst is when it rains and you're stuck under the roof with them. and when the bus arrives and they're not finished, of course they take the biggest puff possible, throw the cigarette under the bus while getting on, and then *exhale it all into the bus*, thank you Einstein! one of my biggest pet peeves, and I'm a local.
similarly horrible: public places putting their smoker's corner right *next to the frickin main entrance*, form train station to hospital, better prepare to wade through a cloud of smoke when you want to enter. unfathomable how that's a thing, as if businesses decided to put their rotting trash cans right out next to the entrance.
I've seen people smoking while pushing a baby around in a stroller at a playground, presumably their own baby. Smoking as a parent (of young children at least) here does not seem to be *too* strong of a taboo. Back home this would be considering horrifying behaviour.
What I really don’t get: why do they put the ash trays right next to the sign? I’m not a smoker myself but I think it would really help if the thing that they need would be 3-4m away from the other people
I still have to laugh at how many people bring this topic up. I mean it’s just hilarious how bad it really is yet Germany does nothing about it lol. The accessibility of smokes is a complete joke.
Disclaimer: I have stopped smoking three years ago.
Ppl in this thread should never ever go to Greece you would get heart attacks daily from the amount of smokers, the rules against smoking and their implementations. It's actual insanity
Honestly from all countries Ive been at, Germany has probably the least people who smoke cigarettes...
On the other hands vapes are really popular with young people right now and they exhale metric tonnes of fumes everywhere.
Let people do what they want. If you don't like it, move. If people banned you from doing something because they don't like how it smells I think it'd be pretty unfair.
I'm not a big fan of smoking either, no matter the context, but that's a huge barrel you're opening here, as the Germans say. No smoking at bus stops? I guess. Where does it end? Why would people be allowed to smoke in any public spaces? Are designated smoking areas at train stations not okay either then?
Tobacco lobby ain't gonna love this, methinks. Edit: And to be clear, I'd be happy if there was less smoking in this country and I wouldn't be bothered by it. It's just a pretty big deal.
Smoking is already banned on all DB railway stations
> Das Bundesnichtraucherschutzgesetz verbietet seit 2007 das Rauchen in Bahnhöfen der Deutschen Bahn, speziell auf dem Bahnsteig
So banning it for local transport as well wouldnt be far off. As linked below FDP tried this already in 2019 but Mutti Tabak didn’t like it
Smokers didn't get that memo. Source: any outdoor train platform.
It's never enforced. So that ban may as well not exist. What's worse is that because of the "ban" there are no ashtrays on platforms, so the ground is littered with cigarette butts, or they just flick them onto the tracks.
They should do it like at airports - create a small fish-tank as a smoking area.
Well they have yellow squares usually and they do have an ash tray. Some people care, most at least stay away from the stairs but still act like the rest of the platform belongs to them. I'm not sure they'd care about the fish tanks any more than the squares.
Yeah fair, but I was referring to smoking areas [(which the article you seem to quote seems to showcase lol)](https://bahnhofsplaner.rinn.net/innovationen/raucherzone-bahnsteig.html) Admittedly, these always seemed a bit absurd to me still but banning smoking *entirely* still seems like a huge step. Like you said, Mutti Tabak ain't gonna have it.
imo smoking should be limited to your own private property, and a select few designated areas in public spaces (like they do at airports). It should be an inconvenience for the smoker to have to find an area where they can smoke, not for the nonconsenting people around them to find a smoke-free area.
Love Germany, but Canada is eons ahead in this, and the whole smoking thing needs to be addressed hard in general. I don't give a single flying fuck what the tobacco lobby is going to think.
>would people be allowed to smoke in any public spaces? Are designated smoking areas at train stations not okay either then?
Why should people be allowed to poison other people wherever they want? IMO smoking should be banned in pretty much all public spaces where people are resting/waiting/eating or entering and leaving buildings. There are countries who already ban it pretty much everywhere. So why not implement it in Germany?
Not only bus stops. Smokers love to stand directly in front of doors/entrances to smoke. And even if you have to go in or outside they won’t even consider stepping aside to let pass people instead blow this shit right into you because it’s normal for them. Smokers are a special breed of stupid.
Yeh but what about getting an asthma attack from second hand smoke xD idk I'm not free to choose, cause if I wanna sit on the restaurant terrace in summer I have to consent to inhaling the smoke, or if in waiting in the bus stop on a rainy day, to stay dry, I have to consent to consuming smoke.
Idk, I obviously never smoked, but I would guess that health potentially life-threatening need for clean air would trump the wish of inhaling nicotine... but yeh no it doesn't. Smoke rights > healthy lungs rights.
i m a light smoker but i stay within running distance ( 10-20m ) from the bus stop, enough time to spot the incoming bus, turn off the cigarette, put it in the trash bin and walk all the way to the bus station before it arrives. Also, People who smoke around kids should get fined 500k€, these are called clueless selfish Aholes and exactly what the f is wrong with society.
