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Piles of butts around Boston Medical Center
By adamg on Tue, 09/04/2012 - 6:58am
The Daily Free Press reports a move by Boston Medical Center to ban smoking on its campus means growing problems in surrounding blocks with smokers and their detritus:
"[Smokers] stand there and smoke there and throw their butts on the ground," Stergios said. "BMC is in sort of a bind. There are [community] members who have photographed people throwing their butts out there. You can see piles of butts."
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People
Please stop the whining. There are far worse issues in the South End than cigarette smokers throwing their butts on the ground.
Smoking Nazis are really getting on my nerves, and I don't even smoke.
No one said...
...this is the biggest problem in the South End. But it is a problem.
Who gave smokers the right to litter across this city every day? Frankly, its gross. It has nothing to do with being a "Nazi" - it has to do with common human decency.
Next time I finish my soda or my sandwich maybe ill just toss my trash in the street like all the smokers feel so priviledged to do.
Now, back to your rock, troll.
Troll?
For the sanity of your fellow humans, please control your neurotic behavior. The world can't be completely sanitized to your satisfaction. And if cigarette butts are a problem, simply introduce public receptacles for them along with more trash cans.
I don't think it's the lil' butts that bother you, it's the people puffing on a leaf that's been set on fire that bothers you, because you think it's *icky*, to you. So you want everyone to conform to your ideal of what's acceptable. You're a control freak.
Just my opinion.
So, you *think* this person
So, you *think* this person has a hidden psychological motivation, based on no evidence whatsoever. OK. Glad that's cleared up.
Yeah keep telling yourself that
You sound just like that Jesus freaks that scream about Christian persecution every time someone dares to criticize Tim Tebow's inability to throw a forward pass.
Drop it in the street carefully
I'd have to have your statement get lost among the Metros and Dunkies cups that are already making poignant statements about the preponderance of litter in our society.
this can be summed up quite easily
If you wouldn't drop it in your own house or yard then you shouldn't drop it in public. Unfortunately, almost unanimously, smokers seem to have this belief that its OK to flick a butt in the street.
At the same time, I guarantee (again, almost unanimously) that none of them would flick it in their own yard or home.
What does that tell you?
Butts, metros, or dunks cups - doesn't matter - put them in their proper recepticle!
what do people mean by
what do people mean by "troll" when they call someone that in responses? is it a "troll" as in the troll under the bridge in the story of the billy goat or is it something else?
just wondering because i see it all the time & not sure what the insult means....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_%28Internet%29
Although here on UHub people will scream troll! at people they simply disagree with, which doesn't seem right. Although there are some regular posters on this site that I almost always disagree with, I wouldn't exactly call them trolls as I think they partially believe what they're posting (although I think they also enjoy getting a rise out of people) and they are pretty predictable. Hardcore trolls have very little that they truly believe in besides getting attention. Maybe we have Orcs instead of trolls. Or genital warts.
I don't want your goddamn cancer-causing crap in my lungs
NO. You don't have the right to smoke around me where I can't avoid you.
I can't stand people who smoke on the sidewalks - I have to deal with this every day walking home...people who light up on *their* way home. Everyone for a block behind them can't get away from breathing in all the cancer-causing chemicals and the stench.
You want to smoke? GO DO IT AT HOME.
This problem with smokers exists at bars, too - despite the state law against it, they'll all pile out front and light up, meaning nobody can walk by without being forced to inhale the cancerous smoke...and all the butts end up on the sidewalk or in the street in front of them.
Then there are the assholes who smoke on the T platforms - the cops don't care, the station agents don't care, and it's usually some gangbanger who looks like he'd knife you if you said anything to him.
You would have freaked
75-100+ ago.
* Body Odor [people weren't quite as obsessed with bathing like we are today. And antiperspirant didn't exist. Neither did air conditioning. It's the reason cologne and perfumes were invented.
* Horse poo. Horses were everywhere, and they went #2 everywhere. Have you ever seen the result of a horse going #2?
* One word: Coal. And no modern filters.
* Smoking. EVERYONE smoked. They smoked everywhere. At home. In stores. On trains. At work. Hospitals. Bars, of course. Kids smoked. And they usually smoked CIGARS, not cigarettes. And of course pipes.
Be grateful you live in 2012.
Please... if smokers get you
Please... if smokers get you all huffed up, its time to think about a new hobby or a life. Seriously, its a free country, you are not REQUIRED to walk past smokers, you have just as much right to walk in the opposite direction or cross the street. You want to go to a bar with smokers out front, say something to management and say you won't patronize that bar. Seriously, its a free country, you DON'T have to do that. I don't like wading my way thru smelly people on the T daily to get to work.. I'm not going off online about how smelly people are on the T, nor do I force my opinions upon someone else about the subject. I don't say a word because 'that is life' and I suck it up and deal with it. You need to do the same.
