Should Smoking Be Banned In Pub Gardens?

The Royal Society for Health have called for the smoking ban to be extended to beer gardens, outdoor areas of restaurants, parks and outside of school gates. According to an article from the BBC, the society want to make smoking appear to be less ‘normal’ and encourage the use of e-cigarettes for nicotine cravings.

Pro-smoking groups have claimed that the proposed extending of the smoking ban will not be successful and more pubs will close if it was implemented. They also claim that it would be a discrimination against adults who, within their own rights, choose to smoke. However, the Royal Society for Health wants to limit the visibility of smoking to children, as they believe this will stop them thinking that smoking is common and normal, and hopefully prevent them from taking it up in the future.

The Society has also called for licences to sell cigarettes, e-cigarettes to become mandatory in locations that sell cigarettes, that they are more available at smoking cessation services and are renamed ‘vaporisers’ or ‘nicotine control products’.

At Perpetuity Research, our own research has shown the importance of teaching young people that smoking is not ‘normal’ and that it should not be treated as a ‘right of passage’. We have evaluated a number of initiatives to reduce and prevent young people taking up smoking, including an evaluation of The Smokescreen Mediology, an innovative campaign to educate young people on how the tobacco industry seeks to manipulate them.

To read more more about our work on health research and smoking prevention click here