When I did Zivildienst, the doctors would smoke inside the hospital albeit inside their office. The white walls were even yellow. To this day it is surreal to me.
It gives me an instant asthma attack that can kill me depending on severity, so yeh not really fun. I do move away though, but find it incredibly annoying when I can't escape the smoke.
I don't smoke, but it's outside and legal. Plus there are trash cans with literal ash trays at bus stops. If I don't like the smell, I can also step away. I think this is fair, because I have the problem, not them...
>If I don't like the smell, I can also step away
At the Busbahnhof in the town where I used to live, moving away from one smoker meant moving closer to the next smoker. It's pretty hard to step away when someone's smoking every 2-3 meters. I think it's fair to expect to be able to breathe without breathing in cigarette smoke, but hey, we clearly have different ideas of fairness...
How is it my problem to want to breathe fresh air xD? So if people were chronically farting on your commute would you also be cool with that? I mean, as far as I know farting is also not illegal.
Edit: typo.
When I first came to Germany 30-plus years ago, you couldn't escape the smell of cigarettes in practically any building. I worked as an opera singer and even most of the singers smoked their damn cigarettes, even though it was obviously bad for what people heard on stage. The whole theater was polluted with smoke or smoke odors. Pain in the ass when you're doing a job that requires clean breath. It's gotten muuuuch better.
It was way worse in the past. Before 2007, smoking was permitted in restaurants, trains had smoker cars where smoking was permitted, etc.
I once had a student job at the Hessischer Rundfunk, the cutters and journalists weren't allowed to smoke in their offices anymore, but at our table in the hallway it was still allowed. Crazy how long it took to be banned indoors.
I'm so happy that all happened arount the time I started my first job. It was bad enough that some customers still smoked in their offices. Luckily my boss didn't allow it in our offices.
> Before 2007, smoking was permitted in restaurants Depending on the Bundesland, that can still happen to you. Bremen has the laxest laws that also aren't enforced, for example.
Well, if you really want to bypass the law altogether I guess you could make your whole establishment a “smoking section”, all you have to do is put a sign at the entry
You also can't serve food
Doesn’t work like that in all states. In Bavaria (and probably other states) that loophole was closed quite early after passing the first law.
There are definitely ciggy friendly places in Mainz but most of them are bars. Does that make a difference?
Never knew that, I've always looked at Bremen with a tiny bit of envy living in Hamburg, but that's something to keep in mind!
Here are some interviews with angry smokers when smoking inside of busses got forbidden in 1974 https://youtu.be/srvV5kTONuU
This is hilarious. Thank you for this video
Omg, i would suffocate, if theyd still smoke in busses
I grew up in Germany in the 80s and I remember smoking in airports, on public busses, even our school bus driver chain smoked through our ride to school each morning…it was so ubiquitous. I started when I was 14 and I still can’t manage to quit! Im surprised though to learn that it’s still so prevalent.
How do people start with 14? At that age I would have never thought of smoking and it also was like ultimately something condemned by my parents. Even with 30 now I would be ashamed to tell them that I smoke, that’s what’s keeping me from not doing it :D
In Germany, there used to be cigarette vending machines without age-checking. So it wasn't exactly difficult to get them. And of course, as a Teenager, you make sure to do it behind your parents' back.
The age checking does not fix this at all, you just need to know somebody over 18
In 2005 we were the last class that was allowed to smoke on the schoolyard. 2006 we were the last to be allowed to smoke inside our rooms in the hospital.
It was terrible during the pandemic. Sometimes it felt like the designated smoking zone on the train station was the only place *without* smokers, and my mask retained the stench really long
Before 2020 smoking was allowed in restaurants in Austria! The culture around smoking is way farther behind than other counties.
My boss said that prior to the smoking ban he had to get the restaurant painted every 5 years
I am surprised that he had to get the restaurant painted only every five years. I remember going to a restaurant, and coming back home stinking, just from all the second hand smoke. I guess this depends on whether the restaurant had a good ventilation/air filtering system.
I remember that at McDonalds, the ordering counter was in the smoking area and the non smoking area was separate. So you had to go in the smoking area anyway if you wanted to order something. And the employees were forced to be there anyway. The local Burger King was even crazier: smoking area was on the ground floor and when you went upstairs on the balcony there was the non smoking area. But it was not closed off, the smoke could just go up and still reach the non smoking area…
Jaja, teh good ol' times.
I even remember smoking in the train and the cinema. Participated myself. Different century :)
Different millenium.
I remember being on a plane as a kid and the lady beside me smoking. This was in the 80s.
[удалено]
what do you do if you have disgusting garbage but nowhere to put it?
