Should The Smoking Ban Include Beer Gardens?

The RSPH is pushing for smoking ban to be extended to pub gardens, outdoor restaurant tables, the school gates and public parks to make lighting even

23:03 13 August 2015

The Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) is calling for smoking ban to be extended to pub gardens, outdoor restaurant tables, the school gates, and public park to make lighting even more inconvenient for smokers. It says that such move would encourage smokers to use alternatives such as e-cigarettes.

 

However, pro-smoking lobbyists said that such legislation would “discriminate” against Britons who choose to smoke.

 

Shirley Cramer, chief executive of the RSPH, said: "Over 100,000 people die from smoking-related disease every year in the UK. While we have made good progress to reduce smoking rates, one in five of us still do.

 

"Getting people onto nicotine rather than using tobacco would make a big difference to the public's health – clearly there are issues in terms of having smokers addicted to nicotine, but this would move us on from having a serious and costly public health issue from smoking-related disease."

 

However, Simon Clark, the director of Forest, the smoker’s lobby group, said: "While it makes sense to encourage smokers to switch from combustible cigarettes to electronic cigarettes, public health campaigns should be based on education, not coercion and prohibition.

 

"For many consumers, e-cigarettes are a recreational product. If public health lobbyists don't understand that, they could sabotage a potentially game-changing device."