Smoking ban would boost economy, says Chief Medical Officer
New research shows a ban on smoking in workplaces and public areas would help bars and restaurants, as well as the wider economy, says the Government’s health tsar.
Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson said the research demolished the argument that a smoking ban would harm the economy, and renewed his call for the Government to introduce legislation making all workplaces smoke-free areas.
Speaking at the launch of his annual report on public health, he also called for a public education campaign to counter messages from the tobacco industry that played on people’s fears of a “nanny state”.
Sir Liam said: ‘I renew my call for legislation to be introduced in this country . and put non-smoking on the map as a social norm, and thereby save the lives of potentially hundreds of thousands of people.”
He said the tobacco industry knew that no other measure could do as much to reduce smoking, and was trying to turn popular opinion against a ban by “playing to the ‘nanny state’ constituency”.
Pre-empting suggestions that a ban would violate smokers’ rights, Sir Liam quoted a young bar worker in New York he had met on a recent trip, who had said to him: “Your zone of freedom ends where my nose starts.”
The other argument against a ban was what he called the “money, money, money” argument, as it had often been said that a public smoking ban would damage the economy, especially the hospitality industry.
However, the research that he had commissioned, which had been carried out by the Department of Health, showed that a public smoking ban would boost the economy by at least £2.3 billion – not including savings to the NHS from people quitting.
Overall savings would be around £3 billion, including reduced absenteeism at work (at least £70 million) and the health benefits of quitting (£1.6 billion). The costs would amount to only £430 million.
In the hospitality industry, Sir Liam said going smoke-free would improve business, or at worst be financially neutral. In New York City, sales from all eating, drinking and hotel establishments had increased after the smoking ban, and had outperformed other non-smoking areas. Restaurant employment had also gone up.
“There is no reliable evidence to back up the frequently made assertion that going smoke-free would be bad for businesses in bars, restaurants and other places of leisure,” he said.
One benefit of a ban in smoking in workplaces would be a reduction in the number of young people who start smoking. Some 300,000 16-year-olds joined the workforce each year, but research showed they were much less likely to start smoking if they entered smoke-free workplaces.
“Many young people have a false image of how many people smoke . It is because smoking is so prominent and visible that young people think they are among the majority, not the minority.”