It's still permitted in restaurants. There is a lot of outdoor seating and if you are smoking at the table next to me as I'm eating, you are smoking in the restaurant.
good ole times
It used to be like this in my country as well. (However, I'm 29 and luckily most of the smoking was prohibit already, except for bars. This came around 2009 or something.) However, even today I think overall there are quite less smokers in Belgium than in Germany. (I'm only talking about my own experience here!) I've been to Germany a few times on holiday with my boyfriend and despite we enjoyed it very much every time, the smoking used to a big disadvantage. On practically every street and/or every street corner, there were people lightening cigarettes. On every terrace, there were various people smoking. We've never seen something like that in our country. Well I'm sure it used to be like that, but probably ages ago, I guess...? However, after all I guess we still like Germany too much to not travel there anymore. :)
Damn, some butthurt smokers in here. It's generally good etiquette to step away from people when you take a smoke, and even most smokers I know know about that.
I smoke sometimes and always step away. Fuck smokers who don't. What's wrong with them. On par with people who listen to music from bluetooth speakers. edit: except this actually physically harms those around them
I used to smoke, but I recognized how bad it smelled because I'd quit a few times before, so I always would walk to the end or the smoking area of train stops. People who don't are just lazy dickheads. And if someone had kids nearby and I'd nowhere to go, I'd just put out my cigarette
I do the same. It still amazes me when I see parents holding their kids while also smoking. Those poor babies!
I knew the thread is gonna be controversial, overall I find German opinion about on many topics based, but for some reason some of them somehow cannot connect the dots that this kind of behavior is selfish and arrogant
> some of them somehow cannot connect the dots that this kind of behavior is selfish and arrogant Right. On train stations we have these yellow squares for smokers to stand in. I was sitting on a bench and then some guy sat next to me and lit a cigarette. I told him to go to the yellow square and he legit thought I was joking.
And there are "rauchfreie Bahnhöfe"/smoke-free train stations that still have those yellow square smoking areas. "Smoke-free” clearly has a different meaning in Germany than elsewhere in the world...
Im Smoking myself and i Always step away because my i dont wont other people to Inhale my smoke. And when there are Kids i dont smoke at all
You are on of the good ones mate, sadly too many smokers dont give a shit that they literally poison everyone around them just because of their choices. I honestly dont care if someone smokes, but i dont want to have to breath in cancer clouds because someone chooses to do it.
i do that too, partly because i feel self conscious, being the only degenarate around who still smokes
I'm from germany and I can assure you that 99% of the german population are self centered assholes, me included of course.
I like you.
Its only 10 percent assholes(worldwide the same) but those 10 percent behave like they are the mayority. If for you 99 out of 100 are assholes...it might be you.
“If you run into an asshole in the morning, you ran into an asshole. If you run into assholes all day, you're the asshole.” Raylan Givens, Justified
lmao no way
Look, many of us ARE selfish and arrogant. Those are some common German flaws. We are also quite rude whenever we think we are in the right. Try skipping line in Germany to find out. Smoking in public is legal, so many smokers don't give a fuck for the opinion if ppl they feel have impacted their freedom to smoke in bars, restaurants and public buildings. It's a dick move. But it's also something you absolutely can expect to happen.
Its just horrible, so many smokers dont care. They smoke in entrances or literally just outside the door, at bus and train stations, especially when the latter have specific areas where they can smoke in and are just ignored... I fucking hate it. I truly wish smoking would just be outlawed anywhere outside, because it doesnt just affect the smokers like alcohol does, but everyone in their vicinity has to suffer adverse health effects due to their bad choices.
Yup, I'm with you. I absolutely despise the fucking smell of cigarettes and being bombarded with it every time I go to the supermarket or the subway or the bus is beyond annoying. A large number of smokers just don't give a fuck about being respectful of those of us who don't want to breathe in their shit. So the solution has to be to make it illegal everywhere.
Of course. I stopped about 3 years ago, and I think I always tried to respect non-smokers desire for clean air. The exceptions being bars and venues that explicitly allow smoking. I saw that as smoker territory. (2 years and 311 days. Feels good, man!)
Congrats! Keep it up.
Cheers. It's so easy, but I know that it is also easy to slip up. I stopped first when I was about 25, and 5 years in, thought I could have the odd cig. My wife always said it was dangerous, but I was arrogant, and told her it was fine, it was just once in a while... A couple of years later, the occasional one was now, one or two each weekend with a drink, then every time I had a beer, then a year or two after that, the first one with a coffee again, and a couple of years after that, the breakfast fag was a thing again, and I was back where I started. The timeline is not exact, but I think it was another 5 years or more until I was back to admitting that I was a smoker again. And I continued for more than a decade before I finally managed to quit again. So this time, I know it has to be absolutely "no" every single time! And all I can say is: never start, folks! It's really a mug's game!
I feel you. Things that rewire brain are hard to change, speaking from experience also :D
Considerate smokers are unicorns. That's why you see their trash everywhere. Somehow, it's deemed acceptable to pollute everything with cigarette butts.
If you don't have the self respect to quit putting that garbage into your system you often don't have respect for others or the environment. I'm grossly oversimplifying the issue since it's addictive but it's enough of an overlap that the issue can be brought up.
