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Smoking in Public Places
A Consultation on Reducing Exposure to Second Hand Smoke
Report of Regional and Area Events
REPORTS OF LOCAL EVENTS ORGANISED AND SUPPORTED BY THE SCOTTISH CIVIC FORUM LOCAL CO-ORDINATORS
Introduction
As part of the agreement with the Scottish Executive, Scottish Civic Forum local co-ordinators organised and supported local consultation events on Smoking in Public Places. Meetings were held in the following locations:
Additional meetings were held at
St Stephen's High School in response to a specific request from the school (15 September) and in
Galashiels on 27 September at the request of NHS Borders.
Reports on each of these meetings follow.
ABERFOYLE, STIRLINGSHIRE, 29 JULY 2004
Introduction
This meeting was held in the Memorial Hall, Aberfoyle, from 6 to 8pm. Sixteen attended, plus the SCF Coordinator. The participants could be broadly categorised as representing:
Health workers - 9
Police - 1
Licensed trade - 2
Community Councils/individuals - 3
The other participant was from George Street Research.
Structure of Meeting
The first 25 minutes focused on the background to the consultation process, SCF's role as facilitating the meeting and personal introductions by all participants.
This was followed by agreeing some ground rules for the group discussion and a proposed structure for this discussion. A structure of using the questions in the questionnaire response form was agreed together with a catch-all at the end to ensure all points/concerns were recorded.
Group Discussion
The group of 16 stayed together, facilitated by the SCF Coordinator, with the remainder of the meeting devoted to discussing views/concerns/proposals in relation to the agreed structured questions.
Is further action required?
This question was prefaced with a brief reminder that a voluntary approach, within the licensed trade, has been in place since the year 2000.
Issues raised around the effectiveness of the voluntary approach were:
it has not been introduced in 70% of licensed premises.
do the general public know such a campaign is in place?
the division of premises to provide smoking and non-smoking locations can work.
smoking goes hand-in-hand with drinking, hence a voluntary approach is ineffective.
what happened to the Health and Safety Commission's code on this issue?
Further discussion around the voluntary approach led to a majority view that it did not work, that further action was required, and that action should be legislation. Supportive comments for legislation included:
there needs to be a level playing field.
concern for the rights of employees to work in a healthy environment.
the Dublin experience showed a 25% drop in drinks sales but this was a short-term problem only, with trade picking up and a return of a previous clientele.
New York evidence very strong that it does work and in the longer-term does not have a detrimental effect on business.
where there are smoking and non-smoking areas there will still be the requirement for employees to service the smoking areas.
The above positive response to legislation was supported by 14 participants with 2 people expressing their concern:
Support for Legislation?
With a large majority in support of legislation, the discussion moved on to what such a law might look like in terms of whether it was a complete ban or a set of measures that developed some of the voluntary approach and/or the proposals voiced at the Glasgow event by the Licensed Trade Association.
Accepting there was a minority view of two participants that this was violating freedom of choice, the rest of the group were in support of a total ban, highlighting the following in support of this approach.
Experience of organisations who had put smoking policies in place showed that the complete ban approach was the more effective.
Research shows that many smokers welcome a complete ban as a means of helping them give up/reduce their habit.
There can be no half-way house as smoking produces dangerous carcinogens equal to asbestos, which we no longer tolerate.
Exemptions
Although there is support for the consideration of exemptions, points made around this issue were:
More work needs to be done with regard to possible exemptions and a certain sensitivity as to what might be included.
Consideration of the issue needs to strike a balance in terms of the rights of employees and any "client group" e.g. prisoners, residents.
Care needs to be taken not to drag down the whole legislative process by including unworkable areas e.g. people's own homes.
Broader Issues
As already stated the support for legislation was very strong. A number of other matters were raised, however, as requiring careful consideration and/or clarification in order to assist implementation. Additional resources are required to underpin and support legislation with the provision of smoking cessation clinics and other support mechanisms
Education needs to be given additional resources to provide the means to tackle the issues of attempting to discourage young people from starting and existing smokers to give it up.
As part of an education process it is important that the information to the public regarding smoking's impact is more than a focus on the cancer message and there should be a highlighting of the other outcomes for smokers - more preventative work required.
A ban on smoking on TV would go a long way to minimising the image that smoking is acceptable.
Concern expressed as to the need to do more work around the issue of the legislation itself - there needs to be clear definition of what is included as a workplace ( ? farm offices, one-person office location, public v private within licensed premises) , homes where home-carers work to be included?
The final outcome needs to be easily understood so everyone knows exactly what is included and enables enforcement to be implemented effectively
Conclusion
Overwhelming support for legislation that is a complete ban, but supported by measures that assist the wider issue of smoking generally.
A minority view that expressed concern for the freedom of choice and what the impact might be on incomes and the tourist trade.
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