Ambrosio Spinola
12-05-2005, 09:06 AM
Over here things are getting pretty tight too as begining January it will be totally forbidden for anyone to smoke on their work with no room for "smocking rooms" for employees. Personally I find I will have to go through hell to implement this law when I have such a high % of smokers amongst my staff. Not only forbidding smoking (which will make me lots of friends) but all the lost work time with people "disapearing" in order to clam their dependencies.
http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/men/news/s/190/190114_clash_over_under18s_smoking_ban.html
PLANS to raise the minimum age for smoking from 16 to 18 have received a mixed welcome from anti-cigarette campaigners.
Some groups feel the move would be a step in the right direction. Others have called it a publicity stunt to divert attention away from proposals for a partial ban on smoking.
Around a quarter of 16 and 17-year-olds in Britain are thought to smoke regularly and as many as 60 per cent have tried cigarettes. The tobacco industry is thought to make a £35m profit every year from teenage smokers.
Harpurhey councillor Pat Carney, NHS Director of Smoke Free Manchester, welcomed the plans.
Fined
He said: "I think the increased age limit should be brought in straight away.
"Bring in the ban - and any shops which sell cigarettes knowingly to underage smokers should be shut down and heavily fined.
"We have a huge problem with kids in Greater Manchester taking up smoking and having access to tobacco, much of which is bought from illegal traders.
"It is disgraceful the tobacco industry has access to our children. It needs a mountain of control before we stop our kids smoking."
But Deborah Arnott, director of Action on Smoking and Health, said: "My view is that it is just a publicity stunt by the government.
Popular
"They know it's a popular move with the public, and even though they know it won't have much impact on the number of young people smoking it will gain them backbench support."
Forest, a smoker's lobby group, said they were in favour of the proposal in principle, but any change in the law would be difficult to enforce. If the age limit was increased it would bring Britain into line with most US states and other European countries. Spain is the latest to raise the age to 18.
Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt is looking at the plans, which, if introduced, would put cigarettes on the same legal footing as alcohol.
It could also help restore the politician's battered authority with the anti-smoking lobby after the furore over her compromise plans for banning smoking in public places.
Scrutiny
Commenting on the idea, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: "It is something that we are considering." But the department was unable to say when a new minimum age for buying tobacco could be introduced or if there were plans in place for any public consultation.
In the Commons last week, Labour backbencher Jeff Ennis said he would be tabling an amendment to the Health Bill - which will bring in the new rules on smoking in public - to raise the minimum age to 18.
Mr Ennis sits on the Commons committee which will carry out a line-by-line scrutiny of the Bill, and accepting his proposal may help ease its passage through the Commons.
The issue has also risen up the agenda with the publication of a recent US report which found teenage smoking permanently increases the risks of contracting lung cancer.
http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/men/news/s/190/190114_clash_over_under18s_smoking_ban.html
PLANS to raise the minimum age for smoking from 16 to 18 have received a mixed welcome from anti-cigarette campaigners.
Some groups feel the move would be a step in the right direction. Others have called it a publicity stunt to divert attention away from proposals for a partial ban on smoking.
Around a quarter of 16 and 17-year-olds in Britain are thought to smoke regularly and as many as 60 per cent have tried cigarettes. The tobacco industry is thought to make a £35m profit every year from teenage smokers.
Harpurhey councillor Pat Carney, NHS Director of Smoke Free Manchester, welcomed the plans.
Fined
He said: "I think the increased age limit should be brought in straight away.
"Bring in the ban - and any shops which sell cigarettes knowingly to underage smokers should be shut down and heavily fined.
"We have a huge problem with kids in Greater Manchester taking up smoking and having access to tobacco, much of which is bought from illegal traders.
"It is disgraceful the tobacco industry has access to our children. It needs a mountain of control before we stop our kids smoking."
But Deborah Arnott, director of Action on Smoking and Health, said: "My view is that it is just a publicity stunt by the government.
Popular
"They know it's a popular move with the public, and even though they know it won't have much impact on the number of young people smoking it will gain them backbench support."
Forest, a smoker's lobby group, said they were in favour of the proposal in principle, but any change in the law would be difficult to enforce. If the age limit was increased it would bring Britain into line with most US states and other European countries. Spain is the latest to raise the age to 18.
Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt is looking at the plans, which, if introduced, would put cigarettes on the same legal footing as alcohol.
It could also help restore the politician's battered authority with the anti-smoking lobby after the furore over her compromise plans for banning smoking in public places.
Scrutiny
Commenting on the idea, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: "It is something that we are considering." But the department was unable to say when a new minimum age for buying tobacco could be introduced or if there were plans in place for any public consultation.
In the Commons last week, Labour backbencher Jeff Ennis said he would be tabling an amendment to the Health Bill - which will bring in the new rules on smoking in public - to raise the minimum age to 18.
Mr Ennis sits on the Commons committee which will carry out a line-by-line scrutiny of the Bill, and accepting his proposal may help ease its passage through the Commons.
The issue has also risen up the agenda with the publication of a recent US report which found teenage smoking permanently increases the risks of contracting lung cancer.