4 ms·

1400 cigarettes/year on average. Germany is 1599.5/year, US is ~1016.6.

magduf 8y ago
I wonder where those numbers come from. I just spend 2 weeks in southern Germany, and it seems about 80% of the men there smoke, and at least 25% of the women. I couldn't go anywhere without running into clouds of smoke. Smokers were all over the place on city sidewalks, they blocked entrances to restaurants, they were everywhere. I was just glad they didn't seem to have any indoor smoking. It really sucks that Germany doesn't have the 50-foot rule we have in America (no smoking within a certain distance of the entrance to a public building), so non-smokers don't have to walk through clouds of smoke or right by smokers as they enter or exit public establishments. By contrast, here in the US, I rarely see smokers. Of course, I'm a city dweller and live in a liberal city, but smokers are relatively rare here. I don't constantly get choked by smoke as I walk for miles around the streets of DC, the way I did in Munich. Also, I don't even see cigarettes for sale in the US anywhere except shitty gas stations and the like, whereas normal grocery stores in Germany had them for sale near the checkout, plus they even have outdoor vending machines where anyone (including children) can buy them! We banned those things ages ago in America to keep kids from getting hooked on them. I suspect that in the US, the vast majority of those cigarettes are being smoked by poor people in more rural areas, especially in the South, and that's why I don't see it much. There's a huge and growing division in US society between the rural/conservative and urban/liberal people, and we're evolving into almost two different nations.
- estsauver 8y ago
  I haven't found the smoking to be overwhelming here, but I also don't super mind it. I've never been a smoker, but I was in the high school debate community in the US which is littered with smokers.

I wonder where those numbers come from. I just spend 2 weeks in southern Germany, and it seems about 80% of the men there smoke, and at least 25% of the women. I couldn't go anywhere without running into clouds of smoke. Smokers were all over the place on city sidewalks, they blocked entrances to restaurants, they were everywhere. I was just glad they didn't seem to have any indoor smoking. It really sucks that Germany doesn't have the 50-foot rule we have in America (no smoking within a certain distance of the entrance to a public building), so non-smokers don't have to walk through clouds of smoke or right by smokers as they enter or exit public establishments. By contrast, here in the US, I rarely see smokers. Of course, I'm a city dweller and live in a liberal city, but smokers are relatively rare here. I don't constantly get choked by smoke as I walk for miles around the streets of DC, the way I did in Munich. Also, I don't even see cigarettes for sale in the US anywhere except shitty gas stations and the like, whereas normal grocery stores in Germany had them for sale near the checkout, plus they even have outdoor vending machines where anyone (including children) can buy them! We banned those things ages ago in America to keep kids from getting hooked on them. I suspect that in the US, the vast majority of those cigarettes are being smoked by poor people in more rural areas, especially in the South, and that's why I don't see it much. There's a huge and growing division in US society between the rural/conservative and urban/liberal people, and we're evolving into almost two different nations.

estsauver 8y ago
I haven't found the smoking to be overwhelming here, but I also don't super mind it. I've never been a smoker, but I was in the high school debate community in the US which is littered with smokers.