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Majority favour smoking ban, survey finds.
Published 11th November, 2004.
Story from The Guardian: http://society.guardian.co.uk/print/0%2C3858%2C5060735-110259%2C00.html
A ban on smoking in restaurants and cafes has widespread support, a poll
revealed today.
The survey revealed that 77% of those polled want smoking banned in restaurants,
and 58%
wish to see smoking stopped in all enclosed public places. The findings
follow the decision by the Scottish executive yesterday to ban smoking
in public places across Scotland.
The poll was carried out by NOP for the Mirror and surveyed 1,000 people,
73% of whom were non-smokers, 26% smokers and 1% undeclared.
Some 49% were in favour of a ban in pubs while 44% were opposed. More
interestingly, 76% of smokers were in favour of a ban in pubs. Another
64% of those surveyed said a ban in would not make a difference to the
amount of time they spent in pubs and restaurants.
Deborah Arnott, the director of Ash (Action on Smoking and Health), said
in response to the Scottish announcement: "This is great news for
non-smoking employees and members of the public who are at risk from the
health damage caused by second hand smoke.
It will also encourage many smokers to cut down or quit altogether. Thousands
of lives will be saved as a result."
Inevitably, protest came from the tobacco industry and pro-smoking groups.
Freedom2Choose spokesman, Rod Bullough, warned that thousands of businesses
would be put under threat. "We are opposed to an outright ban on
smoking in pubs and bars, but we're not opposed to it on health grounds.
"Nobody is stupid enough to think that smoking is good for you, but
we see a ban as a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Our research suggests that
on the back of a ban, 10,000 jobs
would be lost and up to a thousand businesses would go down the drain."
