Smoking and diving

[Magnus Lundstedt]

I was in London and Paris this summer and if there are laws against smoking in many places, I seemed to miss them. The amount of smoking was astonishing and pervasive.

The EU is an union that is not as homogen as the US, there are some federal desitions about laws, that then need to bee nationaly implemented. EU is an union of different nations, not a nation like the US.

For example here in sweden all restaurants, baars and coffee shops are non smoking, but in the other hand, "swedish snus" is forbiden in all parts of EU exept sweden, I have friends from Finland who come here every month to buy snus, because EU prohibit the sale of snus in Finland. Different interpretations of the rules in every nations laws.

 

[Mustard Dave]

Smoking is a filthy habit and as we all know, it does not go well with diving. To that end, I do not smoke. It does not bother me in the slightest if other divers smoke, provided they do so considerately.

While it is not good for your health, it is unlikely to impact the health of the typical resort diving instructor, who tend to be otherwise healthy twenty-somethings, to the point that they are a risk to themselves or others.

I appreciate the image it portrays is not good, but that's the dive centre's business. If it puts you off diving with them, then that is your prerogative.

The only time I have looked at an instructor who smokes with utter horror is at my local quarry. There was a bloke who used to be there frequently with a sign-written van advertising instruction on the Megalodon CCR. I used to see him, in full kit, walking down the slipway into the water with a fag hanging out his mouth. He would get every last puff out of it before passing it to somebody on the surface and putting the loop in his mouth. As well as clearly being a heavy smoker, he wasn't exactly in his prime, and he was obese. I've not seen him for a long time; I suspect this may be because the HSE medical was tightened (UK diving instructors have to pass this if they are charging for their services). If you have a reasonably healthy BMI, it is fairly straightforward. As you enter the fat knacker category, you have to pass VO2 max tests - this bloke wouldn't have a cat in hell's chance.

There is a dive centre in Malta who a group of us dive with once a year; we get on very well with the staff and they know they do not have to worry about what they do in front of us. A few years ago, we were diving with them and were being asked where we wanted to dive the following day. We suggested Gozo, which is a smaller island off the mainland. The two instructors acting as our guides looked at each other, smiled, declared they could smoke, and high-fived each other. When we asked what this was about, they told us that the boss had decreed that staff were not allowed to smoke in view of the public while wearing their (very conspicuous) branded polo shirts. The following year we told they were not allowed to wear their shirts in a bar after 7 pm.

When we were there a month ago, we noticed the rules had been relaxed. My theory for this is they now have a second course director. I have known the boss (himself the other course director) wanted a second in order to brand themselves as a PADI Career Development Centre. As course directors are fewer and far between, I'm guessing he was faced with the choice between letting her smoke, or not being a PADI CDC...

 

[boulderjohn]

You know that one person is eunough to falsify your original statement "no one "smokes" marijuana any more"

Come on! He was using a common idiom that uses hyperbole to create an effect. Until recently, I assumed that anyone speaking the English language would understand that.

A famous example of that kind of idiom usage is when the baseball player Yogi Berra supposedly responded to a suggestion to eat at a certain restaurant by saying "Nobody goes there anymore--it's too crowded!"

 

[Mustard Dave]

The EU is an union that is not as homogen as the US, there are some federal desitions about laws, that then need to bee nationaly implemented. EU is an union of different nations, not a nation like the US.

For example here in sweden all restaurants, baars and coffee shops are non smoking, but in the other hand, "swedish snus" is forbiden in all parts of EU exept sweden, I have friends from Finland who come here every month to buy snus, because EU prohibit the sale of snus in Finland. Different interpretations of the rules in every nations laws.

Correct. The EU sets a directive, which sets out a framework for the member states to work to; in this case we were required to implement smoke free legislation. At first, the government was hinting a ban in most workplaces, but pubs and bars would only have to smoke free if they served food (this seems to be the case in Germany when I have visited). The public reaction was that it was a bit of a cop-out and subsequently they chose to ban smoking in all indoor areas of pubs and bars.

 

[Mustard Dave]

Diving and smoking don't mix. The water keeps extinguishing my lighter.

A few years ago, Jeremy Clarkson (celebrated gobshite and Top Gear presenter, until he had fisticuffs with a member of the crew over a sandwich) had a chat show. He commissioned a team of engineers to invent a device that allowed him to smoke while diving!

 

[Magnus Lundstedt]

Come on! He was using a common idiom that uses hyperbole to create an effect. Until recently, I assumed that no one speaking the English language would not understand that.

Yea, i tend to take things literaly. ...

 

[mcpowell]

Imagine if there were a CCR type device that would let smokers keep rebreathing their cigarette smoke! That would be awesome! They could smoke away in their own little closed loop. It would be efficient for them, and would not bother non-smokers below or above water.

 

[adurso]

You know that one person is eunough to falsify your original statement "no one "smokes" marijuana any more"

Indeed, though the statement was not mine, but one repeated by me.

Except that I am the only real person on the internet.

 

[runsongas]

But I thought the Chinese weren’t allowed to go to Palau anymore? I’m guessing that’s the smoking culture you were referring to?

koreans/japanese also smoke a lot and make up the largest numbers of tourists to palau. my last trip on the palau aggressor, the russians, koreans, germans, and french all spent their SI's on the top sun deck smoking together. real united nations of lung cancer there.

 

[boulderjohn]

koreans/japanese also smoke a lot and make up the largest numbers of tourists to palau.

Palau and most of the other islands in the western Pacific were taken from Germany and given to Japan as a part of the treaty ending WWI. The United States was given control after WWII with the understanding that they would follow a process leading to independence, a process that is nearly complete. The Japanese have clearly remained a major influence there ever since, and they constitute a major part of the tourist population.

The degree of this can be seen in Palau's island Peleliu, which suffered through one of the most horrific battles of WWII, with about 12,000 people killed on that tiny island. Today, the native population is only about 400, mostly clustered in one tiny village. After nearly 75 years of American control, the difference in current culture can be seen when viewing the historical sites. There is a single museum, where the events of the battle are explained in great detail--written by Japanese historians to present the Japanese point of view. There is no corresponding American version of the story. On a hilltop sit the memorials to the battle. The Shinto shrine honoring the Japanese who died is huge and beautiful. The Buddhist shrine honoring the Japanese who died is huge and beautiful. Over on the side is a much, much smaller stone monument honoring the American Marines who died there.