[Intl-tobacco] Smokefree gains: Australia and UK

[robert weissman]

Clearing smoke from the final frontier
The Age (Melbourne)

A move to ban smoking from Victorian pubs and bars is a welcome one.

Editorial

October 14, 2004

The proposed ban on smoking in pubs and bars has been a long time
coming. As a community we have gradually come to accept that we cannot
smoke at our work desks, in classrooms and shops, at the football,
restaurants and cafes or while playing poker machines. But we have
resisted moves to stop us lighting up while enjoying a quiet drink. For
many among us, smoking and drinking naturally go together and Premier
Steve Bracks is sure to be vilified in some quarters for breaking up a
beautiful partnership. But for bar staff the mix can be a lethal one. In
April this year, health physicist James Repace warned that 200
Australians working in bars and clubs could expect to die from
passive-smoking related heart disease and lung cancer every year. In a
study commissioned by the Cancer Council, Professor Repace used
monitored smoke levels in pubs and clubs and medical data to develop
estimates of deaths caused by occupational exposure to cigarette smoke.
Such studies strengthen the Go! vernment's hand; it is unconscionable
that bar staff be exposed to an avoidable occupational hazard. Western
Australia's Labor Relations Minister Graham Kierath put the case starkly
in 1997. "If (an industry's) economic survival is based on killing
workers, then basically I think the industry shouldn't be there," he said.

In announcing the ban, which will be phased in by July 1, 2007 (although
smoking will continue to be allowed in outdoor dining and drinking areas
of hotels and restaurants), Victoria is taking similar legislative
action to the governments of Tasmania, Queensland, the ACT, NSW and
South Australia. The Northern Territory and Western Australia have
partial smoking bans in bars and clubs. Most Australians respect the
bans already in place, which is the best indicator of their general
acceptance. Even the poker-machine industry, which was fiercely opposed
to the smoking ban in gaming venues (and which saw a dip in its profits
because of the ban) appears to have made its peace with the new regime.
Tattersalls' chief financial officer Ray Gunston this week conceded that
"players have adjusted to the fact they will not be able to game and
smoke". The only players who will not have to adapt are the high-rollers
at Crown Casino, who will be exempt from any bans and will therefore
cont! inue to be a threat to themselves and those around them.

The most positive outcome of the bans, when they are eventually
introduced, is that they can be expected to lead to a decline in smoking
overall. According to Mr Bracks a ban in New York bars led to an 11 per
cent drop in smoking levels. The ban stops social smokers from indulging
in a potentially fatal habit, will lead to lower dry-cleaning bills and
should lessen the ferocity of hangovers. Some smokers will grumble
anyway, but if history is any guide they will soon be reconciled to the
change and may even come to embrace it.

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Bid to ban lighting up in London
London Evening Standard

By Ross Lydall, Local Government Correspondent, Evening Standard

13 October 2004
A bid to ban smoking in enclosed public places in London has moved a
step closer.

Leaders of the capital's 33 councils have voted unanimously to apply to
parliament for new city-wide laws introducing the restriction in pubs,
clubs and restaurants.

They say evidence is mounting about the dangers of passive, or
second-hand-smoke, and they are prepared to make the move on health
grounds. It is estimated that one million non-smokers are exposed to
tobacco fumes in their workplace in London.

The move comes from the Association of London Government, the umbrella
group for the boroughs.

Previously the anti-smoking provisions were to be included in a draft
Bill but the ALG has decided to champion the issue as a separate piece
of legislation because of its controversial nature, and to prevent it
getting bogged down in red tape.

Sir Robin Wales, chairman of the ALG, said: "We can't ignore the growing
evidence of the effect smoking has not only on the people who smoke but
also on others through passive smoking."


a.. Australia is to ban smoking in all hotels and bars, except those in
the outback Northern Territory, in a move to stop the death of hundreds
of bartenders each year from breathing second-hand smoke.



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Manchester blazes smoke-free trail
The Guardian

City council bans 26,000 workers from lighting up on its premises

Helen Carter
Thursday October 14, 2004
The Guardian

A small group of smokers are shielding themselves from the rain in
Smoker's Alley, a covered walkway which reeks of stale tobacco between
the city's register office and an upmarket Chinese restaurant. A pile of
cigarette butts has been swept into a corner along with the autumn leaves.
In Manchester, the fag break, that institution of British office life,
is about to become a thing of the past for more than 26,000 employees.

The city council is banning smoking in all its buildings, including the
splendid neo-Gothic town hall. Council workers will be similarly banned
from smoking in all the entrances to its buildings. There will be no
smoking facilities provided anywhere, inside or outside, and staff will
not be not allowed time off work to go and have a cigarette. Anyone
contravening these rules will face disciplinary action and, ultimately,
the sack.

Smokers are finding themselves increasingly marginalised in a move which
will delight the anti-smoking lobby, but will horrify smokers.

"This is probably the most important public health decision Manchester
has made for generations," said Pat Karney, the head of the pressure
group Smoke-Free Greater Manchester. "It's on par with the clean air
acts of the last century.

"It means that the next generation of Mancunians will grow up in a city
protected from toxic second-hand smoke."

It is the first step in making the conurbation's workplaces smoke-free.
A report on tobacco control was agreed by the council's executive
yesterday, proposing that visitors and councillors are also banned from
smoking.

