I have visited many countries. They openly smoke at every country but I've never seen it in America. Have the Americans really taken a step for betterment?


39 comments

  2. It is illegal to smoke indoors in all public buildings. You can only smoke outdoors a certain distance(varies per state/local laws) from a building.

  3. Turns out engineered social shame campaigns actually work to shut out known destructive behaviors.

  4. We had huge anti smoking campaigns plus huge lawsuits against tobacco companies and then just a sea change against smoking. It’s now largely considered crass.

    It is just something considered “wrong” these days.

  6. It really was insane when I visited Europe cause they really did smoke everywhere. I was also amazed they had a whole smoking room in the airport when I had a lay over in Germany. Can’t say for everyone but me personally I just came to the conclusion smoking isn’t worth it. Why pay to deteriorate your health as well as others health?

  8. It is illegal to smoke inside most public buildings, and in many States it is illegal to smoke within 25′ of many public buildings. That makes smoking in public very hard.

  9. You aren’t allowed to smoke in a lot of public places, and even where you are it’s strongly frowned-upon to do so around other people.

    There has been a strong movement for several decades aimed at discouraging kids from smoking and getting adults to quit, so it’s not seen as just a normal thing here, it’s seen as a bad habit that people will look down on your for doing.

  11. For how much more progressive many countries are compared to the United States im surprised how little others seem to care about it. Example: Korea- it’s insane how they will protect their skin from the sun and obsess over looking young but everywhere you go people are smoking. The stuff will kill you and countries seem to invite death into their lives like it’s nothing.

  12. It happens, but people tend to be clandestine about it. Walk through a parking lot aand you’ll probably smell smoke before you see it. Drive behind just about any restaurant and you have a good chance of seeing one or more workers having a smoke.

  15. I honestly forget that people smoke until i go somewhere like las vegas where it’s everywhere.

  18. Smoking in public is considered really rude. People don’t want to breath in second hand smoke.

  19. Smoking was stamped out publicly in the late 1990s and early 2000s. They also made it prohibitively expensive and marginalized the shit out of smokers, making almost all public places and private employers “smoke free.” It was also emphasized as a disgusting, dirty and unhealthy habit, further shaming smokers into quitting.

    Up until a few years ago the only places I saw still tolerant of smokers were Native American casinos. As casino land is it’s own sovereign domain and not the domain of the American government or subject to its laws. I say a few years ago because many casinos have started to phase out smoking there as well. I was surprised to see it go.

  20. A) it’s terrible for you, B) people shame you endlessly for doing it, C) it’s expensive AF

  21. It’s funny we get such a bad rep as a very unhealthy country when we have one of the lowest smoking rates of all the developed nations. That being said, it’s relatively new. The 90s and 00s campaigns to quit smoking really worked and most Americans don’t smoke cigarettes. It’s honestly rare to see someone smoking outside and if you do it’s usually not an American, especially in the cities. I just got back from Germany and Austria and I forgot just how much more Europeans smoke. I know it’s changing over there as well but def taking a longer time to kick that habit across the pound than over here.

  22. Smoking in many public places is either severely frowned upon or illegal. Some places such as universities have banned smoking altogether even in private.

    The practice of smoking is also becoming less and less common mainly due to a massive anti-smoking campaign and partially due to the rise in popularity of vapes.

  24. The image of smoking went from cool to, you’re a total loser/fool for smoking cigarettes. I don’t recall any PSA or campaign to promote this change in attitude but it gradually became apparent that big tobacco is really a bunch of fucking crooks profiting on peddling poison

  26. Idk where in America you went but here in New york you wont go a day without seeing someone smoking something.

  27. I just came back from a trip to Japan, China, and Vietnam. Wow they all smoke like crazy there. Light up and puff away right there in restaurants (well, in China and Vietnam anyway). So yes, I agree with you, compared to other countries, Americans smoke much less. Cigarettes anyway. I think we still rule the world when it comes to smoking weed, but that too is in private, not public. For cigarettes, I think Americans have just bettered themselves more so than in most other countries.

  28. In the 2000s ml, many US states passed laws making it illegal to smoke indoors in a business.

    Also, a ton of people switched to vapes in the past decade.

  29. Echoing other users’ comments about the anti-smoking campaigns. Also want to add that smoking was social suicide when I was in high school (graduated 2026). Cool kids drank and smoked weed, never tobacco.

    We literally called the closest area kids could legally smoke on that wasn’t school grounds “cancer corner” 

  30. It didn’t help that they became very expensive. $10 a pack now after all the sin taxes?

  31. It’s not very cool any more. It’s a really nasty nasty habit and I’m glad it has been ostracized just about anywhere outside of bars. It took decades of hard work by government and other groups to drill it into people’s brains that it’s a stupid, dangerous fkn habit, but it finally worked.

  32. It’s still pretty common in the midwestern states. Mostly among lower income people.

  34. When I was 5 they had a commercial on TV where a person had to rip part of her own face off to pay for her cigarettes. This aired in the daytime hours on a children’s television network between Thomas the Train, and Curious George. It led to a generation that generally doesn’t smoke much.

  35. Because in a lot of places in a lot of states, it’s no longer legal to smoke in public.

    Starting in California in 1995, states started banning smoking in enclosed workplaces, restaurants, and bars. It varies by state, but in 2024 most states do have some type of smoking bans in place. In states that still don’t, often municipalities in those states sometimes have local smoking bans.

  36. Because we’ve realized it’s disgusting. We’re confused as to how Europeans see themselves as more civilized but still smoke so much in public or smoke anywhere.

  37. I wish I’ve been trying to quite smoking with no luck just bothers me when I smoke downtown homeless people come like a bee nest

  39. One of the rare public health policy successes. Honestly I’m amazed that other Western countries haven’t done the same. I was in France last year and was appalled at the prevalence of smoking.

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