Smokefree workplaces: Cancer Campaigns

Cancer Research UK was delighted when MPs voted on 14 February 2006 in favour of ending smoking in all workplaces and enclosed public places in England, including pubs and private members’ clubs. The legislation came into force on 1 July 2007.

This could not have been achieved without the support of over 20,000 people who contacted their MP and signed our petition.

If you are interested in our tobacco campaigns, see our current Out of Sight, Out of Mind campaign which aims to prevent children from adopting this dangerous addiction. This is an urgent action so get involved now. 

The facts about smokefree workplaces

Cancer Research UK and thousands of its supporters have campaigned hard to persuade the Government and MPs that legislation for England needs to be comprehensive: all workers deserve to work in safe, smokefree environments. The case against exemptions for private members’ clubs or for pubs that do not serve prepared food, for example, is compelling.

Such exemptions contain several key flaws:

  • They would fail to protect all workers. The Government’s Scientific Committee on Tobacco and Health (see Note 1) has concluded that secondhand smoke causes lung cancer and many other chronic conditions, and has identified hospitality sector workers as the group most at risk from the dangers of passive smoking. It has been estimated that exposure to secondhand smoke at work may cause more than 600 deaths each year across the UK, including over 50 people in the hospitality industry (pubs, bars, nightclubs, hotels and restaurants). It would be perverse to protect some workers while leaving the most at risk group exposed.
  • They would increase health inequalities. More pubs in deprived areas do not serve prepared food than those in more affluent areas. Exempting such pubs would mean many more of the exempted premises would be situated in areas where people already have poorer thealth. The danger would be that many pubs might then stop serving food to avoid having to go smokefree. This would only make poorer people’s health even worse.
  • They would be unworkable. A law exempting some licensed premises but not others would be costly and difficult to enforce. The complexity would also compromise compliance and fail to provide a level trading field for the hospitality sector. Publicans have made clear their preference for a simple, blanket ban over a law with partial exemptions. Making pubs choose between smoking and food would be unhelpful and undermine current Government moves to tackle binge drinking.
  • They would be out of step with progress in the rest of the UK. MPs at Westminster have voted for comprehensive legislation for England. Scotland has already implemented comprehensive smokefree legislation and Northern Ireland is due to follow by implementing a comprehensive smokefree law in 2007. Comprehensive measures in Wales would lead over the long term to a dramatic improvement in public health. This has been recognised elsewhere in the UK; the same arrangements should be implemented in Wales.
  • They imply wrongly that going smokefree harms business. International evidence actually shows that going smokefree does not harm business. In fact, a law that includes exemptions for private members’ clubs and pubs that do not serve prepared food, for example, would be far more difficult and costly to enforce, in addition to undermining a level trading environment.

Useful facts

Smoking

  • Smoking is responsible for a range of cardiovascular diseases and cancers and kills 106,000 people per year in the UK
  • Smoking causes one in three cancer deaths and nine out of ten cases of lung cancer, which alone kills one person every 15 minutes in the UK (see Note 2)

Secondhand smoke

  • Secondhand smoke has been evaluated as “carcinogenic to humans” by the World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), based on an analysis of all significant published evidence relating to tobacco smoking and cancer across 12 European countries (see Note 3)
  • Secondhand smoke contains (among other toxic chemicals) carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, ammonia, formaldehyde, dioxins, cadmium and lead
  • Professor Konrad Jamrozik of Imperial College London estimates that exposure to secondhand smoke at work causes over 600 deaths each year across the UK, including the death of one hospitality worker a week (see Note 4)
  • There is no recognised safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke. Ventilation systems may remove the smell of smoke but cannot effectively remove the harmful chemicals that it contains.
  • The only people who believe there is still “debate” over secondhand smoke are those representing the tobacco industry

Employees exposed to secondhand smoke

Figures calculated by Action for Smoking and Health, using Government surveys (checked by the Office for National Statistics):

  • Just under 2.2 million people work in places with “no restrictions on smoking at all” (8% of the GB workforce)
  • Over 10 million people work in places where smoking is allowed in “designated areas” (38% of the GB workforce) (see Note 5)
  • It is estimated that non-smokers, exposed to smoke in the workplace, increase their lung cancer risk by approximately 20% (see Note 6)

Smokers’ attitude to smoking

  • 70% of smokers want to give up (see Note 7)

Public opinion

As one example of the strength of public opinion, a poll, conducted by polling firm, BMRB, and commissioned by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) and Cancer Research UK, showed that 73% of those polled supported a law to ensure that all enclosed workplaces, including all pubs and all restaurants, must be smokefree.

The poll also showed that 85% of people would visit bars and pubs as often - or even more often - if they were smokefree by law.

Notes

  1. SCOTH Report, November 2004
  2. Doll R, Peto R. The Causes of Cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst 1981; 66:1191-308.
  3. WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer. Volume 83: Tobacco smoke and involuntary smoking. Lyon: IARC, June 2002. http://monographs.iarc.fr/htdocs/monographs/vol83/02-involuntary.html (Accessed 19/08/04)
  4. Estimate by Professor Konrad Jamrozik of Imperial College London for a conference of the Royal College of Physicians in May 2004. This can be compared with a total of 226 deaths from all industrial accidents in 2002/3. (See www.ash.org.uk/html/factsheets/html/fact14.html and www.hse.gov.uk/press/2003/c03065.htm).
  5. Full results can be seen at: http://www.ash.org.uk/html/factsheets/html/onsworkplacefigures2004.html
  6. For a review of the evidence, see http://www.ash.org.uk/html/passive/html/passive.html#_edn12. Passive smoking: a summary of the evidence. May 2004.
  7. Office for National Statistics. Smoking Related Behaviour and Attitudes 2003: Office for National Statistics, 2004.