Articles

14 March 2007 Evening Times
Old Firm ban threat for smoking fans

3 March 2007 The Herald
Smoking ban makes impact on bottom line

5 February 2007 Scottish Parliament
The smoking ban, one year on, Health Committee to take evidence on its impact

26 September 2006 Scottish Executive
Six months of Scotland's smoking ban

1 September 2006 BBC News
Jobs go as smoking ban hits Rank

23 August 2006 BBC News
Smoke ban 'has hit pub takings'

26 June 2006 The Scotsman
Ban on Smoking has been 99% successful

1 June 2006 BBC News
Cross border smoking loss concern

17 May 2006 BBC News
Cross-border smoking trip claims

17 March 2006 Market Research Portal
Widespread support for smoking ban in Scotland

Compliance by week
The Scottish Executive
http://www.clearingtheairscotland.com/latest/index.html

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The first 7 days...

As Scotland introduced a ban on smoking in enclosed places, BBC Radio 4's Jenny Cuffe charted its impact over the first seven days in one of the country's unhealthiest corners.

She met committed and reluctant smokers and the businesses nervous about the future.

DAY ONE ( the day before..) - Saturday, 25 March 2006

In Frank McAveety's constituency in the east end of Glasgow, the average life expectancy of a man has dropped to 63.9 years - the lowest in Britain. That is one of the reasons Frank voted for the smoking ban in the Scottish Parliament.

In the 18th century, this part of the city was home to the tobacco barons who found a quick sea route to Virginia in the US and used their wealth to build fine houses. But now their descendents are suffering the consequences with exceptionally high rates of heart disease and lung cancer.

At one of Frank's favourite pubs in Gallowgate, customers enjoy their last hours of standing at the bar with a pint in one hand and a cigarette in another.

"Everybody we speak to in here, 60 or 70% of the people who smoke, say they are not going to stop smoking."

His long-suffering friend is looking forward to the smoke no longer being part of the pub's atmosphere.

"It's put me off sometimes. I will be glad when they are all standing outside frozen."

At McInnon's bar, in the shadow of the railway arch, Denise Chalmers worries about the effect of the ban on her older customers, who use the pub as a home from home.

She says it is not safe for them to stand out on the pavement in all weathers and after dark. And she fears many businesses in the area will be forced to close.

DAY TWO - Sunday 26 March 2006

6am. Scotland's smoking ban comes into force. The only exemptions are prisons, residential homes and hospices, and designated rooms in hotels and psychiatric hospitals.

On a chill, wet day, huddled figures stand in doorways complaining about the infringement of their personal liberty. But inside the bars, other customers praise the Scottish Executive for cleaning up the air.

At the Village Inn in Muirhead, smokers have to stand in a car park next to the busy A80 from Glasgow to Sterling. Steve Mudie, the pub owner, says they are at greater risk from the petrol fumes than from cigarette smoke. He says it will take months to get planning permission for a shelter and could cost £35,000.

"It's a sad day for Westbury. They have lost a lot."

Mr Mudie, a spokesman for Scottish Licensed Traders Association, predicts disaster for the industry.

"I visited one of the bars in Galashiels to witness the unheard-of sight of not a single customer for two hours. Now that replicated over a trading year spells fairly dire consequences."

He says that in Ireland, which imposed a similar ban in 2004, 600 pubs outside Dublin have closed and yet the number of people smoking is on the rise.

DAY THREE - Monday 27 March

Sheila Duffy of ASH, Action on Smoking and Health, welcomes campaigners to a victory coffee morning at the East End Healthy Living Centre in Glasgow.

She says the law is the best they can hope for but eventually she would like the sale of tobacco banned for under 18 year olds.

At a high rise estate in nearby Royston, single-parent June Roberts explains the link between social deprivation and smoking.

The flats have been refurbished with concierges and CCTV cameras and she says that Glasgow city council use them to house ex offenders. Last year a paedophile killed a child, dumping his body in a rubbish skip, and now residents live in fear.

