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Smoke-free parks idea gains favour  

Cigarettes could be stubbed out of Hamilton playgrounds and parks under a new smoke-free policy to be considered by the council in August.

A Waikato coalition group working against smoking, known as Chances, and the Waikato Bay of Plenty Cancer Society are also urging the city council to enforce a non-smoking rule across parks, playgrounds and bus shelters after unprecedented public support.

The calls coincide with a proposal from Auckland health heads to the Auckland Council to comply with the Cancer Society's request to restrict cigarette or tobacco smoking in its open spaces, parks, sports fields and playgrounds, as well as in malls and pedestrian areas.

A survey of 111 residents at Hamilton Lake and Innes Common playgrounds, the city bus station and Waikato University in mid-2011 found 94% wanted children's playgrounds to be smoke-free.

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Editorial | Tick, Tock On Smoking Ban 

Just look at how far we've come in half a lifetime.

We laugh now that you could once smoke in a plane, a restaurant or a hospital corridor. Family doctors smoked while giving their diagnoses. Bus drivers smoked. So did chefs.

So where are we now? . . .

Around the country, more and more council playgrounds are smoke-free, and now the Auckland Regional Public Health Service has proposed bans in parks, sports fields, malls and pedestrian areas.

It's the next drop of water on the stone, a stone the Government has said will be worn away by 2025.

We've had a huge culture shift. Cigarette smokers are now viewed as the social outsiders, not the other way around.

There's still a long way to go. . . .

You don't have to be a smoker to wonder about a ban of the habit in people's own cars and homes.

Because, if you ban smoking in those places, what indeed is next?

And realistically, given the policing issues, the only way to enforce an absolute ban would be to cut off all supplies.

Ridiculous?

They did it in prisons.

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City survey shows support for ban on smoking in parks  

Cigarettes could be stubbed out of Hamilton playgrounds and parks under a new smokefree policy to be considered by the council in August.

A Waikato coalition group working against smoking, known as Chances, and the Waikato Bay of Plenty Cancer Society are also urging the city council to enforce a non-smoking rule across parks, playgrounds and bus shelters after unprecedented public support.

The calls coincide with a proposal from Auckland health bosses to the Auckland Council to comply with the Cancer Society's request to restrict cigarette or tobacco smoking in its open spaces, parks, sports fields and playgrounds, as well as in malls and pedestrian areas.

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'Merit' in smokefree spaces  

Banning smoking in council-controlled areas could be a move in the right direction, say South Canterbury's smokefree promoters and a district councillor.

It was reported last week that the Auckland Regional Public Health Service (ARPHS) proposed the council should ban smoking in public areas, such as parks, sports fields and playgrounds, as well as in malls and pedestrian areas.

The Timaru District Council declared all children's playgrounds smokefree last year, and Smokefree South Canterbury Committee chairwoman Kate Johnson said the ARPHS proposal was a positive move.

"It's important to note we are not talking about bans per se, but educational policy through positive signage and promotions to show people these are smokefree areas and encourage them not to light up," Ms Johnson said.

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Smoke free stance pays off for motel couple 

STANDING FIRM: Norm and Shelagh Castle have no regrets, a year after making their Paihia motel totally smoke-free.

A year after making their Bay of Islands motel totally smoke-free, owners Norm and Shelagh Castle say it has led to far more positives than negatives.

The couple's Cook's Lookout motel, in Paihia, went totally smoke-free a year ago after they decided their principles could not let them permit smoking anywhere on their property.

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John Loof: Let's blow away the spread of cancer  

In Auckland alone there are five funerals every day as a result of smoking-related diseases. The Cancer Society and public health officials see first-hand the devastating toll this takes on families, whanau and our community. Each smoking-related death is preventable, which just adds to the tragedy. This is what motivates us to support the Government's goal of a smokefree New Zealand by 2025.

The Auckland Plan, due to be released next month, charts the future of the city through to 2040. Under Mayor Len Brown's leadership this council has said it is committed to improving the health of Aucklanders and making this the world's most liveable city. We welcome the Mayor's declaration that he will be a champion on this issue and it is very important that the plan acknowledges the Government's goal and recognises the proactive role council has in achieving a smokefree country by 2025. . . .

Finally, what about the office worker who just wants to step outside for a quick ciggie break? We are saying that it is time to consider what is the real advantage of smoking? If it becomes a little more inconvenient in the future then that might just be the very reason to give up.

All these moves are not designed to victimise smokers. They are primarily setting a platform to prevent our kids from becoming the next generation of cancer statistics, as well as supporting Aucklanders to have the healthy future we all deserve. It's our future, let's make it one with less cancer.

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Backing for public smoking ban  

Auckland councillors are divided over a proposed smoking ban in public outdoor areas, but the majority of New Zealanders say the idea is either sensible or good in theory.

The proposed smokefree areas would include the city centre, parks, sports grounds, playgrounds, stadiums, parts of beaches, council-controlled land such as around the Auckland Museum and art gallery, and events supported by the council, such as Pasifika.

The proposal - which featured in the Herald yesterday - was put before the council by Andy Roche and Dr Lavinia Perumal, of the Auckland Regional Public Health Service, last year and is backed by the Auckland, Counties-Manukau and Waitemata district health boards.

They said the council should comply with the Cancer Society's request to restrict cigarette or tobacco smoking in its open spaces.

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Herald on Sunday Editorial: Smoking ban idea goes too far  

The process of making tobacco-smoking socially unacceptable grinds on with a remorseless inevitability. It's a safe bet that, by the end of this century, tobacco-smokers will be confined to darkened rooms, like the opium dens and speakeasies of the past.

