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ASH Daily News

26 November 2003

HEADLINES

Labour Party may propose ban on smoking in public places
So you think you are non smoker eh? Not quite.
Letters to the Times editor

FULL TEXT

Labour Party may propose ban on smoking in public places

According to the Financial Times, a ban on smoking in public places may
be one of the proposals included in Labour's national consultation
exercise to be launched on Friday, despite being rejected by ministers
yesterday.

Melanie Johnson, the junior health minister, insisted that the
government would stick with voluntary measures to combat passive smoking
despite a call for a ban from the presidents of all 13 royal colleges of
medicine.

"The ban idea is still premature," Ms Johnson told BBC radio. "There is
a great deal more to be done by way of public persuasion and education."

But one Whitehall insider said: "It would be fair to say the question
[of a ban] might be raised" in Labour's "Prospectus", the consultation
exercise. Another said the issue was whether local authorities should be
all-owed under new legislation "to do their own thing" and introduce
their own rules to tackle passive smoking.

Full FT article:
http://search.ft.com/search/article.html?id=031126000900
Source: Financial Times, 26 November 2003

Coverage in the Guardian suggested that public health minister Melanie
Johnson had swiftly ruled out the idea of going any further than the
current voluntary arrangements.

Whilst admitting that 'smoke-free places are the ideal', she argued that
a universal ban could not be justified whilst progress was being on the
voluntary basis and before the idea won wholesale public approval.

Full Guardian article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,3605,1093103,00.html

However, the editorial in the Guardian put paid to Melanie Johnson's
avowal for the voluntary approach, arguing that though bans are not an
extension of the nanny state, but serious preventative schemes to
improve public health.

Guardian editorial:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/leaders/story/0,3604,1093203,00.html



So you think you are non smoker eh? Not quite.

Reacting to the Royal Colleges' letter to the Times, the Mirror
newspaper ran a special report - sending out one of its reporters to
smoke filled bars armed with a carbon monoxide monitor to measure
secondhand smoke exposure to non smokers.

He constantly analysed the amount of the gas in the air and used a
breathalyser machine to test the concentration of carbon monoxide in his
blood before and after spending time in the pub.

The results were frightening. After just one hour, the air quality was
as bad as standing in a traffic-filled city street. By closing time the
pub's atmosphere contained 10 TIMES more carbon monoxide than outside.

Over the night our reporter's carbon monoxide level had increased from
one part per million to more than 10 ppm.

That's the same as a regular smoker puffing on one cigarette - and it
was on a quiet midweek evening.

Professor Martin Jarvis, a specialist in tobacco research for Cancer
Research UK, says: "The hazards of smoking are so great that even
inhaling other people's smoke can be very dangerous. People who are
regularly exposed to smoky atmospheres certainly have a higher risk of
developing lung cancer or heart disease. Studies have shown that passive
smoking over a number of years due to working in a smoke-filled
environment or living with a smoker increase the chances of getting lung
cancer by about 25 per cent."

Anti-smoking group ASH (Action on Smoking and Health) spokesman Ian
Wilmore said: "The Mirror's shocking findings show it's time for a new
law to ban smoking in workplaces and bars. There's no evidence to
suggest that banning smoking affects businesses, and the statistics show
that fewer people are actually going to pubs because they are sick of
the smoky atmospheres."

Full Mirror article:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/content_objectid=13662172_method=fu
ll_siteid=50143_headline=-WE-PUT-SMOKY-BARS-TO-THE-HEALTH-TEST-name_page
.html



Letters to the Times editor

Following yesterday's letter by the 13 leaders of the Royal Colleges of
Medicine, there are several letters to the editor on the issue of
banning smoking in public places.

Letters:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,59-908279,00.html

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