I've grown tired of these smoking nazi's. Really, maybe if you took your energy that you have, and instead of fighting online with people.. anonymously I might add.. took your energy and rallied to just have the damn thing banned all together, you might actually get what you want. No, but instead, you'd rather have 'power at the keyboard' and just chew people new assholes instead.
typical.
Please move on..
I think some people avoid
I think some people avoid smokers if they can, but usually it's a case of being behind someone smoking on the same side of the street, walking in the same direction, a little ahead of you - you can't avoid being downwind unless you cross the street. If it's a busy street, you're stuck behind him or her. The only way around it is to outpace the smoker, putting him behind you. That's how I deal with it. But I don't like dealing with it. Nor do I like dealing with butts in the grass in a public park, or on a beach. I suppose I should suck it up in those cases too, no? Perhaps clean them up myself?
LOL...congratulations. Within one hour of the original post
....Godwin's law has been broken. Well, "anon (not verified)," you automatically (and quickly) lost your argument. Sorry, it's the law.
"...piles of butts." Well, I
"...piles of butts." Well, I guess I've got lots of company. Whenever I'm an in-patient, I can never seem to tie my "johnny" the right way, so my you-know-what is always showing.
Easy Solution
Provide on campus ashtrays and in building ashtrays so that people can smoke on campus and inside [in designated areas] like they used to. This alleviates any trash problem.
Wrong Answer
I agree with the idea of "butt hutts" or, as we called it in high school, "scrounge lounges". Have you seen the one at Lahey Hospital? Way outside beyond anything it could matter to, but covered and, well, designated.
Indoor smoking is a big fat NO - two ciggies in a large room is instant Beijing on a bad air day. Moreover, modern ventilation systems are designed to recirculate air through buildings, and no room is "air tight". It could be set up like a lab, but it would need an airlock, negative ventilation, and its own system.
Sorry, too much effort to support and mitigate the well-demonstrated health hazards of an unnecessary, elective behavior of a few people.
I have not seen a smoking
I have not seen a smoking shelter at Lahey Clinic. They don't have one, since the entire campus is smoke-free. People can't even smoke in their cars.
I have seen plenty of people smoking in the MBTA bus shelter on Burlington Mall Road, even though it's clearly marked with "no smoking" signs. Fun stuff for people waiting for the bus in the rain or cold.
Lahey's no smoking policy has two goals: to protect nonsmokers from secondhand smoke, and to make a symbolic gesture against smoking. Unfortunately it made both issues worse -- bus passengers have to breathe smoke, and everyone driving into the campus sees a crowd of smokers on the corner.
Special citizens.
I really don't get it. Why is it that we have a "special" group of citizens who get to litter and pollute? The "simple solution" is to let them do it indoors? Really? The "simple solution" is to provide costly containers for them? Sorry, but just because an area seems to be more blighted by smokers than some others, doesn't mean they aren't a blight everywhere. Since it is ragweed season, I can literally be sent into a sneezing fit if I'm stuck in traffic behind a car with someone smoking. No, I'm not saying this is "the" problem. The point is that I notice smokers more than some might. And I'll tell you what. They throw their butts out of their cars non-stop, they toss them while they are walking down the street, you see them in parks, you see them on beaches. And somehow, we're all supposed to accommodate their addiction, in the name of freedom of choice.
Even worse...
Something that bugs me even more: People that actually put their butts in the ashtray in their car, but then dump the whole ashtray out on the street at a red light. AAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!
I've never smoked, but I actually do give smokers leeway when it come to their smoking, especially outdoors. I mean, if people can't smoke outdoors, where can they smoke? But, don't throw your trash on the street, sidewalk, etc.
Smoking is not a personal freedom
Smokers will tell you that smoking is a personal freedom. They feel righteous and persecuted that they are herded into designated areas. They feel they are victims. However, the adage "your personal freedom ends where mine begins" holds forever true. I cannot stand cigarette smoke, and if I am adjacent to someone smoking my personal freedom is impinged upon. Cigarette smoke is intrusive. I hate to sound nitpicky, but at least let's tell it like it is.
Ban cigarette filters
The filters are the litter problem, not the paper and tobacco. A cigarette filter takes months or years to degrade unlike the paper and tobacco which deteriorate in hours or days. Filters do not make cigarettes less dangerous, they keep tar and loose tobacco off smokers' lips. Ban them or require they be made of material that degrades significantly faster.
Why do people still smoke?
Why do they even start smoking now? We all know of the health risks, and people are still picking it up.
