Life’s a beach
Smoking on beaches has been back in the news recently.
It flares up occasionally (remember Brighton, ten years ago, and Swansea?). We won the battle of Brighton beach but a few months later Caswell Bay near Swansea was declared ‘smoke free’, albeit on a voluntary basis. Since then voluntary bans have been imposed on several more beaches in Wales including Little Haven beach in Pembrokeshire and, most recently, three beaches in North Wales.
Anyway, a couple of weeks ago Forest was asked to comment on a report that East Sussex County Council was set to introduce a voluntary smoking ban on Pevensey Bay beach near Eastbourne ‘in an attempt to help people quit the habit’.
Similar schemes had been introduced by the same council on Camber Sands and Bexhill beach. The latter stretches for approximately two miles. Camber Sands is almost five miles, and Pevensey is 5.6 miles. I can’t imagine how the council is going to enforce a ban (even a voluntary one) on beaches of that size, but I guess there will be notices designed to nudge people to acquiesce by making them feel guilty or anti-social if they light up, even in the open air with the nearest person hundreds of yards away.
I was interviewed by BBC Radio Sussex and the BBC News website reported Forest’s reaction here:
Simon Clark from smokers' rights organisation Forest said the ban was "absolutely absurd".
He said there was "simply no evidence" that smoking in the open air poses a risk to anyone else's health.
This week it was reported that environmental campaigners are calling for a voluntary ban on smoking on beaches on Guernsey. However, it’s not just environmental issues that concern some people. According to Lucy Cave, a tobacco harm reduction officer at the Health Improvement Commission, her group had spoken to young people in focus groups and found that:
“There was also the safety factor of children running around barefoot who might catch their foot on a stubbed end of a cigarette.”
Seriously? How often has that ever happened?!
BBC Guernsey has (to date) ignored Forest’s response (which you can read here), despite the fact that a reporter rang me on Thursday, recorded some quotes (that were also sent to the online team), and told me they would be broadcast on BBC Radio Guernsey this morning. (Update: I’ve been listening and … nothing. There has however been an item about seaweed.)
What’s disappointing is that one of my better interviews was the one I gave BBC Radio Guernsey in 2018. Presenter Jenny Kendall-Tobias concluded our 20-minute chat by describing me as the "incredibly informative director of Forest" which is arguably the best notice I’ve ever had! (See Thoughts on smoking, vaping and middle-class snobbery and More thoughts on smoking and the nanny state.)
To be fair, over the years I have appeared several times on BBC Radio Guernsey and the BBC’s Channel Island News. In 2004 I even flew to the island to back a campaign, Support Our Smokers (SOS), that had been set up by a local hotelier to oppose plans to ban smoking in enclosed public places.
We lost that battle but I enjoyed my visit and I would return if the opportunity arose. I hope, though, that it’s in slightly happier circumstances.
