Should we ban smoking in all public parks?

Britain’s chief medical officer has said that smoking in parks should be banned to stop a bad example being set to children.

Dame Sally Davies said children may see adults smoking in parks and then seek to copy them: “We all know smoking is bad for health … So I welcome any measures to reduce both active smoking and its role-modelling in front of children.”

The London Health Commission report points out that two-classrooms full of children take up smoking each day, “inspired by the adults that they see”, it claims.

Is it going to happen?

Commissioned by London Mayor Boris Johnson to focus just on royal parks in London, the findings could see smoking in Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square banned, but the authors, including former Health Minister Lord Darzi, said it could provide a blueprint for the rest of the UK.

“London should lead the way for Britain, and the mayor should lead the way for London by acting to make our public spaces smoke free”, said Lord Darzi. Boris Johnson said he would want to see evidence of the health benefits.

Where else has this been tried?

In 2012 Caerphilly Council banned smoking in 100 play areas as a result of a campaign called “Young Lungs at Play” that was led by the local youth forum.

The Youth Forum told the council that people smoking in parks was spoiling things for the young people in the borough.

And Blackpool NHS, backed by the local council, made 13 parks and open spaces smoke free in 2012, and extended it last month, again to help prevent children taking up smoking, but at the time the Department of Health pointed out that smokers would not be breaking the law by flouting it.

However the leader of Manchester council said this week that a ban on smoking in parks there was unenforceable and too costly.

What’s buried in the report?

While smoking kills 8,000 Londoners each year, air pollution is responsible for seven per cent of all deaths in London, killing 4,200 Londoners every year.

Air pollution is responsible for 5.4 per cent of all deaths in England as a whole.

Lord Darzi said: “The Mayor should accelerate planned initiatives on air quality in London to help save lives and improve the quality of life for all Londoners.

“The Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) is urgently needed, as is the development of a public transport fleet capable of zero emission operation.”

So who thinks banning smoking in parks is a bad idea?

Simon Clark from smokers’ group Forest said “The next thing will be a ban on smoking in our own gardens in case a whiff of smoke travels over the fence.”

And Stephanie Lis, of the Institute for Economic Affairs said: ‘This is an outrageous attack on personal freedom – a slippery slope on the path to banning smoking altogether.”

How likely is this to happen?

Successive governments have brought in a series of restrictions on the sale and promotion of smoking.

Tobacco sponsorship was banned in 2002, while the smoking ban was implemented in 2007.

Graphic images on packets of cigarette was put in in 2008, and Parliament banned smoking in cars in 2014.

Plain packaging on cigarette packets is being considered by Parliament. And New York City has successfully banned smoking in the massive Central Park, as well as smoking within several metres of public buildings.

Channel 4 News readers have had plenty to say on this subject today. Here are some of the comments we recieved on Facebook:

“I’d rather have clean, un-polluted air. Only a non-smoker can tell you just how foul the stench of second-hand tobacco really is, even in the open air,” said Iain Melville.

“I presume all the holier than thou non smokers have already moved to the top of a mountain somewhere to avoid all the other atmospheric contaminants present in towns and cities too numerous to mention”, said a user writing under the name Gar Eth.

“Ban dogs while you’re at it, and yappy children, and old people who nod off on a bench, and young couples kissing”, said Mark Keown.

“All things I never considered as a smoker I now understand as a non smoker. I don’t believe in taking away people’s right to smoke, it’s their health they can do what they like but when it also impacts on innocent people”, said Rob Geraghty.

“The smoking ban indoors/public places was great. But banning ppl from smoking in open air is stupid”, said Emmett Moore.