Ashes to ashes

By PRSD, on Sunday, July 1, 2007

Following on from the what one smoker in the People’s Republic of South Devon is reported to have said to a non-smoker – ‘I’m not fussed about killing myself, it’s not being able to kill you I object to’ – the British Heart Foundation has sent out a letter to applaud today’s (Sunday’s) change in smoking law.
“Dear Editor,

With the smoking ban coming into force in England this Sunday, itâ€™s worth remembering what an historic milestone this is for the nationâ€™s health.

Removing the toxin of second-hand smoke from our offices, factories, pubs and cafes is arguably the biggest advance in public health since the creation of the NHS.

Some still argue the ban infringes civil liberties. On the contrary, the ban liberates non-smokers from having to breathe in this dangerous substance while at work â€“ while still affording smokers the choice to smoke in private.

The link between passive smoking and ill health has been well established, with evidence funded by the British Heart Foundation estimating that non-smokers who work in smoke-filled atmospheres have up to a 50% increased risk of developing coronary heart disease.

As such, this legislation should be welcomed for the potential it has to significantly reduce passive smoking in all our lives and reducing our risk of serious diseases like heart disease, stroke, cancer and asthma.

The ban should also have a beneficial side effect of offering the perfect environment for the majority of smokers who want to quit to succeed. We have already seen that the ban implemented in Scotland last year has made a huge difference, with more than a third of Scottish smokers agreeing that ban had helped them cut down.

Now Scotland, which for the last 25 years has had the UKâ€™s highest smoking rates3, is finally looking towards a healthier future. We hope that this will also become a reality for England from this summer. With the help of the smoking ban, together we can beat heart disease, for those living today â€“ and tomorrow.

Yours faithfully

Dr Mike Knapton
Director of Prevention and Care, British Heart Foundation”

Come and enjoy Devon – book a hotel and get away!

Totally bogus The British Heart Foundation is warning citizens of the People’s...
Bin there, not done it We all love recycling (hey, I got this story from...
Charity calls Get down to your nearest Vodafone shop and tell them...

beta mum

great joke!
nanny state, maybe, but at least I might be able to venture out to pubs again - once i get used to the prices.

share flag

spam
offensive
disagree
off topic

I'm with Vic, this is yet another example of the nanny state at work; in any event I'm against passive smoking make the buggers buy their own.

Robert Feal-Martinez

Dr Knapton the BHF claims are simply a lie, which they have already apologised for, so to repeat it just compounds that lie. ETS is not the killer the medical profession claim it to be and even if it had harmful effects these can be removed with modern filtration/ventilation. For you to deny such a thing would mean you condoning your colleague surgeons operating under conditions which would result in dangerous levels of bacteria being present. Operating theatres have to be monitored to ensure clean air. Modern commercial systems even exceed the levels required for theatres, with ASHRAE (the ventilation watchdogs now saying (May 2007) that 1005 ETS free areas can be achieved using negative pressure and air curtains, and of course physical separation. The majority of the public wanted choices in hospitality according to the ONS Household survey for 3 years in a row (2004/5/6 2/3rds).
Smoking bans are not necessary to improve worker health and the HSE do not support them.
www.freedom2choose.co.uk

Vic

On no account should a total smoking ban be allowed ! That is pure fascism, those who are trying to enforce it are pure fascists, and as such are dangerous and should be fought tooth and nail as any dangerous fascist should.

The solution to the smoking/non-smoking problem is to have separate areas. That works perfectly well and there is no valid reason to change it. There is a lot of medical propaganda about smoking that is unproven or false, notably on the subject of passive smoking.

It is pure humbug. The rights of smokers are just as important as those of non-smokers and let no-one say otherwise. Hitler singled out the Jews in the 1930â€™s just like people are singling out smokers now. It is very very dangerous and these people must not be allowed to get away with this, if only because it is an open door to other things â€¦â€¦â€¦alcohol, fatty foods, car exhaust fumes etc etc. Rail Travel is dangerous, air travel, cars on the road.

You could argue that anything is dangerous and that it should be banned. The argument just doesnâ€™t make sense. I have not one iota of doubt in my mind that these would-be banners are wrong and they must be stopped.

The other thing, the most hypocritical thing of all, is that if cigarettes were really as dangerous as they would have us believe, then their sale would be banned, wouldnâ€™t it ? Ah yes, but there is too much money involved. Cannabis, which is not dangerous at all, is banned ? Why? No-one knows, but it does containes less dangerous products than tobacco.

All this goes to prove that the government are a load of hyprocrites and should in no case be listened to. Itâ€™s time the public stood up to these people who really take them for a bunch of idiots.