Smoking on Station

[Carl]

I sound like a dinosaur by posting this.

However when I joined the job 25 years ago, the majority of the watch were smokers, myself included. We had dedicated smoking rooms and spent a lot of our breaks having a smoke, it just seemed normal. 

Now, 25 years on, the smokers are a minority and I see very little evidence of smokers within GMFRS. 

Have we really become a healthier workforce, which of course can only be a good thing? 

Is this something which has happened throughout the UK FRS's?

[Luminoki]

There seems to be a big shift towards vaping ive discovered. Smokers arent very prevalent in West Mids. I did a shift at another station this week and was surprised when after a training session one of the lads snuck off to light up. We have the police at my station and more of them seem to smoke

[Rory-495]

Don't seem to notice it much in LFB. I think people are generally trying to be healthier with healthier mess, more use of the gym etc.

[OscarTango]

Britain has one of the lowest smoking rates in Europe thanks to consistent public health education drives and the rational use of vaping as a harm reduction tool. 

I'm on a station of 42 blokes and only one of them does. A couple I know will have a social smoke but not on station habitually. 

Surprising given how prevalent it was not so long ago. I see it more from the ambulance when I'm at a station that they use, most likely a coping mechanism!

[Messyshaw]

I could never understand how a firefighter would come coughing and spluttering out of a job, and then ask permission to light up! 😉

I noticed on one of my last ever outduties, a group of young  guys sitting at the breakfast mess table discussing the best granola or the advantages in using plant based milks

I remember thinking how some old guys I worked with when I joined would turn in their (early) grave if they heard that discussion- let alone discover there was no lard in any of the watches mess cupboards 

The reduction in tobacco smoking is a part of this new health ideology,  but paradoxically,  I wonder how many indulge in other forms of smoking or participating in other forms of less healthy powder based entertainment as drug use is most certainly more mainstream now

 

 

[StandPipe]

We was discussing this at work the other day. A lad on my watch was moaning about how much time other members of the watch spend smoking, after he saw that some jobs give non-smokers extra leave to make up for it. However, the smokers only go out for a ‘tab’ when nothing else is happening, so instead of sitting down watching TV, they may go for a smoke for example, thus making the argument pointless. They wouldn’t go for a smoke in the middle of training, just during down time. 

[Carl]

In trustingly enough, all GMFRS premises are now non smoking, so you have to go outside of the perimeter to actually have a smoke. This can sometimes look even worse when there is a group all congregated outside the gates. Our HQ and Training Centres have this issue. However, smokers do seem to be a minority compared to what it was 25 years ago. Every firefighter seemed to smoke. 

Hopefully we will live longer now?

[Matt]

How can anyone afford to smoke at £10 for a pack of 20, they used to be like £4.

Since it was banned on NHS properties years ago I do recall numerous memos going out to staff to stop congregating at entrances having their fag break as it doesn't promote a good image of the trust.  Vaping does seem to be the in thing these days and some just seem to social smoke when out for a drink or 5.

[Carl]

14 minutes ago, Matt said:

they used to be like £4

Now I feel old. I used to buy 20 x Gold Mark for 99p. I now await @Messyshaw saying a pack of Capstain were 6d 😂

[Messyshaw]

I never smoked, but often as a kid would run up the offy to get a packet of Woodbine for my mum ..... with 6d.... and still have enough for a Fruit Salad chew from the sweet shop!!

My family all smoked - and heavily. Woodbine were cheap as they dispensed with luxuries such as a filter. Our house stank of tobacco and my dad decorated annually, slapping white over the yellow in a continuing battle againt nicotine, similar to painting the Forth Bridge.

My dad died before retirement and my mum is blind and suffers with COPD. My siblings are also suffering health issues associated with smoking

Family get togethers were a nightmare. It was like 4 hours of BA training without the BA, so hell for me and my GF, now Mrs Messy. We stopped going which caused no end of grief about our selfishness as did our demand for no smoking in our house or anywhere near the kids when they were babies.

Maybe instead of buying sweets with the change from the fag money, I should have invested it. I would be a millionaire 👍

[BurtMacklin]

Only a few at my station, wasn’t that long ago that fag butts were just as accepted a floor decoration as autumn leaves, now it’s painfully (for them) obvious who the culprits are! 

[TrainHardFightEasy]

Very rarely do I come across a smoker in the job it’s definitely on the decline. However, despite all the health fads & step counters as a workforce we are definitely more overweight than those that served in the 70s & 80s. Maybe cooking with lard wasn’t so bad overall. 

[Br9mp81]

On 29/08/2020 at 23:28, Matt said:

How can anyone afford to smoke at £10 for a pack of 20, they used to be like £4.

Since it was banned on NHS properties years ago I do recall numerous memos going out to staff to stop congregating at entrances having their fag break as it doesn't promote a good image of the trust.  Vaping does seem to be the in thing these days and some just seem to social smoke when out for a drink or 5.

Never mind the staff its people stood tabbing in gowns and pjs with drips on stands that cracks me up