Cigarette Smoking in Public Spaces: Considering Personal Choice, A Sense of Entitlement, and the Wider Public Good

 Recent revelations in leaked Whitehall documents that the UK Government is proposing to restrict the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products to younger people, in keeping with the outgoing government’s proposed Tobacco and Vapes Bill 2024, and to extend the ban on indoor cigarette smoking to selected outdoor spaces, have generated the expected response from libertarians opposed to an extension of what they perceive to be a “Nanny State”, although it may well be that some otherwise mature and well-meaning adults may still benefit from the occasional nannying. Some others are equally considered about potentially harmful effects on the hospitality sector, fearing closures of pubs in particular. Under the proposals, the legal age at which cigarettes can be legally purchased will be progressively raised, while the ban on smoking may be extended to beer gardens in pubs, small parks, sports grounds, children’s play areas, restaurant terraces, and pavements outside hospitals, universities, and nightclubs. It is particularly telling to see people admitted to hospital with smoking-related illnesses to obtain their tobacco fill in direct sight of ‘No Smoking’ signs, not to mention people congregating outside their workplaces for the occasional puff during working hours.

At one time, smoking was widely prevalent, socially acceptable, even considered ‘sexy’ and thus featured in diverse advertisements and on our cinema screens. Smoke-filled pubs, restaurants, cafés, buses, trains, aeroplanes were the norm. It took a major catastrophe to first change public attitudes and behaviour to smoking in public areas, and to make smoke-filled underground train carriages a thing of the past. The careless disposal by an unidentified person of a lit match underneath a wooden escalator sparked off a major fire at King’s Cross underground station on 18 November 1987 and led to the death of 31 people and seriously injured more than a hundred others. Among the 157 recommendations by a subsequent public inquiry by Sir Desmond Fennell, published in November 1988, was the extension of a ban on smoking to all underground station areas.

A ban on smoking in public spaces in the UK took longer to come. A 1998 Government White Paper, ‘Smoking Kills’, proposed an Approved Code of Practice to cater for non-smokers in selected workplaces. However, compliance with this voluntary scheme, known as the Public Places Charter, stayed low. In November 2004, the Scottish Executive announced a ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces, to be implemented by 2006. It took the Health Act of July 2006 to take matters forwards in the rest of the UK. Smoking in all enclosed and “substantially enclosed” public places and workplaces, as well as in all public transport and vehicles used for work purposes by more than one person, became illegal in Wales and in Northern Ireland from April 2007, and in England from July 2007 onwards.

The overwhelming argument against smoking, whether as cigarettes, cigars, or pipes, is the detrimental effect on the smoker’s personal health. Tobacco smoke contains a lethal mixture of particulate matter and gases, some of which have irritant effects on the lining of the respiratory tract while others are carcinogenic, linked with an increased incidence of lung, breast, cervical, oral, and many other cancers among smokers.

Smoking affects the lungs, heart, arteries, and nearly other organ and body system, and is at least partly responsible for asthma, COPD, coronary heart disease, stroke, limbs starved of blood, dementia, and a long list of other illnesses. Smoking is also harmful in pregnancy. It has been estimated that smoking is responsible for as many as 80,000 potentially preventable deaths a year in the UK, and costs the NHS and the wider economy around £17 billion a year. The tax receipts from tobacco duties are far outweighed by the costs of lost productivity and ill-health that can be attributed to smoking.

The story doesn’t end there. Many of the risks of smoking are transmitted to innocent bystanders. The passive recipients of secondhand smoke are also at risk of many of the toxic effects of tobacco, either directly from the smoking source (sidestream smoke), or indirectly from exhaled smoke in the smoker’s breath (mainstream smoke). Smoke irritates the eyes, induces cough or wheeze, can be nauseating, or make one dizzy. Children are particularly vulnerable if their parents are smokers. Childhood asthma, in particular, may be precipitated by continued domestic exposure to tobacco smoke. Even household pets can be potential victims. Thinking along these lines led to the Children and Families Act 2014, which could equally apply to animal companions. The Act made it illegal to smoke in a private vehicle carrying children under the age of 18 in England and Wales, from October 2015 onwards. The following year, this ban was extended to Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Adults may choose to ignore the dire health warnings on the packs, spend their own hard-earned money on cigarettes, and then smoke to their heart’s content in their own private spaces. It becomes problematic when they choose to inflict their habit on non-smokers in shared areas. The smell of cigarettes lingers on the walls, carpets, and furnishings of venues frequented by smokers, while smoke stains the clothes of abstainers and causes them to smell. Cigarette butts are casually disposed of in public thoroughfares and other areas, adding to the burden of unsightly litter. Many of these manifestations of smoking can reasonably be considered to be anti-social.

Irrespective of the underlying reasons for taking up smoking-whether to relieve stress, enhance one’s image, or merely as a post-prandial, peri-alcoholic, or post-coital adjunct- it appears to be losing its appeal, as worldwide people increasingly choose not to smoke, whether for aesthetic considerations (smelly breath, bad teeth, poor complexion), financial reasons, or genuine health concerns.  Any measures to further protect the public from passive smoking, and also to discourage active smoking, remain worthy of our consideration.

Ashis Banerjee