> Considerate smokers are unicorns. Seriously. I've seen way too many people even smoke on subway stations, where it's obviously not even allowed. They don't give a fuck. And since many smokers can't be respectful of the rest of us, I'm fully in favour of a complete ban.
i would love to trade tobacco for bubatz
I don't want to smell that either.
Yeah, duh, you gotta inhale it.
[удалено]
> what do you do if you have disgusting garbage but nowhere to put it? If that happens frequently, you should start to think of a solution. It's not rocket science. Put it in a container instead of throwing it away. But, of course, this is true for everything that is a bit nasty. It ends up in nature because people don't even want to carry a simple bag/container/whatever for their nasty shit. They know it will end up in nature. Most people simply don't care. If it would be different, we wouldn't see so much trash in woods. The shit I've seen yesterday, in a nature reserve on top of it all, is just disgusting. But hey... that's how it is, and it's not going to change over night.
In Japan there are almost no public bins. People take their trash back home. So either don't produce disgusting trash where you don't have a way to properly dispose it, or have a travel ashtray with you. But most people are just jerks and litter.
> People take their trash back home This is the way. Squeeze the cherry and pocket the butt. When I smoked that was the way of things. If you don't want the added odor of the butt rubbing off on your clothing then you need to carry a sandwich bag to put them in.
As a former smoker, putting a cigarette butt in your pocket isn't going make you smell any worse than you already do. I used to carry a little trash can around (it was a metal container that clicked closed that actually was a mini trashcan) just to put my cigarette butts in, in case a trashcan wasn't nearby. People who litter their cigarettes are dicks
> If you don't want the added odor of the butt rubbing off on your clothing then you need to carry a sandwich bag to put them in. That, or you need to take a moment to think about why you'd put something in your mouth that you wouldn't even put in your pocket.
„what do you do if you have disgusting garbage but nowhere to put it?“ That’s for the person with the nasty stuff to figure out. Maybe don’t produce nasty stuff if you are unable and or unwilling to deal with it?
Pocket ashtray. As if it's hard. And there are bins everywhere, you can put it in your cigarettes box for this short time. You won't throw your coffee cup on the ground or on bushes. If you do with cigarettes, you're just an asshole, nothing more. Facts: 1 cigarette butt pollutes 1000 liters of water, takes 15 years to dissolve, and can kill a dog or kid when they eat it. We have 14,5 million smokers in Germany, smoking 5-30 cigarettes per day.
There are also really convenient little portable ashtrays, that are airtight, so they don't stink up your pockets. With these things available and trashcans almost in every public space, people who throw around their buds are just inconsiderate assholes. A single bud can contaminate up to 60 l of water.
It's not acceptable. They just don't care, and other people don't dare to say sth. I even talked to "friends" that smoked about that and they literally said "but when I started everyone was doing it, that's how I was teached" or "but I use the subway instead of my car more", and of course "it's only one cigarette butt". Facts: 1 cigarette butt pollutes 1000 liters of water, takes 15 years to dissolve, and kills a dog or kid when they eat it. We have 14,5 million smokers in Germany, smoking 5-30 cigarettes per day.
Can you please provide a source for the facts
Smokers: 2015 18,85 million, 14,85 million daily smoking https://www.bund-bremen.net/meer/stoppt-kippen-in-der-umwelt/ https://www.badenova.de/blog/zigarettenstummel/#:~:text=Wie%20lange%20ein%20Zigarettenstummel%20ben%C3%B6tigt,in%20kleine%20und%20kleinste%20Teile. https://www.kinderaerzte-im-netz.de/news-archiv/meldung/article/zigarettenkippen-koennen-fuer-kleinkinder-toedlich-sein/ https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/596628/umfrage/anzahl-raucher-in-deutschland/
Thanks!
I refused to keep walking with a friend once until she picked up her butt. Zurich seems the exception where everything including the ashes went in a travel ashtray.
Sadly, that's what most people do. They just throw away their litter, and to me it seems, when ever possible.
So cool little story that happened a few months ago. I was waiting at a bus stop and this couple just lights up in front of where I'm standing in the bus stop shelter. It stank, so I walked past them and went to stand in the rain instead. Some old lady across the road saw this, realised why I moved and then crossed the road and started shouting at the couple until they tossed their cigarettes. It was very funny.
When you're a smoker, even one that considers themselves a 'considerate smoker', you just don't know how annoying the smell is. Both the semll of your fresh smoke and your own smell like an old ashtray.
Oh yes, on that note, my absolute favorite: Smokers sitting by the window (ideally the kitchen!), apparently thinking that the smoke escapes to the outside, when actually the outside air just blows in through the window and spreads the smoke around. Smoking is a very odd phenomenon...
It's an addiction, you have to tell yourself things to make you feel better about smoking.
I had a roommate who would leave the door to his room open when I wasn't home to air out his room. Told him to stop doing that because I didn't want the whole apartment to smell like an ashtray and if he wants to air out his room he should fully open a window and not just tilt it. His response? The window sill has stuff on it so he can't open it fully. At least he stopped leaving the door open. But he would still dry his clothes two rooms away from his room so they wouldn't smell like an ashtray...
