If you work in the Melbourne CBD, then the following should be a familiar sight: smokers walking the streets while clutching burning cigarettes, in a vain attempt to get in a few more puffs before they reach the office. Passive smoking might be a well known health concern, but on the busy city streets there is another hazard to non-smokers: getting burnt by lit cigarettes.
The act of walking requires arm movement, and smokers are no exception to this. Combine a lit cigarette with someone who isn’t paying attention to where they are flailing their arms around, and the end result is getting an innocent pedestrian getting their leg burnt.
Bonus rage is reserved for fat smokers who block up more of the footpath than their skinnier counterparts.
Super Bonus rages goes for smokers who light up inside the converted areas of railway stations, while still managing to throw their hands in the air.
Inconsiderate douchebags.
Footnote
In a few years of working in the Melbourne CBD I’ve managed to avoid my leg getting burnt by smokers. My sister hasn’t been so lucky. (Then again, I’m the kind of guy who loses at games of footpath chicken.)
On the Tokyo train system were picture posters about how to be a good citizen. One showed someone smoking while walking and what could happen to a child’s eye if it was at the same height as the lit cigarette.
I didn’t even think of the injured children angle – that sounds horrible!
This has been my major gripe for a while now. Why are people so self-absorbed??
Let’s shame them by taking and posting photographs of this inconsiderate behaviour.