England Goes Smoke Free July 1
by Bonnie Alter, London on 06.19.07
Northern Ireland, Wales, and Scotland have already butted out and England is next. As of July 1, the United Kingdom will become the largest country in the world to be non-smoking. A huge campaign is underway to alert citizens that smoking will be illegal in all workplaces, restaurants and enclosed public spaces. Of course the hysteria is focused on pubs, with publicans fearing for their livelihood. The Republic of Ireland went smoke free in 2004, and despite claims that the law would have a negative economic impact, there has been no decline in business at pubs and restaurants, in fact business has improved. It's hardly rocket science but a recent study has found that the smoking ban in Ireland has cut air pollution in pubs and improved bar-workers' health. Scotland banned smoking last year and it is estimated that more than 46,000 people quit as a result of the ban. Publicans there claim that drink sales have gone down 11 per cent as the locals have stayed away and 35 per cent of pubs have laid off staff. David Hockney, the artist, is a one-man band, railing against the smoking ban and "dreary people" telling him what to do. He points out that "Monet smoked, and he died at 86. Picasso and Matisse smoked, and lived to a ripe old age." In England about 27% of British adults still smoke and the government expects that approximately 600,000 people will quit as a direct result of the ban. :: Smokefree England
We did it here in New Jersey, and so far we've been okay. I was out to eat with my conservative grandparents the day after the ban was passed, and we saw the employee's unscrewing the "Smoking Section" sign from the wall, and everyone, including the manager, cheered as it was thrown in the trash.
Then my grandmother complained to them that business should run business. She still doesn't get the irony...
Here in Washington we instituted the no smoking ban last year. A recent study found that restaurants and bars were doing just fine, while casino business was down. Local casinos have to compete with the Tribal casinos, which do not have to follow the smoking ban do to the fact that they are on reservation land. Of course the other day when I was at a Tribal Casino I was amazed at how bad the smokiness was. Most of my family got sick shortly after our visit.
What people like David Hockney need to realize is that they are welcome to smoke. Just as long as it is not in a place that clearly effects everybody around them.
This is really amazing. I wish the U.S. could implement such laws. It's too bad that they'll have to put up a big fight about it though with people who do smoke.
It's really hard here in Texas. They're trying to get smoking laws passed, but not so sucessfully. There's tons of Texans who don't like the law, so the law is kind of flimsy. Sadly. I hope that such big laws like the one in England can come to the U.S. soon.
I personally think that if you want to smoke, you should go home and do it. Don't do it in public. It's like having sex in public. Just not something you should do. Keep it to yourself.
San Diego and much of California is on the way to being smoke free. Just recently San Diego expanded smoking bans to public parks and our beaches... Which in turn reduces litter.
However, the real losers of smoking bans are not the bars and pubs, but the dry cleaners. Seriously, recently read an article, wish I could site the source. This in turn reduces the amount of chemicals used for dry cleaning, another advantage of baning smoking.
California has had this sort of law for so long that it practically feels like a trip through a time machine when I visit another state and they ask "smoking or non-smoking?" It always feels like I've gone back to the 80s..
Well, I am no smoker, but I have been told by a number of Irish friends that the pubs that are really successful in Ireland have all built plastic canopies outside and they heat them with gas operated garden heaters. Everybody then smokes there, leaving the inside relatively quiet! Hardly an eco-friendly solution!
BIG DEAL Englang goes smokefree on July 1st ... N. Ireland & Scotland for over a year now and I don't recall there being nearly as much about in the media as there is now - Don't get me wrong I'm a smoker and I think its a great idea - But it makes me wonder about our English cousines are they really so stupid that they have to be reminded every five minutes about it....Mmmm...Makes you think.
I wish I could go to some live local concerts without coming back smelling like an ashtray. Sometimes the smoke in these places is so thick my eyes start burning and watering. It is really unpleasant.
its a great idea for a smoking ban so people like me dont get injoured age 13
its a great idea for a smoking ban so people like me dont get injoured age 13