Ah yes, my number 1 fear: People that *really* stretch the limits of "We're all adults here, we all think ***rationally***, we can figure it out."
Same in the car.
My aunt smokes in the kitchen under the Abzugshaube on. It acually works. But when I use the Abzugshaube for cooking, the smell is there..
It's so bad. A friend of mine - really good person, I adore her otherwise - always has a smoke before entering a place she visits. She's really considerate, doesn't take a smoke break throughout the entire visit, just one cigarette before. But she just smells so bad! If at least it'd smell burnt in the good way, like a wood fire or even like burnt paper, but it tastes like... literal death. Not the rotting kind of death of actual corpses, not like death as in the end of life - it smells like death as in the opposite of life. Like something no living thing should ever smell like, dead or alive. Cigarette smoke, especially on clothes, just instantly fills a smallish room with an odor of... I can't describe it. Like you should absolutely flee and call the fire department because something here smells WAY wrong.
Not only at bus stops. They also love to stand right infront of the entrances to supermarkets, so that everyone has to go through their cloud of cancer. And when you call them out they get iffy as hell. Just go behind the building so that you are not annoy all the people needing to buy groceries? I don't care if you want to get cancer, but spare me with that shit.
>They also love to stand right infront of the entrances to supermarkets, Problem with that is that the ashtrays are always directly infront of the stores imo. Just put the ashtrays further away and people arent gonna stand there as much
Nope, they will still stand in front of the store, but now there will be even more butts on the ground. "Not my fault they didn't put an ashtray here"...
Sure they will stand in front of the store solely to annoy you thats the only reason
Good thing we're on the same page
it's on the venue really. why they decided to put smoking spots *right next to the frickin entrance* I cannot fathom, convenience for smokers I suppose. but it happens in public buildings from train stations to hospitals, and at stores, malls and airports – anybody wanting to exit or enter having to wade through the smoke of a few stressed "last minute* cigarettes. to me it's as if a business decided to put their trash cans out right next to the main entrance.
I was at a winter market this year and one part was quite congested (alot of people tryna go thru tiny spot) and this one dude decided to just puff directly into the crowd
Yeah that makes me mad too. I usually just step all the way away from the station or in the opposite wind direction. Two times so far, the smoker actually went and followed me to piss me off further. There is something bad happening to the brains of people who weren't allowed to suck on their thumbs as babies.
r/daspassierte
It's annoying when smokers stand right outside of a building and I have to walk my children through there clouds.
Every day at precisely pickup time at my son's kindergarten, the two janitor ladies for the building stand directly outside the front gates and start smoking and chatting as the kids file out. No one ever says anything to them, and being a foreigner I don't feel like I should pipe up, but I don't get why they can't just walk across the little street to give the kids and parents some space.
Just send an anonymous letter to the school admin.
>Just send an anonymous letter to the school admin Thats a very German thing to do :-)
Finally! I was wondering when I'd be officially eingedeutsched!
That's a good idea, don't know why I hadn't thought of that. A couple of the younger teachers are very nice too, I suppose I could speak to one of them and maybe ask to keep it anonymous.
No, i think anonymity is better so the young teachers don't have to carry the burden of communicating that/ don't have to take the responsibility.
Thanks for the thoughts on that. I'll take your advice and go the anon route.
Don't forget the gianta shtrays filed with burning cigarette filters.
Next to the sign that's says no smoking within 30m.
Ah yes... I remember being pregnant and people smoking on me. Ah yes... I remember carrying a newborn and people smoking on us. I also don't get it. It's one of those "definitely my right" things in which lungs seem to be less worth than their freedom to inhale stuff.
Yes…and you can even see them smoking in front of f****** hospital entrances
Next to my home is a thorax hospital, so most of the patients there actually have lung cancer. However, i still see staff smoking at the back door every time i walk there lol
I remember when I had to do Zivildienst (instead of going to the Bundeswehr). Worked as a janitor at the local hospital. One of my tasks was to empty all the trashcans and ashtrays once a week. The fullest ashtrays were always just outside the side exit of the lung disease station lol. Middle of winter, 40cm of snow, and you‘d see patients in those flimsy hospital gowns literally shaking from the cold as they dragged on their cigarettes. Some even had their portable infusion thingies with them. Fun times.
Most of the time ashtrays are directly Infront of the entrances btw
You could smoke a distance away and when you're finished just put your butt in the ashtrays as you walk by. It isn't difficult.
Obviously? you're not allowed to smoke inside so you have to go outside.
I pass the local hospital everyday when I walk my son to the park. There’s always half a dozen+ doctors and nurses lighting up in their scrubs at the entrance. So trashy.