In regards to the BMC complaint: at least the butts are being left outside. Imagine if a smoker brought them in and dumped them in the indoor trash?
Cigarettes get you high!
Cigarettes get you high!
One place in the city that
One place in the city that suffers greatly from an overabundance of ciggy butts is Blackstone Block/Creek Square/Union Street, where the Bell In Hand, Green Dragon and Union Oyster House meet. Some of the oldest most historic cobblestone streets in the whole country are constantly carpeted with them, and it's not that easy getting them swept out, being a cobblestone street - they need to be power-washed out. I would hope during busy nights these establishments would leave receptacles out for their patrons, but from what I've seen, if they do, they're not being used by a lot of folks. But hey, littering is the price we pay for living in a free society, and to ask others to refrain from doing so is a gross offence to their civil liberties. Huzzah to these patriot-chimneys! Nothing but talk about rights but not a word about responsibilities.
Let's start a chain, starting
Let's start a chain, starting with your Blackstone Block/Creek Square/Union Street location:
My "favorite" is the north exit of City Hall. Just outside this exit is a designated smoking area. Maybe the unhealthiest such spot for miles around. The most clueless smokers make a point of standing very close to the exit (or right smack in front of the revolving door) just to make it clear to you that smokers rule that spot.
Even without that, it's very hard to pass through that area without feeling disgusting...and violated.
Not just piles of butts
In addition to butts, BMC also has a preponderance of bums, assholes, and other posterior synonyms. BMC also likes to house their vast collection of junkies near their rear as well.
As a South Ender and BMC neighbor, I'll chime in here
I live on E. Brookline St, which is adjacent to Boston Medical Center. In fact, the back of my building backs up to BMC's Newton Pavilion. The issue isn't about smoking outdoors or indoors, but the banning of smoking on the whole BMC campus, which has a lot of outdoor space, and a lot of that space is away from building entrances and other people. I think the concerns of many of my neighbors is that because the hospital has banned smoking campus-wide, it has pushed smokers to the sidewalks along the perimeter of the campus, mostly on Harrison Ave and Albany St, and that those who use the sidewalks are subject to the secondhand smoke. The ban has created an interaction between smokers and nonsmokers where there wasn't one before. There is one spot on my street where there's a small parking lot owned by BMC with a fence and buffer between the lot and the sidewalk and an exit gate for cars and pedestrians. More times than not, there are a few BMC staffers, nurses, doctors and guests, etc smoking just outside of the gate. Frankly I don't care either way, since I'm fine with the added activity on an otherwise quiet street, but could do without the added litter, which is more than just discarded cigarette butts, but coffee cups and food wrappers too. To BMC's credit, I have seen their janitorial staff out there cleaning the sidewalk more often than before.
Hey wait a minute...
....here's a post that's even keeled, and informative.
GET THE HELL OFF THIS FORUM YOU FREAK!
;)
(thanks for writing from the perspective of a neutral party with firsthand knowledge of the situation!)
(thanks for writing from the
No problem :-) Maybe I'll become a newspaper reporter as a second career. :-)
Cambridge Health Alliance does the same
Although in Cambridge, one side abuts somerville, which is where employees of the hospital go to smoke on the sidewalk and throw cigarette butts. So, to keep the smoke and other pollution/trash off their property, Cambridge Health Alliance has their employees go off campus in front of peoples homes and smoke and litter. Thanks CHA.
Does anyone else think it's
Does anyone else think it's funny when hospital workers smoke? You'd think they'd have a better understanding of how it affects the lungs, heart and circulatory system. I guess maybe they're that desperate for extra break time.
Doctors are some of the worst
Smoking, not washing their hands before surgery, wearing clean scrubs outside then inside...
not washing their hands before surgery
Doctor behavior; smoking... seen it. The scrub thing... seen it, though mostly people will stop in locker room and change into new set. That's the policy at most hospitals FWIW. So one is using the scrubs to commute, this saves one from bumping into a colleague in the hallway outside the locker room while you are still wearing your Jorts and T shirt!
Not scrubbing before a surgery...I have never seen that in 20+ years. Plenty of research about not washing hands before patient interactions in hosp. rooms and prolly before minor procedures. IIRC there was an article about the lack of bathroom handwashing at an infectious disease seminar. But I seriously doubt there is a widespread pattern where Dr.s Don't handwash/scrub before surgery. The whole surgery thing is so orchestrated that it would be hard for someone to forget that step, and the scrub nurses would notice it if you did.
Modern cigarette smokers are some of the most pathetic people
They love to throw the term "nazi" around.
You are willing dupes to a destructive lifestyle created by Madison Avenue.
CongratuFu**lations.
The best are the leftist protesters that you see pulling out their packs of Corporate Personhood.