Listen as ASH advocates NRT but not vaping (which will be banned)

Further to my previous post, here is ASH's response to the news that the NHS trust that runs Bristol Royal Infirmary is to ban smoking – and vaping – on all its sites.

BBC Radio Bristol presenter: Now we’re talking smoking on the show this morning. The NHS trust that runs the Bristol Royal Infirmary is getting tough on smokers. From the first of January 2019 smoking a cigarette or e-cigarette on any of its sites, including the grounds, will be completely banned. That means, if you do need to light up, you’ll have to make sure you’re beyond the painted white line on the ground outside the hospital, rather than hanging around the entrance, which is what happens at the moment. Vicky Salt is from the anti-smoking charity ASH. She’s pleased with the decision.

Vicky Salt, ASH: “[It's] part of the Government’s new strategy and it’s also something that [NHS] trusts have been moving towards themselves. The Royal College of Physicians published a report in June recommending that hospital sites go smoke free with smokers being supported to quit, so it’s less about the actual white line where you can smoke on one side and not the other and it’s really about making, as I say, the hospital site smoke free so when someone is admitted to hospital their doctor will say ‘You’re not able to smoke whilst you’re on site, whilst you’re receiving treatment, but we have other options and those other options are nicotine replacement therapies and doctors will be advising smokers of the support they can offer to help them quit or abstain whilst in hospital.”

How bizarre that a spokesman for ASH, which has reinvented itself as an advocacy for e-cigarettes to help smokers quit, should (a) support a policy that includes a ban on vaping, and (b) recommend “options" to smoking such as "nicotine replacement therapies" without mentioning e-cigarettes.

You can hear the full item – including an interview with me – here.

A very similar report – also featuring Vicky Salt and me – was broadcast on BBC Radio Wiltshire this evening. Click here.