Smoking Ban Didn’t Lead to Rise

Smoking Ban Didn’t Lead to Rise

The government has received a boost after new figures showed that the smoking ban did not lead to more children being exposed to smoke in the home.

Critics of the ban said that after smoking was banned in public places like pubs and clubs, it would lead more people to drink at home, where they could light up. When it was originally introduced in 2007, pro-smoking groups like Forest said that more children could be exposed to second-hand smoke.

However a study at Cardiff University of 3,500 primary-school age children found that since 2007 there had hardly been any change in the amount of second-hand smoke they were exposed to.

The researchers took saliva swabs from the children, aged between 10 and 11, the year before the ban came in. They then did the same a year after the ban was introduced. The swabs were then tested for exposure to second-hand smoke. The children were also asked to fill in questionnaires.

In the report on the results, published in the BMC public health journal, it was concluded that after the introduction of the ban there was no significant increase in how much second-hand smoke the children were introduced to.

While the results were seen as a vindication of the smoking ban, it has been acknowledged that it is disappointing that the levels of exposure remained the same, rather than dropping. It has been hoped that the ban would lead to greater numbers of people trying smoking cessation treatments as the ban gave them extra impetus to quit.

The NHS has been strongly promoting the message that quitters are more likely to succeed if they accept help, such as nicotine replacement therapy or drugs like Champix.  They have launched aggressive marketing campaigns to encourage quitting – such as the one featuring children begging their parents to give up – and have sought to make smoking cessation treatments such as Champix more widely available.

These tactics, combined with the smoking ban and the new photos of potential diseases on smoking packets, have resulting in a drop in the number of smokers of 22% from 2007 to 2008. The Cardiff study also supports findings in September which showed that a reduction in second-hand smoke in public places has resulting in a drop of 10% in the number of heart attacks in the UK.  

The news comes at a time when the government has been facing fierce criticism of the ban from pub and bar owners, who say that it has resulted in a significant loss of revenue, forcing many establishments to close.

The news comes at a time when the government has been facing fierce criticism of the ban from pub and bar owners, who say that it has resulted in a significant loss of revenue, forcing many establishments to close.

Small part of a Constitutional Law Midterm Project—created by Shahreen and I. Our topic was ‘Should smoking be banned in public places’ so we made a BREAKING NEWS broadcast that unfortunately interrupted a Mario special on tv—We discussed the “Smoker’s right to the public, to be…or not to be” issue. WARNING: We would like to add that this has been done early in the morning and within a day’s notice..so we look horrible lol..ENJOY 😀

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