UK to ban smoke in pubs?
 

I saw this on the Guardian site and thought it might of interest:

"Health Secretary John Reid has ordered Britain's publicans and restaurateurs to draw up plans to phase in smoking restrictions across all their premises as the first step towards a blanket national ban."

The rest of the story is at:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/polit...268799,00.html

Well, the smoking ban worked in Ireland. I just loved not having cigarette smoke in my guinness. ((a)) ((b))

I certainly hope so!
M (MD ABIM ABNM ABR)

I hope so too, but don't count on it.
It seems Mr Blair et al are more worried about the negative response they think they would get from a ban on smoking (even though only 30% of adults smoke in the UK) and not fussed about making a bogus claim to take us into war.

In the meantime, if anyone asks you in a restaurant 'Do you mind if I smoke' simply reply with a cheery 'Do you mind if I fart?'

Wonderful

Where are all those "Fodorite" big mouths who were telling the rest of us the smoking ban in Ireland would "never work" and likening it to the potato famine?

The inevitable will happen...just a matter of time.

I think that the latest is that they are going to ban smoking in restaurants but not pubs/bars....

<i>&quot;as the first step towards a blanket national ban.&quot;</i>

It would be nice, but I'll believe it when I see (or should I say smell) it.

<i>&quot;even though only 30% of adults smoke in the UK&quot;</i>

Really? I would have guessed much higher. We noticed that the packs of cigarettes sold in the UK have great big warnings on them saying things like &quot;SMOKING KILLS&quot; - no polite little surgeon generals warning that &quot;smoking can be hazardous to your health&quot; tucked away on on the side of American packs.

Very radical, considering how polite most other UK signage is. We always find it amusing (and much more civilzed) to see signs apologizing for inconvenience for things like road construction, no dogs allowed. In the US, they don't mince words. Our signs say &quot;Road Construction Next 20 Miles&quot; or &quot;No dogs allowed&quot; No apologies.

Back to cigarettes... my cousin is living in Canada and she says the cigarette packs there have awful pictures of diseased lungs, etc... on them.

As and Englishman, I am very doubtful. I think it will cause riots, worse than if you stood up in a pub and called Mrs. Q a bloody slag.

It may have worked in Ireland, but we English are nothing like the Irish.

I get the shivers thinking about someone telling my Aunt Pat that she can't have a fag in a pub. I WOULD BE VERY AFRAID.

Cheers,
John G.

Well the smoking ban in New York has worked just fine. And I can;t imagine that Londoners are any more ornery or outspoken than New Yorkers.

Its a great idea, but like everything else in this country it will only be half done and it won't be enforced.
Heres to clean smelling clothes and eyes that don't sting.

Muck

ThinGorJus, you may be english, but I believe it's a fair few years since you've been a resident, and dare I suggest a little out of touch?

The ban is coming. The brewery Green King has just announced a nationwide ban in half its pubs across the country. The government is now asking all pubs and restaurants to start phasing in bans before legislation forces it to happen. Smokers everywhere are resigned to it. It looks like the ban will happen first in restaurants, but pubs will follow. It's inevitable. I confess to being a smoker, and I know of no one amongst my smoking friends who are bitching and moaning - we all see it as a good reason to give up.

The big, blunt warnings messages on packs are an EU directive - you can see them across Europe, in the same style. Yes, even in France, Itay and Greece.

Smoking in the UK IS in a minority now. You may think we all puff away like mad, but then as tourists you'll be visiting pubs and restaurants every day - places you'll find more smokers than anywhere else. Even occasional (&quot;social&quot;) smokers, who hardly EVER smoke will have to odd one with a drink down the pub.

But not for long....

The Government is waiting to be pushed: and all the public opinion surveys are pointing in the same direction. It will happen, but it would suit Mr B if a number of local authorities try it out first: I doubt if there's going to be national legislation on this in the run-up to an election!

