On 1 July 2007 virtually all enclosed public places and workplaces in England became smoke free.
Work is ongoing in Bury to support businesses and protect the health of our workforce, with the introduction of the national legislation.
How to contact us
Bury Environmental Health Team, Textile Hall, Manchester Road, Bury, BL9 0DG
Phone: 0161 253 5566
Email: environmentalhealth@bury.gov.uk
Frequently asked questions
General
Is smoke-free law not an infringement on personal choice? Too much interference from the nanny state?
The vast majority of people support restrictions on smoking in workplaces and other public places – including 66% of people supporting restrictions on smoking in pubs. It must be remembered that 7 out of 10 people choose not to smoke. The Government wants to take account of the choice of the majority of people who want to have clean smoke-free air.
In countries where similar legislation has been introduced, support for the law has grown after implementation – even amongst smokers.
The regulations allow for the Government to extend smoke-free law to bus shelters. Is this a step towards banning smoking altogether?
The Government believes that people should have the choice to smoke, but believes it is also right that people are both made aware of the major health risks of smoking and also provided with support to quit. Importantly, we believe that at the same time, it is right that others should be protected from exposure to hazardous secondhand tobacco smoke. This is what we are achieving through this law, where smoking has been stopped in virtually every enclosed public place and workplace in this country. Although smoke-free law does include provision to make non-enclosed places smoke-free, the Government has no intention to use those powers at present. That means that smoking will still be permitted outside of buildings and in other non-enclosed places.
Why couldn’t we just have ventilated smoking rooms?
Evidence shows that ventilation does not provide a solution to eliminating the health risks associated with secondhand smoke. We know that 85 per cent of secondhand smoke actually consists of invisible and odourless gases. Research has shown that to remove the risks of secondhand smoke, an enclosed premise would need wind tunnel-like rates of ventilation. Imagine what that would be like at the local pub! We also know that ventilation systems are expensive—many businesses simply couldn’t afford to fit the systems even if they were effective.
Will this mean the death of the British pub?
There is considerable international evidence from countries that have introduced legislation for smoke-free public places and workplaces that the impact on the hospitality industry is not detrimental. Analysis and international experience shows that going smoke-free can actually be beneficial to the hospitality industry. We must remember that almost 80 per cent England’s population does not smoke, and this represents a very large market.
There is much evidence about the benefits to hospitality of smoke-free law, but after the first year of being smoke-free, New York City saw that:
- business tax receipts in restaurants and bars go up by 8.7 per cent;
- employment in restaurants and bars has increased by 10,600 jobs
- New Yorkers overwhelmingly supported the law
- Tests showed that the air quality in bars and restaurants improved dramatically
There is also comparable evidence of the benefits of smoke-free law for the hospitality industries in other countries including Ireland, and similar evidence is emerging in Scotland since their smoke-free law was implemented in March this year.
Importantly, smoke-free law will be good for the health of hospitality workers and patrons. The British Institute of Innkeeping’s magazine recently said that “…we are talking about banning the use of a carcinogenic substance which in enclosed spaces kills or damages the health of passive smokers—that means licensees and bar staff and customers. This is a scientific fact, and we should bear this in mind along with the economic arguments”
What support is available for people deciding to quit as a result of the smoke-free law?
The NHS provides a wide range of excellent and easily accessible smoking cessation services including the following.
- Bury NHS Stop Smoking Service (0845 223 9001);
- The Together Programme;
- the NHS Smoking Helpline on 0800 169 0169, go to giving up smoking website and
- Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) available on prescription.
Is secondhand smoke really that harmful?
In reviewing the evidence of the health risks from secondhand smoke, the Government’s independent Scientific Committee on Tobacco and Health concluded that exposure to secondhand smoke was a cause of a range of medical conditions, including, lung cancer, heart disease, asthma attacks, childhood respiratory disease, sudden infant death syndrome, reduced lung function. In 2005, research published in the British Medical Journal estimated that over 600 deaths each year in the UK are due to exposure to secondhand smoke in the workplace. The World Health Organisation has classified tobacco smoke as a known human carcinogen. The US Environmental Protection Agency classified secondhand smoke as a “class A” human carcinogen—along with asbestos, arsenic, benzene and radon gas.
What evidence is there that secondhand smoke is a health risk?
The evidence base that secondhand smoke harms health is substantial, and has been reviewed extensively, both in this country by the Government’s independent Scientific Committee on Tobacco and Health, and overseas.
The World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer’s report “Tobacco Smoke and Involuntary Smoking” published in 2004 reviewed the evidence of the health risks associated with smoking and secondhand smoke—that report is over 1,400 pages long.
The US Surgeon General published a 700 page report in June this year that examined a great deal of evidence and found that even brief secondhand smoke exposure can cause immediate harm. The report says the only way to protect non-smokers from the dangerous chemicals in secondhand smoke is to eliminate smoking indoors and that exposure of adults to secondhand smoke has immediate adverse effects on the cardiovascular system and causes coronary heart disease and lung cancer. The Surgeon General said, on the publication of the report, that “The scientific evidence is now indisputable: secondhand smoke is not a mere annoyance. It is a serious health hazard that can lead to disease and premature death”.
Has the introduction of smoke-free law been successful in other countries?
Across the world, as the evidence of the risks associated with secondhand smoke exposure has accumulated, action has been taken to reduce people’s exposure to secondhand smoke.
Ireland (2004), Norway (2004), Scotland (2005), New Zealand (2004), various Canadian territories and Singapore are examples of countries which have introduced comprehensive smoke-free legislation. In America, California has had a state-wide smoke-free public places since 1998 and New York City passed smoke-free legislation in 2003. In total, over nine US states have smoke-free law that required completely smoke-free restaurants and bars.
This law has proved to be effective in protecting people from the health risks of secondhand smoke. The Journal of the American Medical Association documented a significant improvement in respiratory health among bartenders after the passage of the Californian smoke-free workplace legislation.
According to the British Medical Journal, the US state of Montana saw a 40 per cent drop in hospital admissions for heart attacks during a 6 month period of smoke-free workplaces.
The smoke-free provisions of this Bill are consistent with what many other Governments are doing to protect people from the harmful effects of secondhand smoke. Smoke free law is proving to be not only very effective in protecting health, but is also very popular.
