http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-04-26/government-urged-to-ban-smoking-in-outdoor-areas/3973064
Government urged to ban smoking in outdoor areas
Updated April 26, 2012 13:15:21
Four of Victoria’s leading health groups have stepped up pressure on the Baillieu Government over smoking in outdoor areas.
Quit Victoria, the Australian Medical Association, the Heart Foundation and the Cancer Council want a ban on smoking in outdoor dining and drinking areas.
The groups have also recommend a ban on smoking in children’s playgrounds, at public transport stops and even between the flags on patrolled beaches.
Quit Victoria’s Fiona Sharkie says Victoria is lagging behind other states on this issue.
“Victoria remains the only state that doesn’t have a ban on smoking in outdoor drinking and dining areas and we feel that we need to rectify that as soon as possible, given that Victoria has been such a leader in tobacco control,” she said.
Ms Sharkie says even some smokers support the changes.
“What we do find is that smokers are generally pretty supportive of bans, particularly if they’re bans in areas where children and families congregate,” she said.
Health Minister David Davis says the outdoor bans are under consideration.
“It’s certainly is one of a number of measures that are being considered and are being looked at very closely,” he said.
“There’s been consultation on that and other measures with a wide range of organisations.”
First posted April 26, 2012 08:16:46
Clear the Air says: In Hong Kong the following set of questions was raised inLegco in 2007 – guess what has happened since 2007! Well, nothing. Why not ?
The new Secretary for Health can do one simple thing and does not even have to go toLegco to achieve it – that is to add an additional single paragraph to every liquor licence in Hong Kong : the current licences state –
7. The licensee shall not permit any person to occupy or use any portion of the premises for any immoral or illegal purpose.
Smoking in a licensed premises and workplace is an illegal activity and the licensee is bound to prevent it in the same way they are obliged to obey the other licensing conditions. By not doing this the licensee breaks the conditions of the premises’ liquor licence. The onus must be placed on the licensee to prevent smoking in his/her premises as is the case everywhere overseas.
Accordingly we would urge the new Secretary for Health to direct the Liquor Licensing Board to be proactive and to add :
iii) 持牌人須確保處所內無人吸煙或攜帶燃着的香煙、雪茄或煙斗。(新增)
iii) The licensee shall ensure no smoking or carrying a lit cigarette, cigar or pipe in any area of the licensed premises. (New)
to ALL issued Liquor Licenses as a matter of course and to advise the licensees of their duty to abide by all the conditions of their liquor licences and the pitfalls of not doing so. The amendment should cover all parts of the liquor licensed premises, including patio areas , Outside Seating Accommodation whether more than 50% enclosed or not and within 15 meters of said premises to prevent smokers congregating at entrances and those who currently sit and smoke half in and half out of premises. The law is to prevent damage to the health of staff in the workplace and should cover all parts of the licensed area whether covered , indoor or otherwise.
If people cannot go out and smoke in entertainment areas, many will quit. This means also an urgent increase in the staffing of the Tobacco Control Office who have insufficient staff for preventative patrols and who can act only days later on telephone or email complaints. 53 officers per each of two shifts to cover the whole of HK, Kowloon, NT and the Islands is ludicrous and a deliberate ploy of the incumbent administration to produce a potholed legislation then fail to allocate enough staff to enforce it.
Then even worse, the massive sums taken in from tobacco taxation are not used for anti -smoking measures , whether cessation or advertising , but just enter the General Fund to be used to build more concrete white elephants.
Time for change.
From: Astor Chan [mailto:astorchan@dphk.org]
Sent: Tuesday, July 24, 2007 12:39 PM
To: dynamco@netvigator.com
Subject: EXPOSURE_TO_SECONDHAND_SMOKE
Dear Mr. Middleton,
Thanks for your email. We have raised a Legco question regarding this issue. Attached plsfind the question and answer.
