ASH Daily News for 13/10/2005
HEADLINES
ASH, 102 Clifton Street, LONDON, EC2A 4HW.
Tel 020 7739 5902 Fax 020 7613 0531
ASH Daily News
13 October 2005
[View html version: http://www.globalink.org/nbuk]
HEADLINES
Peers and MPs join clamour of voices calling for total ban
Letters to the editor: Debate on smoking ban
Northern Ireland looks set for outright ban
Freedom from smoke 'a human right'
FULL TEXT
Peers and MPs join clamour of voices calling for total ban
U.K. lawmakers including a former health minister called for a total ban on smoking in public places, as Prime Minister Tony Blair's Cabinet meets to discuss whether some pubs and clubs should be exempted.
The proposed exemption for pubs and clubs that don't serve food is attacked in a letter to Blair by George Young, a former health minister and member of the opposition Conservative Party, as well as Liberal Democrat health spokesman Steve Webb and Labour lawmaker David Taylor.
Leading medical organisations and charities, who have campaigned under the Smokefree Action Coalition banner, have also written to Mr Blair urging for the legislation to be introduced on the same day.
The groups, including ASH and the British Medical Association, said bringing a ban in on one day was likely to have the most impact on helping smokers to quit.
A 2002 report by Derek Wanless, former National Westminster Bank Plc chief executive, said government spending may rise by 30 billion pounds ($52.3 billion) in the next two decades due to poor public health.
Blair's government, which ruled out a ban in 1998, now estimates restrictions could save the government up to 3.8 billion pounds by reducing sickness and death associated with smoking.
About a quarter of Britain's 59.2 million people smoked in 2003, down by 1.2 million from 28 percent in 1998, according to the Department of Health.
The department is proposing to make government offices smoke- free by the end of 2006 and to extend those bans to most other public places by the end of 2007.
Restaurants, pubs, clubs and other licensed premises would have until the end of 2008 to comply with the rules that would impose a fine of 50 pounds on smoking and a penalty of 200 pounds on managers of who allow smoking.
Source: Bloomberg, Daily Mail, Reuters, 13 October 2005
Article link: (B) http://tinyurl.com/c4qg4: (DM) http://tinyurl.com/d892u: (R) http://tinyurl.com/bgjtj
Letters to the editor: Debate on a smoking ban
Today's Guardian carries a brace of letters offering differing opinions on smoking legislation:
'Here we go again. Pat Karney (Letters, October 11) regrets the burial of 14 Greater Manchester residents who die every day of smoking-related diseases. These numbers lag rather a long way behind, say, car-related deaths. How many people are buried every day as a result of car accidents? How many due to diseases contracted from breathing in exhaust fumes? Yet I haven't seen any call for health warnings on vehicle dashboards or at petrol stations. Let's have some common sense and consistency.
I try to be a considerate smoker while killing myself. I don't smoke in restaurants or offices, and try to keep my smoking away from children. But surely if I want to have a fag with my pint, that should be up to the landlord of the pub, not some organisation that just happens not to like smoking. If staff don't want to work in a smoky atmosphere, they shouldn't work there. After all, vegetarians don't have to work in abattoirs'.
Roger Dobson
Tavistock, Devon
'Pat Karney states that 14 people a day are buried in Greater Manchester from smoking-related diseases. In an area of that size this seems a relatively small number. How many die from alcohol-related problems, and how long before this government also bans drinking in public houses?'
Phil Baker
Bramhall, Cheshire
'Why not copy Ireland with a total smoking ban in all workplaces? All we will end up with is Wales and Scotland adopting a total ban, and England imposing a ban in pubs serving meals and on smoking at the bar, which does not work (I work part time in a bar and nearly everyone ignores it). Another idea the government is thinking about is to have smoking areas where staff would not have to enter. How would they be kept clean during the day and how would fights be stopped?'
Dannie Bonner
Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffs
Source: Guardian, 13 October 2005
Article link: http://tinyurl.com/9y7cy
Northern Ireland looks set for outright ban
If the speculation is accurate, it looks as if Northern Ireland will follow the Republic by imposing a total ban on smoking in pubs, clubs and restaurants, in response to public demand. There would be widespread disappointment if next week's announcement fell short of an outright prohibition in enclosed public premises.
