This appeared on Wales Online today:
According to a recent study 1 in 5 ex-smokers have stated that a ban on smoking on pub premises, including pub gardens and outdoor seating would help them quit the habit for good.
Commissioned by Vape Club, 'the UK's largest online vape shop', the Quitting Smoking for Mental Health study asked 1,000 current and ex-smokers across the UK 'what measures could be the greatest help for smoking cessation'.
Although only a small minority - 20% - suggested a complete ban on smoking on pub premises including beer gardens would help them quit it was enough to prompt the headline 'Call for smoking to be banned outdoors at pubs in UK'.
Other reported measures were:
No more than one in four supported any of these policies yet Vape Club director Dan Marchant declared:
“It’s clear that local authorities and businesses can be really effective agents of change when it comes to encouraging smoking cessation. With the right tools in place, simple measures to promote smoking cessation can make a huge difference to someone’s overall wellbeing, both mentally and physically – as well as reducing the ongoing strain that both smoking and smoking cessation services place on the NHS.”
The Wales Online report was published initially without a counter argument but after several emails and phone calls it was updated to read:
But the idea of an outdoor smoking ban is not universally supported. Simon Clark, director of the smokers’ group Forest, said:
“There is absolutely no justification for banning smoking outside pubs and thankfully there is very little support for it.
“If ex-smokers are so easily tempted to relapse that’s their problem not the publican’s.”
He added: “Demands to ban smoking outside are the last thing publicans need as they try to recover from lockdown.
“Ultimately it’s a matter for them, not government or anti-smoking campaigners, to choose a policy that best suits their business and attracts the largest number of customers.”
If Dan Marchant and Vape Club sound familiar it's because I mentioned them almost a year ago, shortly before menthol cigarettes were outlawed.
As I reported here the company conducted a survey that found that 'Almost half a million smokers will quit as a result of the menthol ban'.
Referring (I think) to the menthol ban, Marchant said:
“It’s great to hear that the steps being taken are set to have a real effect on the number of tobacco smokers in the UK, and take us closer towards the government’s 2030 UK smoking targets."
Now 'the UK's largest online vape shop' appears to be calling for further measures to 'encourage' smoking cessation.
Perhaps, instead of supporting further restrictions on smokers, businesses like Vape Club should consider the consequences of more regulations that will almost certainly be extended, in due course, to vaping.
It amazes me they just can't see it.