Regards,
Astor Chan
Research Officer (Health Policy)
Legco Secretariat
Democratic Party
Following is a question by the Hon Andrew Cheng and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (July 4):
Question:
Regarding smoking in outdoor public places, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether it knows if smoking outside designated no smoking areas (e.g. outside restaurants) has become prevalent since the implementation of the Smoking (Public Health) (Amendment) Ordinance 2006, the locations where the situation is particularly serious, as well as the impact on the health and smoking habits of members of the public (especially the problem of smoking among children); if it knows, of the details; if not, whether it will consider conducting a survey to understand the situation;
(b) of the number of prosecutions instituted by the Government against smoking in designated no smoking areas of outdoor public places since January 1 this year; whether there are difficulties in implementing the smoking ban in such places; if so, of the details and locations where the implementation of such a ban is particularly difficult, as well as the measures taken by the Government to resolve the difficulties; and
(c) whether it will consider amending the legislation to designate areas within 15 metres from the entrance to indoor designated no smoking areas (e.g. shopping arcades) as no smoking areas; if it will not, of the reasons for that, as well as how it protects the public from exposure to heavy second-hand smoke before they enter the premises concerned?
Reply:
Madam President,
My reply to each part of the question is as follows:
(a) The purpose of designating no-smoking areas is to minimise the effect of secondhand smoke on the public. In so doing, we have balanced the interests of all parties, including both smokers and non-smokers. With the vast expansion of statutory no-smoking areas since January 1 this year, the exposure of the public to secondhand smoke has already been greatly reduced. At present, our priority is to implement the smoking ban in statutory no-smoking areas. As for changes in the number of smokers and their smoking frequency and habits, the impact of secondhand smoke outside the statutory no-smoking areas, as well as public reaction towards the overall tobacco control efforts after the implementation of the amended Smoking (Public Health) Ordinance, we will conduct survey and study at a later stage to assess the effect of the new legislation.
(b) Statutory no-smoking areas designated under the Smoking (Public Health) Ordinance are set out in Part 1 of Schedule 2 to the Ordinance. Since January 1 this year, the Tobacco Control Office has arranged to issue 70 summonses for smoking offences committed in outdoor no-smoking areas, including 69 cases that took place in public pleasure grounds under the management of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department and one case that took place in a public hospital. Generally speaking, most people have complied with the smoking ban since the expansion of no-smoking areas. The Administration has encountered no particular difficulty in its enforcement of the smoking ban in outdoor areas.
(c) The amended Ordinance has vastly expanded the statutory no-smoking areas and the new legislation has only been in force for six months. It would take time for the public to get accustomed to the new requirements and the Administration to review the effect of the new law. At the present stage, we have no plans to further expand the statutory no-smoking areas. As stated in part (a) of my reply, we will conduct survey and study after the new law has been in force for some time. We should also note that no matter by how much the no-smoking areas were expanded, clear and conspicuous demarcations between smoking areas and no-smoking areas would still be needed. Before putting in place any smoking ban, we must consider how to ensure effective enforcement and easy compliance by the public.
The long-term objective of tobacco control is to reduce the number of smokers, in particular young smokers. Smoking cessation services are now made available by the Department of Health (DH) and the Hospital Authority. In the past five months, the number of people calling DH’s smoking cessation hotline has increased twofold as compared with the same period last year. Many family doctors and pharmacists working in the community have also joined in the provision of smoking cessation services. We will continue to work with all sectors of the community to encourage smokers to quit smoking and hope that the trend of cessation will continue.
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: James Middleton < dynamco@netvigator.com>
Date: 19-May-2007 11:16
Subject: EXPOSURE_TO_SECONDHAND_SMOKE
To: Legco < pi@legco.gov.hk>, chengkarfoo@dphk.org, mswlai@legco.gov.hk
Cc: Judith Mackay <jmackay@pacific.net.hk>, Professor Hedley < hrmrajh@hkucc.hku.hk>, COSH < enq@cosh.org.hk>, “Dr. Wan” < ed@cosh.org.hk>, tobaccocontrol@dh.gov.hk
Legco
Attention
the Honorable Cheng Kar Foo
Ms Monna Lai
Dear Sir,
please find attached a late 2006 report on second hand smoke.
