READERS DISCUSS: Are smokers wasting company time?

CALLS to ban smoking from public spaces ignited a debate among Daily readers. 

SHADOW Health Minister Mark McArdle today tabled his Bill in State Parliament to ban smoking in certain public areas. 

As reported in the Daily on Monday, the LNP is seeking to ban smokers from lighting up within 5m of Queensland Government buildings and certain public areas and to prohibit the sale of cigarettes at "pop-up" shops. 

The 5m ban would also apply to public transport waiting points, pedestrian malls, swimming pools and skate parks.

RELATED:

• WHY ARE YOU OUTSIDE SMOKING WHILE I'M INSIDE WORKING?
• COAST MP MOVES TO BAN SMOKING FROM PUBLIC AREAS 

Close to 200 people commented on the Daily's Facebook post when we shared the story. 

The comments were divided on whether smokers were time wasters or whether non-smokers were just whingers.

One reader has told how their cousin took up smoking as a way of having a break. Others argued mobile phones took up just as much work time. 

Here is a snapshot of your debate: 

Sarah Phillips: I think it's pathetic. People should smoke on their own time. They should wait until their lunch break to have a smoke or after work. Thankfully my work is strict on breaks so the smokers only have their smoke in their lunch break/after work.

Stephen-Alysen Coulter: I'm sure there would be a very similar result in a study if it were about people taking breaks to go on Facebook or sneak away to go on Facebook whether you're a smoker or non smoker.

Greg Sullivan: Mobile phones waste more time.

Bluey Hughes: if you non-smokers don't like it, start!

Susan Doyle: I haven't smoked for 10 years now, but crikey give the poor smokers a break! Half their wages probably go on smokes i couldn't believe how expensive they are now it's daylight robbery!

Philip Hayse: I've had this argument with many bosses but they don't do anything! A quick ciggy break becomes 15min. They do it at least three or fur times a shift so they basically get paid for at least four hours of smoking per week. Another way to look at it is the employer is paying for their cigarettes. Not to mention they come back stinking like an ashtray.

Susan Pearce: I have experienced smokers getting several breaks each day and non-smokers getting only the designated 10 mins everywhere I've worked. And there breaks were not quick ones either.

Julie Tumbers: Where I have worked, you wouldn't get away with doing that, would be fired, only take the breaks your allocated to take smoker or not.

Ash Toni Gibson: My cousin took up smoking as it was a way to catch a break as only smokers got proper breaks!   

Jen Smith: If businesses have a non-smoking policy at work, problem solved!

Nick Spence: Blame non-smokers. I can work and have a ciggie at the same time but I'm not allowed to cause the non-smokers don't like the smell and I do sneak out for two smokes a shift which would be all of four minutes and the non-smokers are allowed to talk for 15 minutes and an hour so that's two hours a day that seems like the smokers are being discriminated against again

Sue Erlangsen: Does the study assume all other workers are not wasting any time? There are many ways of not using time productively, including smoking. smoking.

FAST FACTS

• 3400 Queenslanders die from smoking related illnesses annually
• Smoking accounts for about $6.1 billion every year in health costs resulting from 36,000 hospitalisations, lost productivity and premature death in Queensland
• Smoking accounts for one in seven deaths in Queensland
• Current smokers will die an average of 10 years earlier than non-smokers
• Tobacco smoking is the leading cause of preventable death and disease, and health inequality in Queensland
• About one-third of smoking related deaths were of working age Queenslanders

Source: Queensland Cancer Council