Smoking Bans Kill

“SMOKING BANS KILL”

People

Smoking bans kill people. For example we learned today that -

A GERMAN barkeeper who hanged himself left behind a suicide note blaming a new public smoking ban for his decision. Uli Stegmaier, 60, saw takings at his pub in the southern town of Balingen fall by 20 per cent following the implementation of the smoking ban in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg in August 2007. His brother in law, Helmut Rathmann said 'His suicide note dealt exclusively with his bitterness about the smoking ban.'
Source

Further examples

Businesses and jobs

Smoking bans kill businesses and jobs. To illustrate this point it has been reported that -

1,409 pubs closed in 2007 – a sharp acceleration when compared to 216 closures in 2006 and 102 in 2005.“Britain’s pubs are grappling with spiralling costs, sinking sales, fragile consumer confidence and the impact of the smoking ban,” said BBPA chief executive Rob Hayward. Pub closures at this rate are threatening an important hub of our social fabric and community history. Morning Advertiser March 2008

The high increases in alcohol duty in the 2008 budget are likely to do nothing but accelerate this process.

Political careers

Smoking bans kill Political careers. For example on 6 March 2008 it was reported in Bavaria that -

The leaders of the Christian Social Union, the conservative sister party to Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, are planning to relax Bavaria's smoking ban – just two months after it was introduced. Many of the party's top politicians blamed the state's strict smoking ban on their party's poor showing in recent local elections. The CSU suffered big defeats in Munich and Nuremberg in Sunday's polls. A leading CSU politician, told the Süddeutsche Zeitung on Monday that many of the party's supporters had abstained from voting because of the ban. Speigel online

It will certainly be interesting to see how Labour performs in next month's Local Government election.

If these are the outcomes, then why are we doing this?

Because ASH says that there is no safe level of SHS (passive smoke). ASH say that it contains harmful chemicals although we already know that non-smokers in outdoor areas in Cities like Oxford inhale the equivalent of 60 cigarettes per day from atmospheric pollutants. Guardian – Taking the Oxford air adds up to a 60-a-day habit

So is it worth killing people, businesses and jobs by introducing an indoor workplace smoking ban? Particularly when you see that its sole purpose is to protect workers from an alleged indoor risk based on anti-smoking statistics that show only minimal risk when compared with other examples?

Emphatically No. Not when we compare smoking indoors with other known risks. For example a 2002 report from the National Audit Office state that at any one time, 9 per cent of patients in NHS hospitals are suffering from an infection acquired while on wards or in surgery. These infections affect 100,000 people annually, costing the NHS £1bn, and, of the greatest concern, causing up to 5,000 deaths.
The Management and Control of Hospital Acquired Infection in Acute NHS Trusts in England

Naturally, we extend our heartfelt sympathy to the family and friends of Uli Stegmaier from Germany.

Pro-smoking ban Governments have one very simple question to answer -

WHY?


Martin Hensman M.Inst.L.Ex, LLB (Hons)