Currently there are designated smoking areas in parks and smoking is allowed in outdoor areas of restaurants and bars open to all ages that are not 50% enclosed.
Whilst being contrary to existing Hong Kong laws as addressed previously, this causes Outdoor Tobacco Smoke that is a proven danger to persons nearby or downwind of the smoke, especially chidren and susceptible adults. It also gives the impression to our youth that smoking in public is acceptable behaviour and can encourage our youth to smoke and become addicts.
Please give consideration to amending the exemptions which currently allow designated smoking areas outdoors, especially in parks and restaurants which are open to all ages. Furthermore please give consideration to banning smoking within 15 meters of doorways, lifts, escalators and building entrances. Our children and the 86% of our population that does not smoke in Hong Kong should not have to walk through the cancerous and irritating obnoxious smoke of the minority in order to enter and leave buildings.
Yours faithfully,
James Middleton
Search
Stanford Report, May 2, 2007
Exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke in outdoor settings a risk, study shows
BY MARK SHWARTZ
Wayne Ott and Neil Klepeis were members of a team of Stanford researchers who conducted the first in-depth study on how smoking affects air quality at sidewalk cafés, park benches and other outdoor locations.
Tens of thousands of Americans die each year from secondhand tobacco smoke, according to a 2006 report by the U.S. Surgeon General. While the health risks associated with indoor secondhand smoke are well documented, little research has been done on exposure to toxic tobacco fumes outdoors.
Now, Stanford University researchers have conducted the first in-depth study on how smoking affects air quality at sidewalk cafés, park benches and other outdoor locations. Writing in the May issue of the Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association (JAWMA), the Stanford team concluded that a non-smoker sitting a few feet downwind from a smoldering cigarette is likely to be exposed to substantial levels of contaminated air for brief periods of time.
“Some folks have expressed the opinion that exposure to outdoor tobacco smoke is insignificant, because it dissipates quickly into the air,” said Neil Klepeis, assistant professor (consulting) of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford and lead author of the study. “But our findings show that a person sitting or standing next to a smoker outdoors can breathe in wisps of smoke that are many times more concentrated than normal background air pollution levels.”
Klepeis pointed to the 2006 Surgeon General’s report, which found that even brief exposures to secondhand smoke may have adverse effects on the heart and respiratory systems and increase the severity of asthma attacks, especially in children.
“We were surprised to discover that being within a few feet of a smoker outdoors may expose you to air pollution levels that are comparable, on average, to indoor levels that we measured in previous studies of homes and taverns,” said Wayne Ott, professor (consulting) of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford and co-author of the JAWMA study. “For example, if you’re at a sidewalk café, and you sit within 18 inches of a person who smokes two cigarettes over the course of an hour, your exposure to secondhand smoke could be the same as if you sat one hour inside a tavern with smokers. Based on our findings, a child in close proximity to adult smokers at a backyard party also could receive substantial exposure to secondhand smoke.”
Unlike indoor tobacco smoke, which can persist for hours, the researchers found that outdoor smoke disappears rapidly when a cigarette is extinguished. “Our data also show that if you move about six feet away from an outdoor smoker, your exposure levels are much lower,” Klepeis added.
The public has become increasingly concerned about the effects of outdoor smoking, Ott noted. More than 700 state and local governments have passed laws restricting outdoor smoking at playgrounds, building entrances and other public areas, according to the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation. Some of the strictest ordinances are in California. The city of Santa Monica, for example, recently banned smoking at parks, beaches, automatic teller machines, theater lines, open-air restaurants and other outdoor locations.
“Throughout the country, cities and counties are looking at various laws against outdoor smoking, and some of the proposals are pretty drastic,” Ott said. “The problem is that until now, there have been virtually no scientific data to justify such restrictions. In fact, our paper is the first study on outdoor smoking to be published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.”
