Smokers in a Box

[TromboneAl]

This was so funny!

In the Copenhagen airport, they have a little box for smokers:

 

[38Chevy454]

Here in US, Salt Lake City airport has a similar room, although it is bigger.

 

[Car-Guy]

I never paid much attention to them but I noticed them in a number of airports back in the day when I would still fly. (5+ years ago) They were larger rooms but all glassed in like in your picture.

I still remember the good old days when you could smoke on a plane, there were no security checks and the airlines treated you courtesy. Many times I arrived at the airport 15 to 20 mins before flight time, parked using terminal parking and could catch the plane with time to spare.

 

[calmloki]

Portland did, and may still, have a box for smokers like that. You could stand near the box's windows and watch 'em. Boxes of rotten vegetables were provided for spectators, but you had to avoid the hipster with the man bun that followed them out with his clanging school bell intoning "Shame .... Shame!".

 

[W2R]

Does anybody really smoke any more? It's been forever since I have seen that.

 

[Amethyst]

Tradespeople who work on our house, often smell strongly of smoke. I caught one fellow actually smoking in the bathroom he was re-tiling. He had opened the bathroom window (in mid-winter!) apparently thinking this would keep me from smelling it.

I see cigarette butts outside the nail salons and hair salons.

Does anybody really smoke any more? It's been forever since I have seen that.

 

[Car-Guy]

Does anybody really smoke any more? It's been forever since I have seen that.

Try your local casinos.

 

[audreyh1]

Does anybody really smoke any more? It's been forever since I have seen that.

OMG - Europe, especially France! And so many young people smoke there. It quite ruins outside dining at those quaint cafes.

 

[MRG]

Try your local casinos.

We used to go to one cause it had a great buffet. I needed a tank of oxygen to breathe walking past the casino parts.

 

[NYEXPAT]

Does anybody really smoke any more? It's been forever since I have seen that.

I still smoke, as well as about 16% of the adult population. Which is still a pretty big drop from 21% about 10 years ago.

 

[exnavynuke]

I used to use similar spots in US airports. Thankfully I quit in 2014 so I don't have to worry about accommodating that habit when traveling anymore.

 

[braumeister]

Depending on where you get your statistics, between 25% and 30% of the over-18 population smokes here in Kentucky -- highest percentage of any state. They seem to take a certain pride in it. Another significant percentage uses "smokeless tobacco."

All I can think when I see it is how sorry I feel for them. I was a heavy smoker (over 2 packs a day) when I was young, and I know exactly how hard it is to quit.

 

[pb4uski]

In the early 1990s the company I was with actually built smoking rooms on each floor with beefed up ventiliation... I cringe when I think of the money that was spent on them... IIRC laws in our state changed and they later dismantled them and made smokers go outside... they had to be 30' outside.

 

[moneyviking]

Alas, it is so sad to see. I remember when smoking meant you could go to a seminar somewhere and instantly bond with a plethora of interesting people. Now you are a pariah huddled in your little corner of shame.

all this talk of how the internet is ruining meaningful interaction between us, killing off smoking took a real toll as well.

-Former smoker who still misses it once in awhile

 

[MRG]

Depending on where you get your statistics, between 25% and 30% of the over-18 population smokes here in Kentucky -- highest percentage of any state. They seem to take a certain pride in it. Another significant percentage uses "smokeless tobacco."

All I can think when I see it is how sorry I feel for them. I was a heavy smoker (over 2 packs a day) when I was young, and I know exactly how hard it is to quit.

MO prides itself on the lowest cigarette taxes. Sad.

I smoked for 25 years till a neurosurgeon gave me an excellent reason to quit.

I dipped for about 6 years too. That was at least ten times harder to quit. With cigarettes about a week or ten days was physically bad. Dip, I was still having intense withdrawal for
a couple of months.

 

[foxfirev5]

I never paid much attention to them but I noticed them in a number of airports back in the day when I would still fly. (5+ years ago) They were larger rooms but all glassed in like in your picture.

