It was back in 2007 – and a lot of hard work and campaigning – when the smoking ban in public places first came into place. At the heart of it was Fiona Castle, working tirelessly with us to protect people like Roy who worked in smoky environments, as well as encouraging others to quit smoking.
Today, with the King’s speech laying out plans for smokefree future, Fiona was front and centre again talking to BBC Breakfast on its potential implementation.
The proposed legislation would see the minimum age that a person can legally buy cigarettes increase by a year every 12 months. This would mean those aged 14 years old and below will never be able to legally purchase cigarettes.
The Government believes by 2040, smoking rates among 14 and 30 years olds will be zero as a result.
And this is what the Tobacco and Vapes Bill truly aims to do. Whilst critics throw around words like ‘killjoy’, the essence of the bill is to protect the future generation and stop them from taking up this dangerous habit. Or as Roy as beautifully put it – for our children and our children’s children.
Questions about the smoking ban
As our role in the original smoking ban shows, we fully support any measures that help reduce the risk of people getting lung cancer and therefore are behind the Government’s proposed Tobacco and Vapes Bill. But as we said at the time, this doesn’t mean we are without questions.
How will it be regulated? Could the ban create greater demand for these damaging products. Could this drive young people towards illicit and unregulated tobacco? Does the bill go far enough to prevent a potential vaping epidemic?
And perhaps the most pressing question – how are we supporting the current generation who want to quit smoking? We must not overlook, dismiss or write off the 6.4 million adults who are still smoking.
There has to be substantial investment in smoking cessation and support to firstly quit cigarettes and then, where needed, help people quit vaping.
How a smoking ban could work
For us, a smoking ban cannot work alone. The key to a smokefree generation is education, and in particular education about vaping. It is not ok that one in five children having tried vaping, nor than numbers have tripled over the last three years.
Restrictions alone are not enough. If we want to protect the next generation from smoking and vaping, we must provide them with the right information – and in the right way – to allow them to make a conscious and informed choice.
People have to make their own decision that they don’t to want to smoke or vape. That is then we will finally start to win the war against tobacco.
