Very interesting topics , week171, but one of these topics you offered can lead to a big discussion and debate, because there is no middle :-)
Smoking...
There are people who are not smokers, but sometimes they light up a cigarette - they are not in the middle. The very fact that they occasionally light up a cigarette puts them in the category of smokers...
What is smoking? Habit or Addiction?
It all depends on who you ask... If you ask a smoker, they will tell you that smoking is equal to enjoyment... Even if coffee goes with the cigar, the pleasure is complete.
And if you ask a non-smoker (not one who occasionally lights up), they will tell you that smoking is an addiction, a serious waste of time and money.
I wouldn't call smoking a habit...
I've never lit a cigarette in my life. For this reason, it is clear that I classify myself in this second category and confirm my opinion - smoking is an addictive disease.
How can I claim that?
For the simple reason that I know a lot of people who have been trying to quit smoking for years, but they don't succeed.
A colleague who smoked two packs of cigarettes a day tried to quit by switching to IQOS. So instead of two packs of cigarettes, he smoked two packs of IQOS. Since IQOS also bothered his lungs, he switched to some electric cigarettes and because of smoking them, he is currently fighting an infection... But he doesn't leave it... Totally addicted...
In the car?
I recently bought a used car. The car was driven by a non-smoker and when I took the car for a deep interior wash, the man who did the washing told me that the car was not very dirty, which we knew before the wash, because the car is a non-smoker...
I remember how much effort it is invested for my previous car, which I bought from a smoker... A dirty canvas on the roof of the cabin, a few holes in the seat from cigarette embers... I used all this as arguments to reduce the price of the car during the purchase and then brought everything to tip top condition (with detailed deep washing and replacement of the damaged driver's seat).
And in the house...
Since we live in a small apartment, when smokers people come, I often take them to the terrace, so that they don't light cigarettes inside the apartment.
But when it's cold outside, it's raining or when we're having a party, it's inevitable that cigarettes are lit in the apartment as well. The worst is when someone lights a Toscanello or a Tompus... Then I want to cry (while I'm slightly suffocating from the smoke)...
When the friends leave, we need a few days to air out the apartment, and it is inevitable to wash the curtains...
At work...
When I started working at my current company, 2008, smoking was allowed in the offices...
I worked in an office with two colleagues who smoked. This was a nightmare for me as a non-smoker...
As for the wardrobe, I had to wash my hoodies and sweaters every day, because after 8 hours of being in a smoky area, they smelled like an ashtray.
When in 2010 a decision was made to ban smoking in the company, we were finally able to remove the covers from the fire alarm sensors, because the fire protection system was constantly reporting "false" alarms due to cigarette smoke.
And only arguments with colleagues who since then had to go to a specially designated smoking area, outside the building where our offices are located...
10 cigarettes a day, 6, 7 minutes, a total of an hour.
I remember that I had an argument with a fellow smoker, when I said, let us non-smokers work an hour shorter or you smokers an hour longer, to equalize the loss of time that smokers spend on smoking breaks...
Good luck, and with the arrival of IQOS it was decided that it is allowed to smoke IQOS and other electronic cigarettes in the office.
If it wasn't, there would be a serious rebellion of us who, as non-smokers, work an hour longer...
My attitude is clear:
Cigarettes are harmful to the health of both the smoker and the people around them, they pollute the environment and represent a big expense...
My choise is breathing clean air, the smell of nature, even at the cost of social isolation.
weekend-engagement
So much from me. I hope that smokers will agree with me that smoking is an addiction and that we will not have a serious debate :-)