When is smoking socially unacceptable?
Thursday, March 10, 2016 at 13:29 In case you missed it, yesterday was No Smoking Day.
At risk of sounding like a stuck record, NSD ain't what it used to be.
When I first joined Forest we spent weeks preparing for it, sending out media packs to journalists and broadcasters. (In those days everything had to be photocopied, stuffed in envelopes and posted – that's how long ago it was!)
Almost every national newspaper had something about the event.
The regional press lapped it up too with local businesseses more than happy to jump on the anti-smoking bandwagon for a little publicity. (Ban smoking at work? In 2001 that was a guaranteed headline in the Witheringham Hall Gazette.)
In London members of the House of Lords' pipe and cigar club (or whatever it was called) would gather outside the Palace of Westminster for a group photograph and the resulting picture would invariably make the next day's papers – sometimes on the front page.
I was warned that NSD was the busiest day of the year for Forest and for a couple of years it was. I encouraged my colleages to organise a media-friendly PR stunt – a "smoker-friendly fry-up" at Simpsons-in-the-Strand, a day trip to Paris ("the European capital of smoking") – anything to quell the tide of anti-smoking propoaganda.
I might be wrong but NSD was, I think, an organisation in its own right. I'm not sure what the structure is now but it was taken over by the British Heart Foundation a few years ago and it limps on, still generating some media interest but it's no longer a national 'event'.
How could it be with Public Health England pumping gallons of public money into Stoptober, including hundreds of thousands of pounds in fees for celebrity endorsements?
Anyway, to cut a long story short, one of the questions I was asked during an interview yesterday was, "Is smoking socially unacceptable?"
Naturally my answer was "No" but I qualified it by saying it depends on the circumstances.
After thinking about it further here are some examples of when I think smoking is socially acceptable, and when it's not.
It's highly subjective and your thoughts may be very different but I'll ask (and answer) the question anyway.
Is it socially acceptable to smoke ...
At home – yes
In your own car – yes
On the beach – yes
In a public park – yes
In a pub or bar with the proprietor's consent – yes
Outside a pub or bar – yes
In the street – yes
In a hospital ward – no
In hospital grounds – yes
In a cinema – no
On public transport – no
In someone else's house without their permission – no
What strikes me about that list is that even I, a non-smoker but a staunt advocate of smokers' rights, now considers it socially unacceptable to smoke in the cinema or on public transport.
Twenty or thirty years ago I would almost certainly have said 'yes'. Sixty years ago, had I been an adult in the 1950s, I would probably have considered it acceptable to smoke in a hospital ward too.
The question therefore is how will my responses to the same questions change in the next 10-20 years?
After all there's a difference between my personal view of what is socially acceptable or unacceptable and what society at large considers to be acceptable or unacceptable.
Many people, for example, have a far higher tolerance for 'loud' music than I do so what I consider to be socially unacceptable may not shared by the wider public.
Anyway, allowing for all that I'd be interested to know where, in 2016, you consider it socially acceptable to smoke.
I'm not talking about where it's legal to smoke but where you feel most at ease and get the least tut-tutting or dirty looks from non-smokers.
For example, someone I know who lives in Geneva told me she is far less relaxed about smoking in London because she senses people's intolerance.
One passer-by, she told me, tut-tutted as she lit up. That, she said, would never happen in Switzerland (or many other European countries).
Yes, smoking in the street in Britain is legal but is it socially acceptable? I believe it still is – genuine anti-smoking fanatics are a very small minority of the population – but intolerance is growing, driven by propaganda about passive smoking and the alleged impact on children of seeing a complete stranger light up several yards away.
Ditto parks, beaches and other outdoor areas.
That's the battle that faces us in the next decade – keeping smoking socially acceptable in those public (and private) spaces where it has not yet been prohibited.
In the meantime here's that question again:
'When – in your opinion or experience – is smoking socially acceptable or unacceptable?'
Reader Comments (56)
Whats been happening in the last 30 years is blindingly obvious regarding anti smoking measures, thanks for the history lesson but its not needed by me and by smokers either, whats needed is an answer to it, not endless rants about Nazis/Eugenics.
My suggestion is to quit flat earthing rants about SHS which is hated because of its immediate effects on non smokers by a large percentage of the population, nor pretending smoking isnt harmful which is agreed thoughout the world, and fantasies about well funded fanatics controlling world scientific opinion.
The problem is nothing is changing for smokers its just getting worse, the answer is sensible lobbying which everyone is agreed on. Its been 9 years since the smoking ban and 9 years of ranting about the pubs closing because of the smoking ban
What have Pubs done for their smoking customers?...just about nothing, plastic chairs if you are lucky and the odd heater, they don't care about smokers, they don't want us back in my opinion either.
No outdoor bans
No care home bans
No Home bans.
Lets opt for socially acceptable changes and not flat earthing extreme ranting without any suggestions, there never are suggestions just more bullying Hitler crap.
There’s Bernard, who sounds very much like an antismoker (probably a born-again vapist?), who’s going to have a nice, reasonable chat with [State-funded] prohibitionists [giggle]. I hope you’re wearing a raincoat, Bernard, because your uninformed, antismoking, peeing-into-the-wind rant ain’t going anywhere. As a person who smokes, I wouldn’t want you on my side.
The problem is nothing is changing for smokers its just getting worse
You betcha. Most folk, e.g., you, still have no idea what’s driving it….. even after 30 years.
You've mentioned several times, Bernard, "sensible lobbying" - so, what are your suggestions?
@Jay101, suggestions yeah why not!, its about time some blogging space was given to answers to the smoking ban, because squealing about Hitler/jackboots, silly denial about smoking isnt the answer.
1. Tobacco companies should advertise in the media against "beach bans" etc, they should take the stance that the smoking ban was needed and just but its gone too far, they should concentrate on those in care homes standing outside in sub zero temperatures, and outdoor spaces where SHS problems are plain silly.
Why is the tobacco industry silent?, except Forest with a limited budget.
2. Why are smokers silent?, tiny pressure groups can make a lot of noise yet 12 million smokers are invisible, there should be direct action campaigns.
3. Simon Clark should not be the only person to speak for smokers on issues, there seems to be nobody else, no organised group behind him, he appears to run a one man show.
4. Change the endless cycle of reacting to smoking stories, its time smokers started the debate and ASH responds to them.
12 million smokers and a very rich tobacco industry, something is going seriously wrong when beach bans start to get mentioned.
The elderly and smoking in sub zero temperatures isnt socially acceptable to virtually anyone, a good place to start for a tobacco industry paid for advert prime time.
Bernard, appearances can be a little deceptive. It's true Forest is a small operation with a limited budget but it's certainly not a one-man band. It may look that way because I'm the principal spokesman and public face but I couldn't do this job on my own and it would be remiss not to acknowledge those who work on admin, campaigns & events - not to mention our spokesman in Ireland (John Mallon) and our Action on Consumer Choice manager (Rob Lyons). It's a team effort and their part in this battle shouldn't go unrecognised.
Bernard, I think it would be an excellent idea if the tobacco companies jointly ran full page press releases - but either they're not allowed to or the press won't accept them. Not sure if Forest has tried proactive rather than reactive copy.