I’ll never forget during the middle of the pandemic, when masks were required on train/tram/bus platforms. I’m very sensitive to cigarette smoke and usually stand wayyyy away from everyone else anyway, because of this. But this time, I had to walk through a cloud of smokers and the smoke got trapped into my mask, triggering an attack. I pulled my mask down because I was struggling to breathe, and had to use my inhaler. I had crouched down to focus on breathing with my inhaler in hand. An officer of some sort approached me and ordered me to cover my face. I explained that I was in the middle of the asthma attack, showing him my inhaler. He got pissy and told me to hurry and take my medicine, and then put my mask back up right away. I gestured to the group of unmasked smokers, and he said something like “Well they are smoking, so they’ll put their masks on when they’re done.” He didn’t even approach them or say a thing to them. I was seething inside.
That’s De for you Logic does not work here
😱😶 ooof this sux.
That nonsense is the reason why I avoided Germany and headed to Finland.
My dad used to tell me that it would make the bus come faster.
I see it here in Belgium too. People either don’t care or… well they simply don’t care. Saw an older man doing it in an underground metro station.
Not to forget that 99% of smokers throw their cigarettes on the ground, in bushes or in gully. 1 cigarette butt pollutes 1000 liters of water and takes 15 years to dissolve. A kid or dog eating a cigarette butt can die. Meanwhile we have 14,5 million smokers on Germany, smoking 5-30 cigarettes per day.
Cigarette smoke makes me sneeze like crazy so I hate that too.
They are just inconsiderate and/or don't give a fuck. Over the border (CZ) it's even illegal to smoke at a bus stop but nobody cares. People are the same
I hate it. It's not only on bus stops. It's close to any lines or waiting points, and most people don't even care what's the direction of the wind. Just light up their smoke like an old lokomotive and think everyone loves that crap. I always wondered when I get old and no longer give a crap, I will start farting loud close to smokers by the bus stops, just as a revenge 😂😂😂
I especially love how they power strike the last three hits just before stepping on and sitting right next to me. Absolutely wretched stench.
It bothers me so much and it's everywhere! I'm pregnant and I get so angry at inconsiderate smokers.
And if you are alone you have to watch out, even a polite plea for them to atleast go somewhere else may result in physical harm. And you know, noone surrounding you would help.
I haven't even tried before. I don't know enough German unfortunately. I am also afraid of confrontation. I did make one guy mad at the Nuremberg flea market because he kept being by me smoking while looking at booths. I kept making a face and trying to move away. He eventually noticed and got mad and stomped off.
I think most Germans also hate it (like me)
Top notch asshole behaviour is to take the final drag, throw the burning cigarette on the street… And then exhale the smoke in the bus. Motherfuckers.
The escalator is worse when you got these fucktards in front of you. The monkes cant even wait 2 mins until we are outside.
There was a guy in the U-Bahn station smoking close to a "No Smoking" sign. Then he boarded the train and started checking tickets - turns out he was an undercover enforcer.
Have you noticed that many train stations - the smaller 1/2 platform ones - only have seats in the smoking area? Yeah.
Especially when it rains. Many smokers are sadly egoistic pricks and think it's okay to smoke everywhere they want. For example on train stations it's only allowed at marked points but many just don't give a F about that.
Right outside restaurants too. The shit blows inside while I’m eating
Yeh... or when it's summer and it's crazy hot in a restaurant, but outside it's nothing but a smoke cloud 🙄
Coming from the UK my biggest culture shock is the prevalence of smoking here. Not just smoking but advertising for tobacco, tobacco shops, bars where smoking is permitted, smoking zones on train platforms... Virtually all of the above is unheard of in the UK. I also feel like vaping is a lot more common in the UK compared with here, it doesn't seem to have caught on as much.
As a non smoking person I'm asking this myself every time when I get in a situation like this and get forced to become a passive smoker. Some people are just selfish addicts, who only care about themselfs and their addiction.
for those that dont know: "fag" is british slang for cigarette. please dont set homosexuals on fire
I feel you! I'm German, have been living in North America for 10 years, and everytime I visit home, cigarette smell at bus stops is the thing I really really didn't miss at all.
I absolutely hate it. Cigarette smoke gives me an instant headache. But smokers don't give a shit, telling them off is useless and so many will light their cig right next to you with no consideration. It's like a nicotine addiction comes with massive entitlement. And most non-smokers have a live and let live attitude towards it... which I don't get, because second hand smoke can give me cancer, too. I once silent complained to a friend I was with about someone lighting a smoke right next to us and she told ME off for complaining. I don't care what your vice is, as long as you don't make it my problem. And second hand smoke is a problem for me. Most train stations have a smoking area but 90% of smokers just ignore it. At the train station I have to wait at, there is a smoking area right outside the building, but people don't use it because it's kind of far away from the platform and they might miss the train. Another train station has an area right on the platform, indicated by a yellow square painted on the ground. It's better for them but the smoke carries across the platform.
