Notts County Council to ban smoking and vaping during working hours

I'm writing this in my car outside the BBC Cambridge studios.

I was on BBC Radio Nottingham this morning.

I also recorded an interview for Capital FM (East Midlands) and in a few minutes I'm doing the same for East Midlands Today (BBC1).

Forest has been asked to respond to the news that Nottinghamshire County Council wants to introduce measures that will result in a ban on smoking by members of staff during office hours.

It will also be a disciplinary offence to smoke in uniform.

There's nothing especially new here. Similar measures have been introduced by other councils, some as long ago as 2007.

What is new is that the policies now being introduced by local councils also prohibit the use of e-cigarettes.

Notts Council will also make it an offence to vape in uniform, which can mean outside working hours because it includes the time spent travelling to and from work.

The local authority, needless to say, insists the measures are to improve people's health.

As well as the arguing that councils have no right to micro-manage people's lives, even in the name of health, I pointed out that a ban on vaping clearly isn't about health because if it was why on earth would the council prohibit a recognised harm reduction product?

Predictably the 'pro-vaping' public health lobby continues to be mute on the subject of vaping bans - even in Nottingham where 'pro-vaper' Professor John Britton is based.

Britton is of course a committed anti-smoker - one of the dourer ones, I have to say - and I suspect that for him, and many like-minded tobacco controllers, vaping is merely a stepping stone en route to the eradication of smoking.

If vapers are caught in the crossfire, so what?

Dick Puddlecote addressed this issue on Monday (Fat budgets and fake friends) and I've written about it more times than I care to mention, copping a fair bit of flak from certain vapers on social media.

I will continue to do so because it beggars belief that vapers consider these 'pro-vaping' advocates to be their friends when they are silent on basic issues like this.

Anyway, here's the statement I've just sent ITV Central News in response to another request for a comment:

"No-one has a right to smoke at work but employees do have a right to a break and if some people choose to smoke during their break, or on their way to and from work, it should be a matter for them not the council.

"This is not a public health issue because having a cigarette break poses no risk to anyone other than the smoker.

"Smokers know the risks so this is a private health issue. As long as they can do the job they are employed to do, it is no business of the council whether members of staff smoke.

"What next? Is the council going to ban fatty food and sugary drinks from employees' lunch boxes to combat obesity? Are they going to monitor the number of units of alcohol staff drink each week?

"If this was a health issue the council wouldn't ban vaping as well. E-cigarettes are recognised as a relatively successful harm reduction product that are used by many smokers who are trying to quit, so it makes no sense for the council to ban their use too.

"The council is doing this because politicians increasingly want to micro-manage our lives. This is not about health. It's about control."

If 'pro-vaping' advocates don't want to defend the interests of vapers, Forest will just have to do it for them.

I guess it's the cross we bear for having principles.

*Sob.*

Update: You can listen to my Capital FM response here. The interview was recorded using WhatsApp on my iPhone, the first time I'd done that.

The interviewer sent a question on an individual audio file and I replied by pressing a button, speaking into the phone, then releasing the button which automatically sent the file to the recipient.

We then repeated the exercise for two or three more questions. What you hear is an edited version of my responses without the questions.

The sound quality is far superior to a normal mobile phone interview. I'm impressed.

Oh, and here I am on BBC Radio Nottingham this morning.

The regional news page on the BBC website reports:

Simon Clark from smoking campaign group Forest, says the council is "going beyond it's remit" and shouldn't dictate whether staff drink, smoke or eat fast food.

He said the occasional smoking break can "improve the efficiency of workers" and this ban wasn't just about health because the council is also proposing to ban e-cigarettes and vapes as well.

"The council is treating people like children," he said. "People know about the health risks of smoking but beyond that councils have no right to intrude to this extent."

See also: Nottinghamshire County Council staff smoking ban approved (BBC News).

Update: Here I am on East Midlands Today (BBC1). The report starts at 01:20.

The soundbite they used included the words "barking" and "mad".