Are ‘no smoking days’ first step towards public ban?

Press, 18 February 1983, Page 18

Are ‘no smoking days’ first step towards public ban?

By

TED HART

Features International

Tom Hurst, director of Britain’s National Society of Non-Smokers, is a bluff, kindly man who pursues his cause with the zeal of a holy crusade. “Whether you smoke is a private matter,” he says, “but where you smoke concerns us all.”

That was the thinking behind Britain’s first national “Don’t Smoke Day” yesterday. It was based on the American “Smoke-Out” campaigns during which millions of smokers agreed to give up cigarettes for the day. The anti-smoking movement is gathering momentum around the world, claims Tom Hurst, and if current trends continue, it could be only a matter of time before - smoking is banned from all public places. This has already happened in several countries, including Norway and Singapore, and the number of non-smok-ing areas apparently grows every week. There is a strong move to ban all smoking on London Underground trains. The move is further strengthened by the result of an inquiry into a fire in a tunnel near London’s Goodge •; Street stationin June, 1981, in which one person died and

hundreds of others were stranded below ground. The report claimed the fire was probably started by a discarded cigarette. A spokesman for London Transport says: “Our surveys have convinced us that most of the population would welcome a total smoking ban.” ’ As a former hospital administrator, Hurst says he has had the opportunity to study the effects of smoking at uncomfortably close quarters.

“As a smoker myself in those days,” he says, “I still found the habit hard to break. Eventually a surgeon friend of mine invited me to watch an operation. “He removed a patient’s lung and afterwards he told me: ‘Unless you stop smoking, there will come a day when I will have to do that to you, too.’ “After the third attempt, I broke the habit for good, and nothing in my life has ever given me greater personal satisfaction.

“The majority of people still have not fully grasped the dangers. According to tne British Government’s own

estimates, smoking in Britain is directly responsible for the premature deaths of at least 50,000 people every year. “That’s seven times more than are killed as a result of road accidents. “Cigarette, cigar and pipe smokers are 10 times more likely to get cancer of the mouth or throat, and 25 times more likely to get lung cancer. “And even passive smoking — breathing the tobacco smoke of others — has been found to be harmful to healthy non-smokers over a

period of time.” Anti-smoking campaigners say they are now expecting the entertainment industry , to help set a good example. “In some of the old Hollywood films,” says Tom Hurst, “the heroes were walking chimneys. The eternal cigarette held nonchalantly between the fingers seemed to be an essential for stardom. All that is changing, but it still has a long way to go.” Dave Allen, the Irish comedian who tells his stories on stage with a glass of whisky in one hand and a

cigarette in the other, is a star performer who raises the ire of the Society of NonSmokers. But they have strong support from many show-busi-ness stars, including Moira Anderson, Sir Adrian Boult, Ken Dodd, Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Spike Milligan, Larry Adler. Cliff Richard, and Toyah. Trade unions are joining the fight, too — their negotiators are being urged to demand paid time off for members who wish to attend stop-smoking courses. Employers also are to be asked to set up no-smoking areas in factories and offices.

“Smoking is the greatest preventable cause of death and disease,” says a TUC spokesman. Throughout the world, nosmoking areas are now commonplace in cinemas, restaurants, food shops, and airliners, while many religious cults, including the Mormons and the Seventh-Day Adventists, condemn smoking. During the last American “Smoke-Out,” five million smokers put their cigarettes away for the day. Later research has shown that one in 20 — a quarter of a million — of these never resumed the habit.