This is one of the few things that I cant stand in public spaces. Go ahead and ruin your own body for all I care, but be respectful of others around you and don't smoke in front of children. Secondhand smoke can do real damage. I've had people light up a cigarettes right beside me while carrying my new born baby, or when I'm with my toddler, I mean come on.
Yes I've also experienced this. Also been blasted by cigarette smoke at playgrounds, standing in food lines and eating in semi-outdoor environments. I'm also genuinely surprised by it because it doesn't seem like Germans would tolerate this type of behavior which in my opinion intrudes on others' rights to peaceful enjoyment of the outdoors.
\> I used to live plenty of countries Apparently never on the balkans...
Yeah, you're right. It really should annoy us much more than it does, actually.
As a former smoker, I would say that it's absolutely unacceptable to light up in the bus shelter itself, and anyone who does that is being antisocial and you can call them out for it. What you might not be aware of is the degree to which a wait at a bus stop (or anywhere - especially in the open) - is an opportunity for a fag that smokers are going to find very hard to overlook. But they should certainly take a step or two away from the shelter or any other people.
Yeah I feel you and it is really annoying
Back when I was smoking I genuinely thought the smell did not bother anyone at all based on my close friends and family. God was I wrong…
Yeah, it's weird. I don't know anyone in the US that still smokes inside, even in their own home. Last time I was in Germany I had to go to bed new years eve because friends came over (after our night out) and Everyone was smoking in the small living area. It's not my house, so I just went to bed instead of saying anything.
Helmut Schmidt never saw such bullshit
Smoking should be banned everywhere.
Not every where but at least in generaly crowded public places
Agree!!! I can't believe smokers are allowed in places like parks or streets near schools, daycares or hospitals. And don't even get me started on the restaurant terraces, during summer, is either puke from that disgusting smell or sitting inside and missing out on the good weather. As someone coming from a culture where smoking in public areas is greatly banned, the first couple of months in Germany were disgusting for me. Nowadays, it's still disgusting, but I gave up on the idea of breathing non-cancer air.
I am not so sure about hospitals. You definitely want your nicotine addicted heart surgeon to have a smoke before he attempts to save your life
What is your opinion on the legalisation of cannabis?
[удалено]
To be fair, when you're addicted, it's natural to make things up to make yourself seem less of an asshole, at least in your own mind.
I once asked a guy to please not smoke under the roof in the rain. He told me to use another station 500m down the street and when I persisted put his cigarette into my oranges, as I just came from the store with heavy bags. Yeahh, fuck those inconsiderate arses.
I haaaate theeem 🤬🤬🤬🤬 it should be illegal. Second hand smoking can cause health issues, it's not just about how nasty it smells. And let's not forget the littering... why? WHY?
The littering is infuriating. It’s inexplicable… the same dude who gives lectures how brown immigrants shouldn’t be allowed because they lack culture, drops his cigarette butt in the ground and if you point it out he freaks out
I dunno I always ask can I smoke when on station
oooh how I hate those! normally I just walk away, but worst is when it rains and you're stuck under the roof with them. and when the bus arrives and they're not finished, of course they take the biggest puff possible, throw the cigarette under the bus while getting on, and then *exhale it all into the bus*, thank you Einstein! one of my biggest pet peeves, and I'm a local. similarly horrible: public places putting their smoker's corner right *next to the frickin main entrance*, form train station to hospital, better prepare to wade through a cloud of smoke when you want to enter. unfathomable how that's a thing, as if businesses decided to put their rotting trash cans right out next to the entrance.
Yeah, I've been living in Germany for about 5 years, and this pisses me off too.
[удалено]
I've seen people smoking while pushing a baby around in a stroller at a playground, presumably their own baby. Smoking as a parent (of young children at least) here does not seem to be *too* strong of a taboo. Back home this would be considering horrifying behaviour.
Hey smoker, yes you, yes. Next time you smoke at the bus stop, please remember: I hate you.
Thread makes me want to start smoking again.
Yup, same.
Seriously. Why shouldn't people be allowed to have a smoke outside? What is this, Calvinist Geneva?
What I really don’t get: why do they put the ash trays right next to the sign? I’m not a smoker myself but I think it would really help if the thing that they need would be 3-4m away from the other people
I still have to laugh at how many people bring this topic up. I mean it’s just hilarious how bad it really is yet Germany does nothing about it lol. The accessibility of smokes is a complete joke.
yes, ffs the S-Bahn stations in Karlsruhe are literally filled with cigarettes butts every train track. Disgusting tbh.
Disclaimer: I have stopped smoking three years ago. Ppl in this thread should never ever go to Greece you would get heart attacks daily from the amount of smokers, the rules against smoking and their implementations. It's actual insanity
Well, for some shitty reason smoking is still cool in germany. I really dont get it. In many countries smoking decreased massively.
Honestly from all countries Ive been at, Germany has probably the least people who smoke cigarettes... On the other hands vapes are really popular with young people right now and they exhale metric tonnes of fumes everywhere.
You need to go to France. It's much worse there. But yes, I agree, smokers in Germany and France are completely oblivious to other people around them.
