Smoke breaks are not a right. Breaks however are a right. Smoking is a horrible habit and I truly wish as a young medic in Vietnam often wondering if I was going to be alive the next day that I didn't start. I did. The military used to give us cigarettes with our "C" rations. You might have heard about them. Anyway we got a package of 3 cigarettes and a book of matches with each meal. Many of us got hooked and for those who have quit you know just how horribly addictive they are and how hard they are to give up. I've been told giving up heroin is easier. As I said, I'm really glad Chantix was invented, it made quitting easy for me. Not before I was diagnosed with COPD. I truly wish tobacco had never been found to be pleasurable to smoke. My life will be shorter because of it.
20 minutes for a smoke break? Not back when I was smoking. We just stepped outside, lit up smoked for maybe 3 minutes and stepped back inside and popped a breath mint. Hopefully it was windy and our clothes didn't smell to bad. Smoke free campuses are a fairly recent phenomenon.
Go back even further and you found ashtrays at the bedside, smoking was allowed in the nurses station and cigarette vending machines were in the cafeteria.
In the 60s and the 70s and i know I'm dating myself, the majority of nurses along with the rest of the population were smokers.
Now I can use my disease as an example for youngsters just starting but I find what is even more effective is the cost. I tell them that no one who starts smoking will know how much they will be smoking in 5 or 10 years. Maybe it's only 2 cigarettes a day now but in a year it could be 10 and 2 years a pack of 20. Then get out the calculator and hand it to them. 365 days time $10.00 a pack is only $3650.00 a year and now think about 20 years which is $73,000.00 up in smoke. Then ask them if they would like to have kids and most of them actually do. Tell them of all of the things they won't be able to buy their kids because they will need the money for themselves, possibly even to the point of not being able to feed them as well as they'd like.
Then I will tell them that when I started cigarettes were 50 cents a pack forty odd years ago. What will they cost in 10 more years? Do you think you will be able to afford it?
Okay, my rant is over and don't get me started on vaping..