"Staff will not be able to excuse themselves for smoking breaks during
work time," says the report. "Failure to abide by the tobacco control
policy could result in the initiation of disciplinary action on the
individual, in accordance with Manchester city council procedures.
Non-employees who breach the policy will be asked to leave the premises.
Smokers, employees and non-employees may be fined for littering the
streets when inappropriately disposing of cigarette ends."

Around the corner from the town hall, in Smoker's Alley, this proposal
is greeted with contempt.

"I have long since given up taking notice of what the council say," said
Danny Warke, 43, who has smoked for 30 years. "I think it is ridiculous.
At the end of the day, we are out in the fresh air smoking. What about
all the cars chucking out fumes? I am sure they will get the trade
unions on to it; it is about freedom of choice and we are not doing
anyone any harm. I know the cigarette butts can look unsightly but they
should provide more ashtrays."

Karen Timon, who was enjoying a cigarette with two other smokers, said
her boyfriend works at the council and they were "not at all happy about
this".

She said: "I think it is right for companies to have designated areas
for smokers but it is wrong that we won't be able to have breaks.

"Whether you smoke or not, has nothing to do with your employer. It is a
personal choice and its like them asking have you had sex, or have you
had a drink. It has gone too far towards the nannying state."

In the report, Manchester is portrayed as a city with a history of being
forward-thinking and unafraid of taking risks. "The smoke-free city is
an idea whose time has come: Manchester should be in the vanguard of
this change," it says.

It follows the model of Dublin, which has had smoke-free workplaces
(including pubs, clubs and restaurants) for six months.

Rates of smoking in Greater Manchester are among the highest in England.
The most reliable data from the Health Survey for England indicates the
smoking rate was 38.5%, compared with 28.8% across England as a whole.

In a recent Mori poll in the region, 77% of respondents said they were
bothered by smoke in public places; 74% favoured smoke-free enclosed
public spaces and 90% agreed that people who work indoors have the right
to work in a smoke-free environment. Only a quarter favoured completely
smoke-free pubs and bars, with a further 39% wanting them mainly
smoke-free with separate smoking areas.

Richard Leese, the leader of Manchester city council, said: "We take the
health of our residents and visitors very seriously. We are not
proposing to ban smoking, but to take a lead in doing something about
the number of deaths and amount of illness caused every year by smoking
and breathing second-hand smoke.

"We need to get a message over: reduce smoking and live longer."

The anti-smoking organisation, ASH, said it strongly supported employers
who want to go fully smoke-free. "We applaud Manchester council's
efforts to encourage and support staff that want to quit," said Ian
Willmore, its spokesman.

"That will greatly improve the health of the council's workforce, reduce
sickness absence and improve the standard and efficiency of its services
to the public." ASH says it has been estimated that exposure to other
people's smoke in the workplace causes 700 premature deaths across the
UK every year - three times the number killed in industrial accidents.

Second-hand smoke at work also causes many thousands of episodes of
illness and is the second most common trigger of asthma attacks.
Research in Canada suggests employees who smoke cost their employers an
average about =A31,500 a year through absence and lost productivity.

"Although many offices and other workplaces are now smoke-free, more
than 2 million people still work in places where smoking is allowed
throughout, and another 10 million work in places where smoking is
allowed somewhere on the premises," Mr Willmore said.

"As far as smoking breaks are concerned, that has to be a matter for
each employer to discuss with their own workforce and trade unions.
There isn't any obvious reason why smokers should get longer work breaks
than non-smokers."

But Simon Clark, spokesman for Forest, the smoker's lobby group,
described cigarette breaks as "punctuation marks for smokers through the
day".

"This is another demonstration of the anti-smoking hysteria that is
happening in parts of the country. When you remember that about a
quarter of the population are smokers, to refuse to allow them to smoke
at any point during the day is very heavy-handed."

For and against the fag break

Stephen Merchant, co-writer of The Office

"I'm anti-smoking in that I don't smoke and it bothers me. I'd quite
happily see smoking banned in restaurants but people huddled in the
doorways of offices in the rain is a quintessential part of British
life. You can't take that away. It is all people have got to keep them
going.

If you work in a call centre - and I used to work in one - the fag break
is the highlight of your day."

Felix Dennis, media mogul and poet currently touring Britain

"At Dennis Publishing, our policy is pretty simple. If only one person
in the office doesn't want smoking then we don't do it, but we provide
roof terraces where people can walk out, catch some sun, sit on
comfortable chairs and take a cigarette break.

"What we need here is a massive smoke-in. We need 2,000 people smoking
outside Manchester city council buildings."

Ronald Harwood, playwright, screenwriter

"That's disgusting. Banning smoking is a fascist impulse. The first
government ever to try to ban smoking was the government of Adolf
Hitler. Manchester city council are fascists. It is dreadful and
intolerable.

"People should always have smoking areas or smoking rooms in offices.

"I feel the evidence about passive smoking is about as good as the
evidence for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. It has all been twisted."

John Britton, professor of epidemiology, Nottingham city hospital

"There are lots of reasons to ban smoking from offices. If you make a
workplace smoke-free it is very good for your employees' health. It
encourages a lot of your employees to stop smoking. That is more true if
your smoking policy is complete.

"If you replace a partial smoking ban with a complete ban, like
Manchester city council's, about one in 14 smokers will quit."