Particulate matter
In the study, the researchers used portable electronic monitors to make precise measurements of toxic airborne particles emitted from cigarettes at 10 sites near the Stanford campus. “We wanted to quantify the potential level of exposure to outdoor tobacco smoke that could occur in everyday settings,” Klepeis said. “To do this, we used five different, state-of-the-art instruments to measure secondhand smoke at parks, open-air cafés, sidewalks and outdoor pubs where smokers were present.”
Each instrument was calibrated to measure an airborne pollutant known as particulate matter-2.5 (PM2.5), which consists of thousands of microscopic particles that are less than 2.5 micrometers in width—about 30 times narrower than a human hair.
“PM2.5 is a toxic pollutant produced by cigarettes, wood-burning stoves, diesel engines and other forms of combustion,” Ott explained. “It contains benzo(a)pyrene, a carcinogen, and many other toxic chemicals that can penetrate deep inside the lungs.”
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, exposure to PM2.5 can lead to serious health problems, including asthma attacks, chronic bronchitis, irregular heartbeat, nonfatal heart attacks and even premature death in people with heart or lung disease. The current EPA ambient air standard for PM2.5 is 35 micrograms per cubic meter of air averaged over 24 hours. Levels that exceed 35 micrograms are considered unhealthy. “However, since tobacco smoke contains many toxic components, including carcinogens, it may be even less healthy than typical ambient air pollution,” Klepeis noted.
Test results
To measure PM2.5 levels in secondhand smoke, the researchers placed the instruments near actual smokers in different open-air environments. “We also performed controlled experiments with burning cigarettes, which allowed us to make precise measurements of PM2.5 levels at different distances,” Klepeis said.
The results were clear: The closer you are to an outdoor smoker, the higher your risk of exposure.
“A typical cigarette lasts about 10 minutes,” Klepeis said. “We found that if you’re within two feet downwind of a smoker, you may be exposed to pollutant concentrations that exceed 500 micrograms of PM2.5 over that 10-minute period. If you’re exposed multiple times to multiple cigarettes over several hours in an outdoor pub, it would be possible to get a daily average of 35 micrograms or more, which exceeds the current EPA outdoor standard.”
Outdoor tobacco smoke consists of brief plumes that sometimes exceed 1,000 micrograms, Klepeis added. “On the other hand, clean air typically contains less than 20 micrograms of PM2.5,” he said. “Therefore, a person near an outdoor smoker might inhale a breath with 50 times more toxic material than in the surrounding unpolluted air.”
However, the researchers found that air quality improved as they moved away from the smoker. “These results show what common sense would suggest—when you’re within a few feet downwind of a smoker, you get exposed,” Ott explained. “But likewise, when you go a little distance or stay upwind, the exposure goes way down. If there’s just one smoker, and you can sit six feet away, you would have little problem. At the same time, if there are a lot of smokers nearby, you may be exposed to very high levels of secondhand smoke. So this thing that critics have been dismissing as trivial is not.”
Added Klepeis: “If people realize that being near outdoor smokers can result in potentially large exposures to toxic air pollution, they may decide they do not wish to be exposed in a variety of outdoor settings. This realization may lead to an increased number of smoking bans in public locations.”
The study also was co-authored by Paul Switzer, professor of statistics and of geological and environmental sciences at Stanford. The research was supported by grants from the State of California and the Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute in Miami.
Related Information
© Stanford University. All Rights Reserved. Stanford, CA 94305. (650) 723-2300.
Smoke-free Parks http://www.breath-ala.org/html/about.html
- As of January 1, 2003, children and their families will have a 25-foot safe zone around playgrounds and toddler sandbox areas by state law. Kids should be able to play without being directly exposed to the harmful effects of secondhand smoke. It’s common sense to protect children where they play and socialize.
