Doctors call for smoking ban in workplaces
Medical experts are calling for a complete ban on smoking in workplaces, including pubs and restaurants to protect the health of staff.
In a letter to the Times the leaders of all thirteen Royal Colleges of Medicine have launched an attack on the Government’s anti-smoking policy.
The College leaders argue that the policy is failing because the number of people who smoke has remained constant at 27 per cent since 1997. They also argue that 1,000 adults die each year as a result of passive smoking.
The medical leaders argue that the voluntary ban in the UK is worthless whilst countries such as Ireland, Norway and the Netherlands are planning to introduce a complete ban on workplace smoking. The bans are already in place in a number of US states.
‘Many workplaces are now smoke-free but in the hospitality industry smoke exposure is still very high,’ the college leaders commented in the letter. ‘The current system of self-regulation has failed to protect the majority of staff or customers.’
The college leaders claim that the voluntary ban is not working and have called on the Government to introduce a ban through Parliament at the earliest possible date.
The letter includes the signatures of 18 people including Dr Carol Black, who is President of the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) who organised the letter. The signatories also include representatives of the faculties of Pharmaceutical Medicine, Public Health, Occupational Medicine, Dental Surgery and Accident and Emergency Medicine.
A survey published last month by the anti-smoking lobby, Action for Smoking and Health (ASH), found that 78 per cent of people supported a ban on smoking in the workplace.
However, any move to ban smoking in pubs and restaurants to protect staff from passive smoking are likely to be fiercely opposed. Pub and restaurant owners have claimed that imposing a ban would reduce their business. In the states where ban has been imposed some loss of business has been seen in pubs and restaurants.
The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone is consulting Londoners on whether they would want to see a ban on smoking in public.