Yes, you are correct that I don't live in London anymore. But, I do come home at least once a year. I am still doubtful. I think it may work in London, but I think you will have a hard time in small pubs in working-class communities.

I lived in Manhattan for two years and have hundreds of friends in the city. I am told that the ban is NOT working in many bars in the city. One friend told me that in certain small bars on the Lower Eastside people continue to smoke. The NYTIMES recently wrote an article on those who are challenging the law. Many barkeeps are hidding ashtrays behind the bar, and people are smoking in the loo.

As a former member of the club scene, I know that if you can do E, heroin, and cocaine in a loo stall, you can certainly smoke a fag.

And another problem of smoking bans is that the smokers go outside to smoke. <b>BUT!!</b> They stand right outside the doors, so you have to walk through their haze of smelly smoke to enter and exit anyway. [pew, pew!]

There was a time people thought how could you ban smoking on a airplane, people can't be expected to go without a &quot;fag&quot; for 12 hours!! Well smokers, writting is on the wall. As far as exits and doorways, many California laws prohibit anywhere near buildings. There have been hospital employees fired for smoking in their cars in the parking lot. On my morning walks I am still amazed by the butts all over. Many smokers are pigs and the sooner we get them penned up the better for the rest of us.

Massachusetts just passed a state wide ban at the beginning of July; most places seem to be complying with the law.

Many towns and cities in the state had passed full or partial bans months or years before the state-wide ban was passed (including Boston--full ban), so I think things have not really changed for many bars in our state.

My husband is VERY allergic to cigarette smoke, so for us, the ban is a blessing!

Why not leave it up to the individual pub? Pubs could state that they allow/disallow smoking and you can visit if you wish.As Rodney King said&quot;why can't we all just learn to live together?&quot;

The real reason the UK politicians want to ban smoking is cost of health care. Smoking is not a drop dead death it is a slow death of many deseases and all of them cost a fortune.

I'm asking this simply because it puzzles me and makes me curious especially as I have read it here before. What is a severe allergy to cigarette smoke?

It is probably another of my senior moments but I cannot for the life of me figure out how you can be allergic to the smoke. Again, not wishing to start an argument or make a point just curious.

Ilovelabs, we were in Greece last year and will return again at the end of this summer and it seemed almost everyone there smoked. I didn't find it too troublesome or annoying but after your message I now appreciate that it may cause a serious problem to some.

milley

Most pubs these days seem to have no smoking zones, is this not enough in most cases. You usually find that's where you will find the empty seats!

As a non-smoker (or more accurately an ex-smoker)I prefer a less smokey environment. But it does worry me that we have seen the steady decline of the British Pub in the last few years, and is an outright ban what the industry needs? People's locals are closing left, right and centre. If the small village pub is forced to ban smoking throughout, it could have a disasterous effect. Then again, many a small village pub seems to get by flouting the licensing laws. Drinking cider when you are 16, the pub closes when the last customer leaves etc.

The smoking ban will come. We live in a Nanny knows best society. Whether they will be adequately resourced to be enforced throughout England, I doubt it, they could always put another 2p on petrol to pay for it!

<i>&quot;But it does worry me that we have seen the steady decline of the British Pub in the last few years, and is an outright ban what the industry needs?&quot;</i>

Maybe there's been a decline because non-smokers don't like stinking like an ashtray when they leave the pub and have been staying away. Just a thought.

What I don't understand is that, with Eire, NY, California etc all being hailed as huge successes and everybody happy and pubs nicer than ever before why don't publican's make this decision for themselves for commercial reasons?
I'm interested to read about Greene King's anouncement, but when a city centre pub in my home city of Nottingham recently decided to ban smoking this was major news and made the evening paper and television news.

Surely if its the panacea we are being told it is the commercial expedient would be leading us there long before legislation was required?

Dr D.

Kayb95, perhaps your right, although I do think an almost 200% price increase in the price of beer in the last 15 years hasn't helped.

Most, but not all, pubs by me now offer non-smoking areas, often quite large areas, and when I sit in these areas I don't tend to end up smelling like an ash tray.