The choice was whether or not to confine the ban to places where food was being served, but Health Minister Shaun Woodward would be advised to listen to the voice of the people, as well as health experts and many trade unions. In a consultation exercise earlier this year, 91% out of 71,000 respondents wanted a comprehensive ban and, if anything, opinion is hardening in its favour.
People have seen the results of the ban in the Republic, where fears of widespread breaches of the law or boycotts have not been realised. Pubs are more attractive to the non-smoking majority, tourism has barely been affected and staff have welcomed a much healthier working environment.
Statistics show that the numbers of smokers in the Republic is falling, from one in three adults in 1998 to one in four today. While a fifth of 15-18-year-olds are smokers, many will give up - as Mr Woodward has - because of the trouble of finding somewhere to indulge their habit.
In a province which already has more than its share of health problems, the logic of reducing risks to a minimum is irrefutable. Smoke, if you will, but do it at home, outside preferably, remembering the effect on others.
Source: Belfast Telegraph, 12 October 2005
Article link: http://tinyurl.com/99t78
Freedom from smoke 'a human right'
Protection from smoke is a human right for all workers, campaigners have said.
Smokefree Northern Ireland, a coalition of 41 statutory, private and voluntary organisations, has stepped up its campaign ahead of the move.
It is demanding that all workers should be protected from the damaging effects of second-hand smoke.
It said the NI Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) agreed protection for workers was a human rights issue.
The health of bar workers is not an issue for compromise and a partial ban would actively discriminate against these workers
Gary McFarlane of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) said any further delay in a full ban "puts some of the most vulnerable people in our society at risk".
"It is estimated that in 2003, there were 617 deaths from second-hand smoke at work in the UK, including 54 long-term employees in the hospitality industry," he said.
"Deaths from exposure to second-hand smoke at work would be prevented by making all workplaces smokefree.
Source: BBC, 13 October 2005
Article link: http://tinyurl.com/8osv3
---------------------------------
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----------------------------------
Michael Fredman
Web Manager
ASH
102 Clifton St
EC2A 4HW
020 7739 5902
Tel 020 7739 5902 Fax 020 7613 0531
ASH Daily News
13 October 2005
[View html version: http://www.globalink.org/nbuk]
HEADLINES
Peers and MPs join clamour of voices calling for total ban
Letters to the editor: Debate on smoking ban
Northern Ireland looks set for outright ban
Freedom from smoke 'a human right'
FULL TEXT
Peers and MPs join clamour of voices calling for total ban
U.K. lawmakers including a former health minister called for a total ban on smoking in public places, as Prime Minister Tony Blair's Cabinet meets to discuss whether some pubs and clubs should be exempted.
The proposed exemption for pubs and clubs that don't serve food is attacked in a letter to Blair by George Young, a former health minister and member of the opposition Conservative Party, as well as Liberal Democrat health spokesman Steve Webb and Labour lawmaker David Taylor.
Leading medical organisations and charities, who have campaigned under the Smokefree Action Coalition banner, have also written to Mr Blair urging for the legislation to be introduced on the same day.
The groups, including ASH and the British Medical Association, said bringing a ban in on one day was likely to have the most impact on helping smokers to quit.
A 2002 report by Derek Wanless, former National Westminster Bank Plc chief executive, said government spending may rise by 30 billion pounds ($52.3 billion) in the next two decades due to poor public health.
Blair's government, which ruled out a ban in 1998, now estimates restrictions could save the government up to 3.8 billion pounds by reducing sickness and death associated with smoking.
About a quarter of Britain's 59.2 million people smoked in 2003, down by 1.2 million from 28 percent in 1998, according to the Department of Health.
The department is proposing to make government offices smoke- free by the end of 2006 and to extend those bans to most other public places by the end of 2007.
Restaurants, pubs, clubs and other licensed premises would have until the end of 2008 to comply with the rules that would impose a fine of 50 pounds on smoking and a penalty of 200 pounds on managers of who allow smoking.
