Refused a job because I smoke....

Burlesque_Babe

but smoking is a lifestyle choice, a handicap is not and the person is put at a disadvantage because of their handicap, theyhave no choice in the situation.

margaretclare

jumpycheese1 wrote: »

I find it totally disgusting when staff smoke outside the entrance to their workplace. There is a call centre in Leeds near a shopping centre. There are always at least 20 smokers huddling the entrance. So when their non-smoking colleagues start work, or return after lunch, they have to breathe through the tunnel of smoke. One of my friends' mother works in the admin dept. She reckons the smoke outside is worse than pubs in the 1960s

I didn't go into pubs very often in the 1960s, but nowadays I've had the experience of walking through a cloud of smoke into a building - the building in question being the local hospital! For 2 years now they've had a policy of 'no smoking within hospital grounds' but they cannot enforce it. You see staff members outside the hospital gates, in uniform, on the pavement, smoking, and most of them will have walked a fair distance from wherever they work within the building. Patients come down from the wards in dressing-gowns, sometimes on crutches or in wheelchairs, occasionally with a drip-stand, and they stand just outside the main doors and smoke. You have to shoulder your way past them when going in or out - I know, I've recently had the experience of 4 weeks' daily hospital visiting.

I know it's difficult giving up - my first husband tried unsuccessfully over 20 years to stop, although he did 'cut down' considerably. But what I can't understand is, given all the well-vouched-for research over decades, the cost, all the disadvantages, why would anyone even start smoking in the modern world?

tomsolomon

I was nine years old when I started. that was almost thirty years ago, there were no warnings, nobody told me Nicotine was more addictive than Heroin. Is Heroin addition a lifestyle choice? It only take's one time, that's what some of these people don't seem to be able to grasp. I only have to go without a a cigarette for a couple of hours and it eats away at my insides, I can feel it coursing through my body like electricity.
I have met many an ex-smoker that still crave cigarette's many years after quitting.

Burlesque_Babe

tomsolomon wrote: »

Is Heroin addition a lifestyle choice?

Yes - because the user chooses to take drugs of some kind at some point in their life - nobody says 'you are now taking drugs - no choice about it and you will have it as a lifelong handicap, nothing you can ever do about it'. The addiction that stems from that choice they make is a terrible one, but it was still their choice.

mymatebob

tomsolomon wrote: »

I was nine years old when I started. that was almost thirty years ago, there were no warnings, nobody told me Nicotine was more addictive than Heroin. Is Heroin addition a lifestyle choice? It only take's one time, that's what some of these people don't seem to be able to grasp. I only have to go without a a cigarette for a couple of hours and it eats away at my insides, I can feel it coursing through my body like electricity.
I have met many an ex-smoker that still crave cigarette's many years after quitting.

Many people who manage to control their addictions still crave that which they used.
Not sure what point you were trying to make there.

There are addictions to many things and there are many people who try to help those control their addictions.

What help have you sought - if any?

mymatebob

tomsolomon wrote: »

Well quite obviously, smoking is, according to Webster and Merriam;
"
Main Entry: 2handicap Function:transitive verb Inflected Form(s):handicapped; handicap·pingDate:1852 1 a: to give a handicap to b: to assess the relative winning chances of (contestants) or the likely winner of (a contest)
2: to put at a disadvantage
"

The contest in this case being the the applying
of a job.
I knew exactly what I meant thank you very much, if you don't understand the English language that's your problem.
If you at any time, are having difficulty reading this then it is you who are the idiots.


I will repeat my self, once more.

Please quote where it says smoking is a disability......

I do not appreciate personal attacks, If you have nothing constructive to say, then don't bother.

My reading of your post re handy cap (sic) was not that of a transitive verb but rather a noun
1hand·i·cap [URL="javascript:popWin('/cgi-bin/audio.pl?handic01.wav=handicap')"][/URL]Pronunciation: \ˈhan-di-ˌkap, -dē-\ Function:noun Etymology:obsolete English handicap, a game in which forfeit money was held in a cap, from hand in capDate:1754 1 a: a race or contest in which an artificial advantage is given or disadvantage imposed on a contestant to equalize chances of winning b: an advantage given or disadvantage imposed usually in the form of points, strokes, weight to be carried, or distance from the target or goal2 a: a disadvantage that makes achievement unusually difficult bsometimes offensive : a physical disability

My red bit - People seem to have inferred from the use of the word that you were implying that is was a disability. Obviously this was not your intention.

You feel you are handicapped, ie. have a disadvantage in that you smoke. In the case of this particular employer that is the case. And has been stated before although it is discriminatory it is not illegal.

So you have no come back against them, you can either seek help in beating your addiction or pursue careers where smoking is not a factor.

Although if you are having serious problems after two hours without a cigarette my suggestion would be to go with the former and see professional help

tomsolomon

I did actually give up last year for eleven weeks.
But started again after a set back.
It was probably one of the hardest things I have ever done.
I will now be more determined than ever to 'attempt' to give up again.

viktory

tomsolomon wrote: »

I was nine years old when I started. that was almost thirty years ago, there were no warnings, nobody told me Nicotine was more addictive than Heroin. Is Heroin addition a lifestyle choice? It only take's one time, that's what some of these people don't seem to be able to grasp. I only have to go without a a cigarette for a couple of hours and it eats away at my insides, I can feel it coursing through my body like electricity.
I have met many an ex-smoker that still crave cigarette's many years after quitting.

Taking any recreational drug (including heroin, tobacco and alcohol) is a lifestyle choice. When you decide to take that drug you are also making a decison, albeit a subconcious decision, to become addicted. Even those that started when it was fashionable must have known that inhaling smoke into your lungs was a bad idea for heavens sake!

I know the feelings you are talking about when you refer to nicotine withdrawl - I stopped smoking 9 months ago (cold turkey). The feelings are not pleasant but will not harm you. Nothing is 'eating away at your insides', except possibly cancer from the cigarettes. The feelings will go away and for the record I have never regretted giving up smoking and do not crave cigarettes.

margaretclare

tomsolomon wrote: »

I was nine years old when I started. that was almost thirty years ago, there were no warnings, nobody told me Nicotine was more addictive than Heroin. Is Heroin addition a lifestyle choice? It only take's one time, that's what some of these people don't seem to be able to grasp. I only have to go without a a cigarette for a couple of hours and it eats away at my insides, I can feel it coursing through my body like electricity.
I have met many an ex-smoker that still crave cigarette's many years after quitting.

30 years ago, in 1978, the effects were already known, and had been for a few years then. The reason I'm so certain is that my first husband had a coronary in 1972 aged 38, and he was told that it was directly attributable to his smoking habit (been in the forces where cigarettes were available cheaply, duty-free). He had a coronary bypass in 1975 when that procedure was still fairly new, and he was warned about smoking in the strongest terms. So, in the late 1970s, the effects of smoking were already well-known.

No one warned you when you were 9 - well, even with all the information, the research, everything that's available now, who warns the kids that age or not much older that I see hanging round the market square and outside the chippy, smoking, not far from where I live?

a11waysindebt

mymatebob wrote: »

Help who and in what way?

Personally I don't see it adding anything to the story thus far.

Without knowing who the company is you can't look in to it further.

Thats if the interview did happen.

Can't see no harm mentioning the company.