Smoking ban for cars due October 2015

From October 2015 it will be illegal to smoke in cars with children present under the biggest crackdown on smoking from the Government since the introduction of the 2007 ban on smoking in public places.

The Department of Health (DoH) said the tighter regulations laid before Parliament to make private vehicles carrying under-18s smoke-free were formulated with the aim to “protect young people from the serious health harms of smoked tobacco”.

The new plans will result in a fixed fine of £50 being given to people who smoke, or those who fail to prevent others from lighting up within private vehicles also carrying children.

Early in the New Year there will be a vote on the subject, involving both MPs and peers. Following this, there will be a period of three weeks for them to thoroughly assess the proposals put forth by the Department of Health.

This appears to be a formality though following a majority approval by MPs earlier in the year. Back in February MPs voted 376 to 107 – a majority of 269 – in favour of the ban, first suggested by Labour as an amendment to the children and families bill. The majority vote even eclipsed that which resulted in the smoking ban from July 2007, forbidding smoking in areas such as pubs, restaurants and nightclubs.

Most of the country could be behind the ban according to a YouGov poll for the anti-smoking group Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), which discovered that 77% of adults – including 64% of those who actually smoke – were behind the plans to make it illegal to light up in cars carrying anyone under the age of 18.

The legislation would criminalise smoking from parents, carers or other adults in a car where there is anyone present under 18. According to the British Lung Foundation, there are about 430,000 children that are exposed to second-hand smoke each week in a family car.

Dr Penny Woods, the charity’s chief executive, raved about the Government’s plans, saying she was “delighted” by the proposals.

She said: “We are now closer than ever to helping protect the hundreds of thousands of children exposed to dangerous concentrations of second-hand smoke in cars every week.”

ASH were also happy with the plans to ban smoking in cars with children, but said the legislation should go one step further and stretch to a blanket ban which would also comprise of adults in vehicles too.

ASH chief executive Deborah Arnott said: “We are delighted that the Government is to press ahead with regulations to prohibit smoking in cars containing children.

“As with the smoke-free public places law, this is a popular measure that will largely be self-enforcing. However, second-hand smoke is just as harmful to adults as children and it makes it more difficult to enforce if it only applies to some cars, not all. Seatbelt laws don’t just apply to children, why should smoke-free car laws?”

Ministers in Wales abolish plans to permit smoking on film sets

Proposals that would have seen the smoking ban relaxed in Wales to permit actors to smoke in film or TV sets have been scrapped following a review of the arguments for and against it by ministers.
An alteration to the provisions of the 2007 smoking ban would resulted in performers being excluded from the ban in particular circumstances, but health leaders heavily criticised the potential exemptions, arguing it could be setting a dangerous precedent.

Wales, just like England, has a smoking ban in place that applies to enclosed public places such as bars, restaurants and in the workplace. After the law was passed in 2007, coalition ministers in Wales specifically made sure that the regulations also extended to actors smoking on set.

Assembly Members were due to vote on an amendment to the smoking law at the end of last year, but the vote never took place – largely because of a lack of support from Assembly Members.
Yesterday’s decision to abolish the plan though has been met with relief and joy by many anti-smoking campaigners and politicians.

Elen de Lacy, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) in Wales said: “We are delighted that plans to dilute the smoking ban in Wales have been dropped by the Welsh Government. The smoking ban has always been about protecting public health and all workers in Wales have a right to be protected from the harm of second-hand smoke, wherever they work. The film and TV industry’s demands have rightly been thrown out and we hope they never make these demands again. This decision sends a firm message to all industries who want to challenge our legislation, including the tobacco industry, that our values on public health are not for sale.”

The main calls for a relaxation in the smoking law came from BBC Wales, who had warned about an inadvertent impact to the economy in Wales if changes were not made. They argue that productions could withdraw from Wales and instead switch to England where such exemptions already exist – ergo bypassing the more restrictive Welsh law.

Changes to the law in Wales were being taken into consideration by two Assembly committees. Providing her case to the smoking sub-committee, BBC Wales’ head of productions Clare Hudson claimed that losing one particular drama would potentially cost Wales up to £12m.