- The reasons for protecting people, especially children, from secondhand smoke are convincing and overwhelming. Scientific evidence proves that exposure to secondhand smoke poses a serious health risk and there is no safe level of exposure. It is not only dangerous – it can also be deadly – especially for children and adults with asthma or other chronic illnesses.
- Studies have shown that adult smoking behavior significantly influences youth smoking behavior. When Children see adults smoking in a family friendly place, they see the behavior as acceptable.
- A critical component in addressing youth smoking is to create an environment in which tobacco use is not considered the norm in adult society. Every day in California, nearly 300 children begin smoking. Of those, 200 will go on to become addicted smokers. Half of those children will die prematurely of smoking-related diseases.
- Cigarette butts are hazardous to children, animals and the environment. Smokers regularly discard their cigarette butts and empty packages on the ground. Small children are at risk of swallowing, choking, or burning themselves with discarded butts.
- Cigarette butts are the most common litter in our parks and the clean up is time consuming and costly to taxpayers
Banning outdoor smoking is scientifically justifiable
Simon Chapman has argued that smoking should not be in outdoor public venues such as hospital patios, beaches, and outdoor sporting areas, and this might also encompass building entrances, waiting lines for cinema tickets, and outdoorcafés. However, failure to ban smoking in such venues may expose non-smokers to levels of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) as high or higher than received in indoor spaces where smoking is unrestricted.
The reality of atmospheric dispersion of ETS in outdoor settings is this: individual cigarettes are point sources of air pollution and, therefore, smoking in groups becomes an area source. Outdoor air pollutants from individual point sources are subject to plume rise if the temperature of the smoke plume is hotter that the surrounding air. However, if the plume has a small cross-section, as far a cigarette, it will rapidly cool and lose its upward momentum, and then will subside as the combustions particles and gases are heavier than air. Thus, in the case of no wind, the cigarette plume will rise to a certain height and then descend. In a case where a group of smokers are sitting in an outdoor café, on a hospital patio, or in stadium seats, their smoke will tend to saturate the local area with ETS.
Where there is wind, the amount of thermally induced plume rise will be inversely proportional to the wind velocity–doubling the wind velocity will halve the plume rise. In this case, the cigarette plume will resemble a cone tilted at an angle to the vertical. The width of the cone and its angle with the ground will depend upon the wind velocity: a higher wind will create a more horizontal cone, a smaller cone angle, and a higher concentration of ETS for downwind non-smokers. If there are multiple cigarette sources, the downwind concentrations will consist of multiple intersections cones–that is, overlapping plumes. As the wind direction changes, ETS pollution will be spread in various directions, fumigating downwind non-smokers. ETS contains a large quantity of respirable particles, which can cause breathing difficulties for those with chronic respiratory diseases, or trigger an asthmatic attack in those with disabling asthma. For the remainder of non-smokers, ETS causes eye, nose, and throat irritation, just like any other noxious outdoor fumes, such as bus exhaust. If smoking is freely permitted in these venues, hospital orderlies, sports spectators, outdoor café aficionados, and beach goers might have to be restricted to the ranks of the non-asthmatic.
Have you ever had dinner in an outdoor café in Pairs, Athens, Las Palmas, or Salt Lake spoiled by smokers at adjacent tables? Have you ever had to move your blanket on a public beach because someone suddenly started smoking upwind, replacing clean salt air with irritating smoke? Smoking has no social value other than to create unnecessary work for physicians, and windfall profits for morticians. Even if outdoor environmental tobacco smoke were no more hazardous than dog excrement stuck to the bottom of a shoe, in many places laws require dog owners to avoid fouling public areas. Is this too much to ask of smokers?
JAMES REPACE
Repace Associates Inc,
Secondhand Smoke Consultants
101 Felicia Lane
Bowie, MD 20720, USA;
<www.repace.com >
OUTDOOR TOBACCO SMOKE FACT SHEET
“CLEARING THE AIR”
“Failure to ban smoking in outdoor public venues may expose non-smokers to levels of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) as high or higher than received in indoor spaces where smoking is unrestricte
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