I would personally like to see a statutory minimum provision for non smokers in licenced public houses. But whichever way you look at it the only way that gives workers the protection they need (and after all they are more important than the non-smokers, because they don't have the option to go off to the non smoking zone or to another pub)is an outright ban.

I remember Yul Brenner's commercials that he ordered to be run after his death from lung cancer. 40 or 50 years ago, the dangers of smoking were not well known. I would be in favor of a ban. As Budman notes it is nice to have a beer without cigarette smoke ruining it.

Actually, there is no such thing as an allergy to cigarette smoke. Read a great article on it the other day. People can have a &quot;sensitivity&quot; to cigarette smoke, but not an allergy. There went one of my excuses to get people not to smoke around me.

ThinGorjus, no, the Irish are nothing like the English, which is why I consider myself lucky to be living in Ireland and not England. The English pretty much do as they're told, anyway.

But I never believed the ban would actually work in Ireland. It's been pretty successful in Dublin, but the country pubs in some areas are another story.

I'm an ex-smoker, quit cold twelve years ago. I visit London often, where many friends still smoke hand-rolled cigarettes using something called &quot;Vanilla tobacco&quot;. For some reason, it doesn't smell as bad as commercial cigs.

I loved going out to the Pubs!
When I stopped smoking though, I started avoid them when in UK, because the smoke made me feel sick after a half hour or so. Now I will join my pals again!

The ban HAS worked wonders here in NYC, where I live. Yes, a few bars are resisting, but the huge majority are working it out, and there are lots of us who avoided them for years, who are now patronizing them again.

Thingorjus, there was also a recent article in the NYTimes that reported a large increase in the numbers of people who have quit smoking since the ban started.

Re &quot;allergy&quot; versus &quot;sensitivity&quot; I think neither of these terms are really descriptive enough to do justice to the harm done to others by cigarette smoke. It's simply poison. That's all. (yes, second hand smoke too) When I used to smoke, I was poisoning myself and other people, including the children in my house. It was hard to quit. It was worth it.

&quot;Non smoking zones?&quot; Where I live and work, it's the opposite, we have &quot;Smoking zones&quot;, which are enclosed so as to protect the rest of us from the smoke.

There are still many dedicated smokers, it's hard not to notice the sea of butts that litter the sidewalks. But I just love that each pack now costs something like $7.50, and I wouldn't mind if they put the price up even more, and use the extra tax money on improving our health care system!

I don't understand why there can be pubs which allow smoking and those that disallow it either. I believe a pub chain has disallowed smoking in pubs which are mainly food sales based. Good! As a smoker myself though, in a bar I would like to have a cigarette. I see the anti-smoking lobby more righteous, pious, priggish and selfish than smokers by calling for an outright ban. Have half the pubs disallow smoking and half the pubs allow it. Have those pubs that allow it employ bar staff who smoke themselves.

Irish are as stubborn as the rest and possibly moreso...but for some reason they (Govt)have had little trouble with the ban. If a working class Dub can stand it so can a working class Brit. People are actually having a laugh this summer smoking outside complaining etc...it's the winter that will show if it works!

Well.... here's a solution for those who simply can't stand the idea of being in the pub without the smell of tobacco;

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/tm...name_page.html

It's not April 1st is it?

Jim

In Australia, its only a matter of time, before smoking is completely banned in all hotels &amp; clubs. At the moment you can't smoke inside restaurant areas of clubs/hotels/restaurants.
Has anyone seen the &quot;smoking rooms&quot; at Bangkok Airport. They are situated inside the terminal, fully glassed, with people inside puffing away. The room is so full of smoke, that you can hardly see the people inside.
I think lung cancer helps smokers give it up, glad I gave it up, the best thing I ever did. I had to have chest x-rays for 10 years after giving it up, to make sure I didn't contract lung cancer. Funny, how so many smokers think that the day, they give it up, they wont contract anything, silly them.