It has been a swift shift in public policy and community attitudes, most notable for the fact that the former has led the latter, rather than vice versa. . . .

Repeated studies show that price is the single biggest determinant in persuading people away from tobacco, and steady increases in excise taxes, the latest of them at the beginning of this month, have had a measurable effect on smoking rates. Most smokers want to quit and, by and large, accept price increases with glum resignation. Most smokers also feel guilty enough and with exceptions, conspicuous only because of their rarity, moderate their behaviour out of concern for others. Disapproval and the embarrassment it engenders is a far more powerful disincentive to smoking in public than any council ban would be.

Smokers can help their own cause by conscientiously showing consideration for others, of course. Bleating about "smokers' rights" does them no credit. Nor does promulgating such fictions as the old one about how they pay more in tax than they cost the health system: the respective figures are actually $1 billion and $1.7 billion a year, not counting the loss to national productivity of their early deaths.

Smoking is, in more ways than one, a dying habit. But its end will not be hastened by seeking to criminalise people for using a legal drug - even if it is the only one which, used as directed, inevitably harms users and those around them.

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Editorial: Care needed so rights don't go up in smoke  

Any move to restrict smoking should strike a deft balance. On the one hand, there is people's right to be protected from second-hand smoke. On the other, there are the rights of the one in five people who enjoy a pastime that remains legal.

That second right tends to be disregarded by public health advocates and others who vilify cigarette smoking and are keen to make the country smoke-free. That is again evident in the push to get the Auckland Council to ban smoking in all public outdoor areas in the city.

The move, proposed by the Auckland Regional Public Health Service, is backed by the Auckland, Counties-Manukau and Waitemata district health boards. If implemented, it would prohibit smoking in Auckland's open spaces, parks, sportsfields and playgrounds, as well as in malls and pedestrian areas. This is said to have two aims - "to protect children from second-hand smoke ... and, ultimately, to prevent uptake of smoking among young people". . . .

Research and practice has proved time and again that lifting the tax on tobacco, as happens haphazardly and relatively rarely, is the most effective way to reduce the number of smokers. Young people, in particular, are deterred by increased prices.

This, not a ban on smoking in all public outdoor areas, stops children picking up the habit. It also means the balance of rights is not skewed almost totally in favour of non-smokers.

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A persisting secondhand smoke hazard in urban public places: results from fine particulate (PM2.5) air sampling  

Aim

To assess the need for additional smokefree settings, by measuring secondhand smoke (SHS) in a range of public places in an urban setting. . . .

Conclusions

The results suggest that compliance in pubs/bars and restaurants has remained extremely high in this city in the nearly six years since implementation of the upgraded smokefree legislation. The results also highlight additional potential health gain from extending smokefree policies to reduce SHS exposure in the "outdoor" smoking areas of hospitality venues and to reduce SHS drift from these areas to indoor areas.

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• Smoking ban proposed for Auckland  

Health bosses want the Auckland Council to ban smoking in all public outdoor areas in the city in a bid to stop children picking up the habit.

The proposed ban would include the city centre, parks, playgrounds, sports grounds, stadiums, parts of beaches, council-controlled land such as around the Auckland Museum and art gallery, and events supported by the council, such as Pasifika.

The proposal from Andy Roche and Dr Lavinia Perumal, of the Auckland Regional Public Health Service, is backed by the Auckland, Counties-Manukau and Waitemata district health boards.

They say the council should comply with the Cancer Society's request to restrict cigarette or tobacco smoking in its open spaces, parks, sports fields and playgrounds, as well as in malls and pedestrian areas.

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Smoking outdoors at pubs and bars: is it a problem? An air quality study  

Conclusions

Air quality in semi-enclosed outdoor smoking areas was variable, and in some pubs was very poor. Where free communication exists between outdoor smoking areas and indoor areas, SHS drift can often greatly reduce indoor air quality throughout the pub or bar. Regulations to restrict the degree of communication and proximity of smoking areas to indoor areas may be justified to maintain indoor air quality and to protect health, particularly that of workers.

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Setting a Good Example? Changes in Smoking Prevalence Among Key Occupational Groups in New Zealand: Evidence From the 1981 and 2006 Censuses 

Conclusions: Persisting high smoking prevalence among some occupational groups suggest that additional targeted smoking cessation support for role model occupational groups may be justified.

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'Social pressure' to stop Auckland smokers  

Auckland Council would rely on social pressure to stop smokers from lighting up in public spaces should a ban be introduced, Park, Recreation and Heritage Forum chairwoman Sandra Coney says.

Proposals to ban smoking in the city centre, parks, playgrounds and at council-run events have been submitted to councillors by officials from the Auckland Regional Public Health Service.

The plan hopes to reduce public exposure to secondhand smoke and stop young people from picking up the habit.

Coney said any smoking bans would be introduced slowly and wouldn't be heavily enforced.

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• Setting a good example? Smoking amongst key occupational groups 

A new study published by researchers from University of Otago, Wellington has found that smoking rates have declined rapidly amongst many occupational groups over the last 25 years.

However, among some key 'role model' occupations smoking rates remain high. The researchers suggest that targeted support to help them give up smoking should be considered.

The research from the ASPIRE 2025 research collaboration has been published in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research. It describes smoking prevalence by occupational groups, which may be role models in society, using data from the 1981 and 2006 censuses.

The five 'role model' occupational categories cover a range of 32 different jobs: teachers, uniformed services, health professionals, entertainers and sports people, and other public figures and professions.

"The aim was to look within five occupational categories which act as role models for children and others, compare smoking rates with the average for all occupations in NZ, and rates of decline across the occupational groups," says lead researcher and director of ASPIRE 2025, Professor Richard Edwards.

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