ASH on manoeuvres
That didn’t take long, did it?
Less than a week after the closing date for submissions to the consultation on smoke-free public places, the anti-smoking lobby is on manoeuvres to push the government to go even further than the current proposals.
According to a YouGov poll commissioned by ASH, almost two thirds of Britons would back smoke-free pub gardens, 68 per cent would support smoke-free university and college campuses, and 78 per cent would support smoke-free bus stops. Quoted by LBC:
Hazel Cheeseman, chief executive of ASH, said: “Smoke-free laws have been one of the biggest public health success stories in recent decades, but millions of people are still exposed to harmful second-hand smoke in outdoor settings.
“The public is clear that they want more places where they can breathe clean air. As ministers review the findings from the consultation, there is a strong mandate to go further and faster.
“Extending smoke-free laws to areas like pub gardens, all play areas, university campuses and transport hubs is a common-sense next step that will protect health and support a smoke-free generation.”
Last night, on the back of this, I was invited by LBC to discuss the question ‘Is it time to ban smoking in beer gardens?’. I was interviewed by presenter Ben Kentish, who does the late-night shift (10.00-1.00am), but it was recorded in advance and broadcast after midnight in order not to break the embargo.
When we recorded the interview I was therefore unaware the poll had been commissioned by ASH because what LBC sent me was not ASH’s embargoed press release but ‘third party content’ (also embargoed) from the Press Association’s ‘Expert Views’ service.
This included a long quote by Richard Begg, head of learning and development at VPZ, the leading vape retailer that, four years ago, urged the Scottish Government to “ban smoking for good”. According to Begg:
“We support proportionate measures to reduce exposure to second-hand smoke in public spaces, including smoke-free pub gardens and areas frequented by children and families.
“The public clearly recognises the harms associated with combustible tobacco smoke, and we support sensible measures that help create cleaner, healthier outdoor environments.”
In other words, VPZ support a ban on smoking in beer gardens which is laughably short-sighted because, if smoking is banned in beer gardens, there is every chance publicans will unilaterally ban vaping in beer gardens as well, in the same way that many landlords have banned vaping indoors, even though it’s not currently illegal to vape in enclosed public places.
Anyway, these are some of the points I made to Ben Kentish on LBC:
One, there is no evidence that secondhand smoke in the open air is a risk to the health of non-smokers.
Two, this is a question of property rights, so publicans must be allowed to choose a policy on smoking (and vaping) that best suits their business.
Three, the indoor smoking ban led to the closure of thousands of pubs, especially urban, inner city pubs. Many of the pubs that survived were either posh gastro pubs, or those with beer gardens where people can go outside and smoke in comfort. Banning smoking in beer gardens would therefore be yet another blow to pubs.
Four, the Government had a plan to ban smoking in beer gardens but following opposition from the hospitality industry ministers were forced to drop the idea (which is why it wasn’t mentioned in the recent consultation).
We had quite a lively exchange (which I didn’t mind at all, given it was a one-to-one interview with no-one else involved), but the most surreal moment came towards the end of the eight-minute item when Kentish brought his four-month-old son into the conversation (not literally!):
BK: If I take my four-month-old son to the beer garden and he sits for three hours next to somebody who is continuously chain-smoking, and all that tar, and all those carcinogens, and [all] that nicotine, is going into his little lungs, you say that does him no harm at all?
SC: Well, I would say, what on earth are you taking a four-month-old child to a beer garden where adults may be drinking and smoking? I mean, really, that is on you, Ben.
BK: Should I not have the right, as one of the vast majority of people in this country who don’t smoke, to take my son where I want without my choices to where I go being impeded by a small minority of smokers?
SC: You don’t have a right to take your small child into somebody else’s private property, which is what a pub is, and demand that everybody accedes to your demands. That’s absolutely ridiculous.
BK: That’s exactly what you and smokers are doing. You are saying, smokers absolutely have the right to go into a beer garden, smoke as much and wherever they want, and have everybody else accept it. So you are arguing that they should be able to inflict their demands on everybody else.
SC: Well, you clearly haven’t been listening to me because what I’ve said is that it’s up to the landlords, the proprietors, to choose a policy on smoking, and vaping, that best suits their business, and if a landlord chooses to ban smoking in his beer garden that’s a matter for him, and I would support that. There was a case only a couple of years ago of a pub in Kent that decided to ban smoking in its beer garden and we said, ‘Fine, that’s a matter for him, it’s his private property’. So no, I don’t agree that smokers should be allowed to light up wherever or whenever they want. When it comes to beer gardens, what I’m saying is, there are no public health grounds on which to ban smoking in outdoor public places, and in terms of property rights it’s a matter for the landlord and certainly not for you, Ben, to dictate what policy on smoking he chooses to have.
BK: Simon, thank you very much indeed. That’s Simon Clark, director of the smoking campaign group Forest, which is funded by the tobacco industry but very much isn’t a vested interest group.
I should add that this little dig referred to something I said earlier in the interview, so it wasn’t entirely without context, but did I detect a tiny bit of sarcasm?!
