New rules for smokers.

Oh, I forgot this little nugget! Scientists are now stating the the air inside your home is more polluted than the air outside - even in areas where there is heavy traffic and industrial pollution:

In the last several years, a growing body of scientific evidence has indicated that the air within homes and other buildings can be more seriously polluted than the outdoor air in even the largest and most industrialized cities.

www.cpsc.gov/en/Safety-Education/Safety-Guides/Home/The-Inside-Story-A-Guide-to-Indoor-Air-Quality/ - this link is from the USA's Consumer Product Safety Commission (not sure if there is a similar one from the UK).

The upshot is, you will breathe in air pollution no matter where you are.

There were some interesting comments made by Lord Winston on Question back in February of this year. He is a professor, medical doctor and scientist so his comments might surprise some of you.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra_B4fpnRGU - the comment is at 37:06

He then goes on to say that if you are smoking in a car, that is very dangerous and if you have a fractious child in the back, that is doubly dangerous - so are they about to ban fractious children in cars as well!

Traffic fumes have been greatly reduced by fitting cars with catalytic converters. Don't ask what is converted to what, though
There was an interesting programme a while ago in which the levels of pollution in a front garden on a busy road were measured before and after a temporary high hedge was put in (the trees being in pots).
There was something like a 40% reduction in the level of pollutants wih the trees in place.

So things can be improved.

Given that parks and other open spaces comprise about 40% of London, this does seem a bit draconian. I am also inclined to agree about traffic fumes and other kinds of air pollution. Walking along the main road to the supermarket in a hot summer when I lived in London was like trying to breathe soup.

Eloethan My main reason for not smoking was the fact that my mother smoked!

Given the amount of car fumes and other pollutants in the air, I can't see how a cigarette smoked out in the open can be a major contributor to the respiratory problems of non-smokers.

I think there's possibly a valid point regarding setting a bad example to children and young people. But I think research shows that children are more likely to smoke if their parents/close relatives smoke and I'm not sure if seeing strangers smoking in a public place would induce someone to take up the habit.

They had just introduced this law when I went to New York. I found it quite ironic that people can walk around with guns on them but can't smoke a cigarette in a park.

I do agree with the introduction of plain packaging and the indoor smoking ban in public places.

I'm a smoker myself (not in front of my grandchildren) and therefore biased but I do feel it's getting a bit out of hand.

I agree jane A about the past. I grew up in a mining area and every house had a coal fire, sometimes two, belching out smoke all day every day and in the smog season we were breathing in horrible yellow choking fog.Every town had factories which just closed for two weeks adding to the atmosphere. I am not a smoker just like to keep things in proportion. I do sympathise with those with breathing problems.

I remember once going past an NHS Management type building in the narrowboat once.
As we glided past, I noticed lots of the workers outside on their lunchbreaks, all drawing on their cigarettes.

I personally dislike smoking and now that smokers have to huddle together the effect when you have to walk past them is very noticeable.

But I do wonder if we have things a bit out of proportion now. I'm just re-reading The Road to Wigan Pier and Orwell's description of the Northern Industrial landscape in which my parents were brought up, and which I clearly remember as a small child, with the ugly factories belching acrid fumes all day, and rivers and canals full of stinking effluent, has made me realise how much things have improved in just a couple of generations, and wonder whether we now perhaps worry about things that in comparison are quite trivial.

Policing it would be extremely difficult. I also think that the effects of alcohol in public places is far more scary but that isn't policed much at all

I would rather see smoking banned on pavements outside buildings where groups gather to indulge their habit. In a park you are able to avoid a smoker but when they are gathered on the pavement you either have to walk through a cloud of smoke or walk in the road.

I'd rather they banned smoking in outside eating place s, like pub gardens, during the day.There are parks and parks- I don't think people should smoke in children's play areas, but in large areas such as Richmond park, I think it would be very difficult to enforce, and not as anti social as in other public places.

I have never smoked and drink very little, but I think I'm more worried about the mixed messages children receive about alcohol than about them seeing people smoking in public. After all, no one would ever tell a child that smoking is a good thing (would they?) whereas every day they see that alcohol is socially acceptable, pleasurable, a reward after a hard day (ooh I needed that glass of wine), something that families do together, that all generations enjoy.....
And every day people die of alcohol related diseases.
We are extremely hypocritical about our personal choice of drug. And before anyone says that alcohol is harmless as long as it is used sensibly, I have heard the same argument used about illegal drugs, and I know of quite a few people who use illegal drugs and continue to function, some of them in high ranking professional careers.

If all smokers gave up, a great many would probably gain weight and add to the already heavy burden obesity is placing on the NHS.

The cost might even cancel out the amount saved by not treating smoking-related illnesses!

I think its more about children not seeing adults smoking that's prompted this initiative, role models etc.
But as others say really hard to police and of course kids would still be seeing adults smoking elsewhere.

I don't know why they don't just line smokers up against a wall and shoot the lot of them - that would deal with the problem once and for all wouldn't it.

Before you go supporting this idea, remember that they are also considering various other measures such as no drinking in public places (I think that is a law in Northern Ireland - I remember seeing signs up in Belfast stating that there was to be no drinking in public areas), no eating unhealthy food in parks or other areas where children can see it.

Why can't they just have facilities for both sides - then everyone would be happy.

I know health treatment costs would be less from not treating smoking related illnesses

I'm not sure that's true. These figures are very out of date now but I did post recently about this: income from tobacco revenue was around £13bn p.a. and the cost of smoking related illnesses was around £5bn p.a.

There has to be a serious loss of revenue at stake or they would make serious attempts to help people stop smoking (as they do with alcoholics and other drug users - i.e. residential facilities) instead of these gestures that just breed ill-feeling on both sides.

I find it very anti-social having to stand near a person smoking and will make the choice to move away but why should I have to ?
It would be very difficult to police I'm sure and wonder how the revenue from the sale of cigarettes if they where completley banned affect the economy,I know health treatment costs would be less from not treating smoking related illnesses but it would be many years before a difference would be seen across the board.

I am anti-smoking. It is a habit whose effects cannot be confined to the person doing it and impinges on all those around them. The less there is of it in any public place the better.

How could they possibly hope to police that? It would be good, however if smokers were obliged - under the litter laws - to pick up and dispose of their stubs.

I said that when I heard it on Breakfast, nina. Seems daft to me! There must be quite a few people who have only parks as a place to enjoy a cigarette.

Liz I am a non smoker and was not standing up for smokers rights. I just think it's daft to ban it in an area where you can be 100's of yards away from the smoker and yet on crowded streets people with health issues such as yours have no option.

I know that many people will disagree with me but I would be happy if smoking on streets was also banned. I am an asthma sufferer and lose the ability to breathe when anywhere near cigarette smoke. This has happened to me a couple of times recently at bus stops so I don't have any sympathies with smokers' 'rights'.