Source: Bloomberg, Daily Mail, Reuters, 13 October 2005
Article link: (B) http://tinyurl.com/c4qg4: (DM) http://tinyurl.com/d892u: (R) http://tinyurl.com/bgjtj
Letters to the editor: Debate on a smoking ban
Today's Guardian carries a brace of letters offering differing opinions on smoking legislation:
'Here we go again. Pat Karney (Letters, October 11) regrets the burial of 14 Greater Manchester residents who die every day of smoking-related diseases. These numbers lag rather a long way behind, say, car-related deaths. How many people are buried every day as a result of car accidents? How many due to diseases contracted from breathing in exhaust fumes? Yet I haven't seen any call for health warnings on vehicle dashboards or at petrol stations. Let's have some common sense and consistency.
I try to be a considerate smoker while killing myself. I don't smoke in restaurants or offices, and try to keep my smoking away from children. But surely if I want to have a fag with my pint, that should be up to the landlord of the pub, not some organisation that just happens not to like smoking. If staff don't want to work in a smoky atmosphere, they shouldn't work there. After all, vegetarians don't have to work in abattoirs'.
Roger Dobson
Tavistock, Devon
'Pat Karney states that 14 people a day are buried in Greater Manchester from smoking-related diseases. In an area of that size this seems a relatively small number. How many die from alcohol-related problems, and how long before this government also bans drinking in public houses?'
Phil Baker
Bramhall, Cheshire
'Why not copy Ireland with a total smoking ban in all workplaces? All we will end up with is Wales and Scotland adopting a total ban, and England imposing a ban in pubs serving meals and on smoking at the bar, which does not work (I work part time in a bar and nearly everyone ignores it). Another idea the government is thinking about is to have smoking areas where staff would not have to enter. How would they be kept clean during the day and how would fights be stopped?'
Dannie Bonner
Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffs
Source: Guardian, 13 October 2005
Article link: http://tinyurl.com/9y7cy
Northern Ireland looks set for outright ban
If the speculation is accurate, it looks as if Northern Ireland will follow the Republic by imposing a total ban on smoking in pubs, clubs and restaurants, in response to public demand. There would be widespread disappointment if next week's announcement fell short of an outright prohibition in enclosed public premises.
The choice was whether or not to confine the ban to places where food was being served, but Health Minister Shaun Woodward would be advised to listen to the voice of the people, as well as health experts and many trade unions. In a consultation exercise earlier this year, 91% out of 71,000 respondents wanted a comprehensive ban and, if anything, opinion is hardening in its favour.
People have seen the results of the ban in the Republic, where fears of widespread breaches of the law or boycotts have not been realised. Pubs are more attractive to the non-smoking majority, tourism has barely been affected and staff have welcomed a much healthier working environment.
Statistics show that the numbers of smokers in the Republic is falling, from one in three adults in 1998 to one in four today. While a fifth of 15-18-year-olds are smokers, many will give up - as Mr Woodward has - because of the trouble of finding somewhere to indulge their habit.
In a province which already has more than its share of health problems, the logic of reducing risks to a minimum is irrefutable. Smoke, if you will, but do it at home, outside preferably, remembering the effect on others.
Source: Belfast Telegraph, 12 October 2005
Article link: http://tinyurl.com/99t78
Freedom from smoke 'a human right'
Protection from smoke is a human right for all workers, campaigners have said.
Smokefree Northern Ireland, a coalition of 41 statutory, private and voluntary organisations, has stepped up its campaign ahead of the move.
It is demanding that all workers should be protected from the damaging effects of second-hand smoke.
It said the NI Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) agreed protection for workers was a human rights issue.
The health of bar workers is not an issue for compromise and a partial ban would actively discriminate against these workers
Gary McFarlane of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) said any further delay in a full ban "puts some of the most vulnerable people in our society at risk".
"It is estimated that in 2003, there were 617 deaths from second-hand smoke at work in the UK, including 54 long-term employees in the hospitality industry," he said.
"Deaths from exposure to second-hand smoke at work would be prevented by making all workplaces smokefree.
Source: BBC, 13 October 2005
Article link: http://tinyurl.com/8osv3
---------------------------------
Unsubscribe:
Public subscribers: http://www.ash.org.uk/?unsubscribe
Globalink members: http://member.globalink.org
----------------------------------
Michael Fredman
Web Manager
ASH
102 Clifton St
EC2A 4HW
020 7739 5902