Add to this the high level of drug-related crime and the gang warfare, and it is no wonder people smoke to calm their nerves.

June has managed to give up smoking and now she is trying to encourage others to do the same.

"I want to better my health and I want to better my son's health."

She runs a fitness group and works at Royston Stress Centre, which offers counselling and complementary therapies.

DAY FOUR - Tuesday 28 March 2006

The Scottish Executive is reporting 100% compliance. It has budgeted for two enforcement officers for every local authority and in Edinburgh, ex police officer John Rafferty is in charge.

He visits a bingo hall, where 90% of customers smoke. On each player's table, there is a no smoking sign and he does not expect any of these pensioners to disobey the law.

The range of penalties at his disposal include a £50 fine for an individual, £200 for the owner of a premises and criminal prosecution with a £2,000 fine for a serious breach of the law.

DAY FIVE Wednesday 29 March 2006

At a day centre run by the National Schizophrenia Fellowship in central Glasgow, the mood is despondent.

Mary, a regular visitor who says she would "freak" without her cigarettes, says she has received an unprecedented level of abuse since the ban was introduced.

"It's bad enough you're stigmatised because of your mental health, you're stigmatised because you're a smoker, without getting all this rubbish thrown at you."

Patricia Mullen and Neil Still, mental health workers, are unhappy about telling clients who are already agitated and paranoid to go out into the street to have a cigarette.

One woman has complained that social services have ordered her not to smoke in her own home when her carer's visit.

The smoking ban raises serious questions about individual freedom, according to Dr Paul Graham, lecturer in political thought at Glasgow University. He believes there is a trend to greater paternalism and state control at the expense of personal responsibility.

DAY SIX - Thursday 30 March

NHS Greater Glasgow and Glasgow City Council are piloting a smoke-free homes initiative called Breathe Easy.

Worried that the ban in enclosed public places will drive smoking into the home, where children are most vulnerable, they are inviting parents to restrict or ban the use of cigarettes.

At a nursery and family centre in Royston, Lorraine McBride says she has tried giving up without success but she is congratulated for signing a silver pledge, confining smoke to one room in her house.

60% of the population in this area smoke and Agnes McGowan of NHS Greater Glasgow tells a group of mothers that it leads to low birth-weight babies and childhood complaints like asthma, wheeze and glue ear.

Before passing the law, the Scottish Executive commissioned Dr Anne Ludbrook of Aberdeen University to examine its economic impact, drawing on the experience of New York and Ireland.

She concluded it would save 406 deaths a year whereas the effect on the hospitality trade would be insignificant. Contradicting the Scottish Licensed Trade Association, she said the closure of some pubs in Ireland was part of a long-term decline in the industry.

She also refuted suggestions that smoking was on the increase, pointing out that figures for December, when smoking was higher than average, were wrongly compared to those for March, when fewer people smoke.

DAY SEVEN - Friday 31 March 2006

"David Cameron, if he wants to win the next election, has got to pull a rabbit out of the hat. That rabbit is a cigarette."

Kit Fraser of the Scottish Publican Party is about to take his campaign against the smoking ban south of the border.

The rest of the UK will follow Scotland's lead next summer but he believes there will be a full-scale revolt by smokers. He has been rallying support from publicans in Exeter and now intends to have a meeting with the new Conservative leader.

In the first week of the Scottish smoking ban, Glasgow City Council have issued one restaurant owner with a £200 fixed penalty for letting customers smoke, and given ten warnings.

But at McInnons Bar in Gallowgate, Denise Chalmers reports that the last few days have gone better than she expected. When customers have lit up and been reminded about the ban, they have immediately stepped outside and there has been no obvious drop in trade.

The smoking ban has had another surprising consequence. She and other staff who are non-smokers have noticed flu-like symptoms, which could be withdrawal symptoms now that there is less nicotine in the atmosphere.

"It's going to take people a long time to adjust. It's a big shock to the system changing a whole way of life, I think."

Seven Days - BBC Radio 4, Thursday 6 April, 2006 at 2000 BST.