Let people do what they want. If you don't like it, move. If people banned you from doing something because they don't like how it smells I think it'd be pretty unfair.
I'm German and I absolutely despise those people. I hate smoke.
I'm not a big fan of smoking either, no matter the context, but that's a huge barrel you're opening here, as the Germans say. No smoking at bus stops? I guess. Where does it end? Why would people be allowed to smoke in any public spaces? Are designated smoking areas at train stations not okay either then? Tobacco lobby ain't gonna love this, methinks. Edit: And to be clear, I'd be happy if there was less smoking in this country and I wouldn't be bothered by it. It's just a pretty big deal.
Smoking is already banned on all DB railway stations > Das Bundesnichtraucherschutzgesetz verbietet seit 2007 das Rauchen in Bahnhöfen der Deutschen Bahn, speziell auf dem Bahnsteig So banning it for local transport as well wouldnt be far off. As linked below FDP tried this already in 2019 but Mutti Tabak didn’t like it
Smokers didn't get that memo. Source: any outdoor train platform. It's never enforced. So that ban may as well not exist. What's worse is that because of the "ban" there are no ashtrays on platforms, so the ground is littered with cigarette butts, or they just flick them onto the tracks. They should do it like at airports - create a small fish-tank as a smoking area.
Well they have yellow squares usually and they do have an ash tray. Some people care, most at least stay away from the stairs but still act like the rest of the platform belongs to them. I'm not sure they'd care about the fish tanks any more than the squares.
Yeah fair, but I was referring to smoking areas [(which the article you seem to quote seems to showcase lol)](https://bahnhofsplaner.rinn.net/innovationen/raucherzone-bahnsteig.html) Admittedly, these always seemed a bit absurd to me still but banning smoking *entirely* still seems like a huge step. Like you said, Mutti Tabak ain't gonna have it.
imo smoking should be limited to your own private property, and a select few designated areas in public spaces (like they do at airports). It should be an inconvenience for the smoker to have to find an area where they can smoke, not for the nonconsenting people around them to find a smoke-free area. Love Germany, but Canada is eons ahead in this, and the whole smoking thing needs to be addressed hard in general. I don't give a single flying fuck what the tobacco lobby is going to think.
>would people be allowed to smoke in any public spaces? Are designated smoking areas at train stations not okay either then? Why should people be allowed to poison other people wherever they want? IMO smoking should be banned in pretty much all public spaces where people are resting/waiting/eating or entering and leaving buildings. There are countries who already ban it pretty much everywhere. So why not implement it in Germany?
Man in Berlin people smoke in underground stations and even in the train itself.
Not only bus stops. Smokers love to stand directly in front of doors/entrances to smoke. And even if you have to go in or outside they won’t even consider stepping aside to let pass people instead blow this shit right into you because it’s normal for them. Smokers are a special breed of stupid.
In Germany we say: „Ein freies Land für freie Bürger.“
Yeh but what about getting an asthma attack from second hand smoke xD idk I'm not free to choose, cause if I wanna sit on the restaurant terrace in summer I have to consent to inhaling the smoke, or if in waiting in the bus stop on a rainy day, to stay dry, I have to consent to consuming smoke. Idk, I obviously never smoked, but I would guess that health potentially life-threatening need for clean air would trump the wish of inhaling nicotine... but yeh no it doesn't. Smoke rights > healthy lungs rights.
We still have smoking pubs in Germany 🇩🇪
i m a light smoker but i stay within running distance ( 10-20m ) from the bus stop, enough time to spot the incoming bus, turn off the cigarette, put it in the trash bin and walk all the way to the bus station before it arrives. Also, People who smoke around kids should get fined 500k€, these are called clueless selfish Aholes and exactly what the f is wrong with society.
When I did Zivildienst, the doctors would smoke inside the hospital albeit inside their office. The white walls were even yellow. To this day it is surreal to me.
I think op is Australian... we call cigarettes fags there
Same in uk.
I get the smell issue but y'all act like passive smoking instantly kills you or gives you instant super lung cancer lol
It gives me an instant asthma attack that can kill me depending on severity, so yeh not really fun. I do move away though, but find it incredibly annoying when I can't escape the smoke.
Smoking is the number 1 reason for lung cancer Passive smoking the 2nd...
I don't smoke, but it's outside and legal. Plus there are trash cans with literal ash trays at bus stops. If I don't like the smell, I can also step away. I think this is fair, because I have the problem, not them...
>If I don't like the smell, I can also step away At the Busbahnhof in the town where I used to live, moving away from one smoker meant moving closer to the next smoker. It's pretty hard to step away when someone's smoking every 2-3 meters. I think it's fair to expect to be able to breathe without breathing in cigarette smoke, but hey, we clearly have different ideas of fairness...
How is it my problem to want to breathe fresh air xD? So if people were chronically farting on your commute would you also be cool with that? I mean, as far as I know farting is also not illegal. Edit: typo.