However, Health Minister Professor Mark Drakeford was a staunch opponent of the planned amendments to the smoking legislation. After taking up his position in March, one of his first aims was to stop any changes being made.

Shattering BBC Wales’ hopes, Prof Drakeford released a statement yesterday saying: “Prior to them being debated it was announced that the Enterprise and Business Committee and the Health and Social Care Committee of the Assembly would take evidence from all interested parties on this matter, with a view to producing a final report on their conclusions. The minister for economy, science and transport and I have reviewed the evidence presented to the sub-committees to date, and have concluded that the government will not proceed with the original proposals at this time.”

Plaid Cymru health spokeswoman Elin Jones was delighted with the news, commenting: “It was clear from the evidence given to the committee that creating an exemption from the ban was not justified on health or economic grounds. Reducing smoking must remain one of the priorities for the Health Minister. Banning smoking in public places has been a great success and we believe that there are further measures that the Welsh Government could take to reduce smoking.”

Child asthma problems alleviated since the smoking ban

A study has found that the total number of children requiring hospital treatment because of their asthma has declined since the introduction of the July 2007 smoking ban – prohibiting lighting up in all enclosed public spaces such as restaurants, nightclubs, bars, shopping centres, etc.

The Imperial College London’s analysis on NHS figures has been published in the journal Pediatrics. They looked at admission rates dating all the way back to April 2002 and  they explain there has been an incredible 8.9% reduction in hospital admissions following the first 12 months after the ban came into play.

Intriguingly, researchers identified that preceding the 2007 ban there was a 2.2% rise each year in the number of children admitted to hospital due to severe asthma symptoms that include coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath and tightness in the chest. Taking into account the predicted 2.2% rise annually, researchers say that in those first 12 months, the ban had therefore helped to decrease admissions by 12% with this decline continuing in subsequent years and a 3.4% fall per year for the next two years. This clearly demonstrates the positive impact the legislation is having on health in addition to emphasising how damaging cigarette smoke actually is.

Lead researcher Dr Christopher Millett says that the drop works out at an estimated 6,802 fewer hospital admissions in the first three years of the smoking legislation coming into effect.

Dr Millett spoke on the huge health benefits since the introduction of the ban, commenting: “There is already evidence that eliminating smoking from public places has resulted in substantial population health benefits in England, and this study shows that those benefits extend to reducing hospital admissions for childhood asthma. Previous studies have also suggested that the smoke-free law changed people’s attitudes about exposing others to second-hand smoke and led more people to abstain from smoking voluntarily at home and in cars. We think that exposing children to less second-hand smoke in these settings probably played an important role in reducing asthma attacks. The findings are good news for England, and they should encourage countries where public smoking is permitted to consider introducing similar legislation.”

Medical Specialists Pharmacy finds Dr Millett’s comments particularly interesting as he touches on many topics that we have previously addressed such as the underestimated subject of second-hand (passive) smoking. Not just displeasing because of the foul odour, second-hand smoking can be a killer and those who do smoke need to be clued-up about this serious matter and consider the harm they are inflicting on those around them – in addition to themselves. Parents who are smoking inside their cars  is another factor not considered often enough and the impact this has to their children’s health – especially if a child is asthmatic as this is one factor that can cause their symptoms to flare-up.

Emily Humphreys, head of policy and public affairs at Asthma UK, was happy with the findings of the study and she said: “It’s great to see growing evidence of the positive impact of smoke-free legislation. This is something we campaigned for, so it is particularly encouraging that there has been a fall in children’s hospital admissions for asthma since its introduction.”

Asthma is a long-term respiratory condition where the air passages within the lungs become unexpectedly inflamed, narrowed and swollen. This leads to a prevention of airflow into and out of the lungs. Asthma attacks happen usually following a response to an allergen, cold air, exercise, or emotional stress.

There are a predicted 5.4 million people in the UK currently receive treatment for asthma – 1 in every 11 children and 1 in every 12 adults. This equates to 8.8% of the total population (62 million estimated in 2010). In addition, it affects a staggering 300 million people worldwide.

Although there is no cure, asthma can be controlled through the use of preventer and reliever inhalers and Medical Specialists provide many varieties of each and more information about these and how to obtain them can be found on the Asthma and Allergies area of the website.