I still remember the good old days when you could smoke on a plane, there were no security checks and the airlines treated you courtesy. Many times I arrived at the airport 15 to 20 mins before flight time, parked using terminal parking and could catch the plane with time to spare.

Ah, the good old days. In 1980 I took a wine and cheese flight on a DC-3 from Milwaukee to Chicago. Republic Airlines put on quite a party, smoking and drinking for about 40 minutes as I recall.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

I remember when I was young, foolish, flew and was a smoker. Couldn't wait for the seat belt sign to go off after takeoff so the entire back section of the plane could light up. It could have been 20 minutes or more since the last puff at the gate.

Those little cardboard"smoking section" signs fastened to the headrests of whatever row was the demarcation line used to magically keep all the smoke aft of that point.

Hehe, what fun thinking back on that now. I described the office of 1982 (when I started) to my young coworker the other day, with the clouds of smoke and ashtrays in the conference rooms. She literally didn't believe me.

 

[zinger1457]

I still remember the good old days when you could smoke on a plane, there were no security checks and the airlines treated you courtesy. Many times I arrived at the airport 15 to 20 mins before flight time, parked using terminal parking and could catch the plane with time to spare.

Not everything about flying was good in the 'good old days'. I can remember back in the 80's when I would fly to Asia and without fail I would request a non-smoking seat and usually ended with a smoking row right behind me, that's torture for a non-smoker. Prices today are typically cheaper than they were back in the 80's, my latest flight to Asia was $680RT, doubt they were any cheaper back then.

 

[Amethyst]

The Surgeon General's report on cancer and smoking was issued in 1964. And cigarettes were known as "coffin nails" long before 1964, according to my Dad who was born in 1910 and would know.

The real question is, why is anybody even still smoking...why on earth would anyone start?

 

[GravitySucks]

I sat in the smokers room in Atlanta Airport and my pants were actually sticky from sitting on the tar encrusted furniture.
A terribly hard habit to break. Hope this is the final time I quit.

 

[Bamaman]

Congratulations to those that have quit tobacco use. Your family should thank you too because quitting often cuts 10 or more years to your lifespan. I can often spot a smoker just from looks--and facial wrinkles.

There's some chemical in modern cigarettes that I'm allergic to. I can tell when a smoker's in the area prior to my smelling anything because I get a headache and my blood pressure goes up. Cigars and pipe tobacco don't bother me a bit.

In looking at my closest friends, not a single one smokes any longer. I just cannot stand to even be around a smoker from the smell on their clothes.

 

[braumeister]

Once I quit, the single most amazing thing to me was how all my non-smoking friends had tolerated me during those years. Guess they had a different mindset, but I certainly can't tolerate being around a smoker today.

 

[HadEnuff]

I like to tell young smokers that the best present I ever gave myself (and I've given myself plenty) was when I quit smoking.
I was 16 when I started. I was in my 20s when I quit for good. Around the time I turned 40 I really started to notice, among my smoking peers, how their vitality had diminished. They coughed a lot, their skin started to look old and dry, and would be the first ones to beg off of a walk, or even the slightest physical exercise.
Now, sadly, in our 60s, some have emphysema, and some have passed away.

 

[Winemaker]

I have never even tried a cigarette, ever. I did try a funny cigarette once in 1972 before basketball practice, I was 14. I never did it again, thankfully.

 

[Car-Guy]

Not everything about flying was good in the 'good old days'. I can remember back in the 80's when I would fly to Asia and without fail I would request a non-smoking seat and usually ended with a smoking row right behind me, that's torture for a non-smoker. Prices today are typically cheaper than they were back in the 80's, my latest flight to Asia was $680RT, doubt they were any cheaper back then.

I've read several articles that claim ticket prices are down (inflation adjusted) in the past ~30 years or so. That could be, I don't know or care since I don't fly anymore. However, if I did, I would be willing to pay more for the good services, no security lines, and far smaller crowds. (I don't smoke anymore but it doesn't bother me to be around those who do. I can still remember my first flight on Braniff airlines. Total cost, $19. (I think that would be about $80, inflation adjusted.)