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2011-05-24 06:33:32
New York is introducing an outdoor smoking ban. But could the UK and other
countries follow suit, asks Tom de Castella.
It is a city heralded for attracting incomers from around the world, but New
York has just become less hospitable to one group - smokers.
Under measures approved by local authorities, swathes of outdoor public places
including beaches, municipal parks and even Times Square have become
tobacco-free.
And with smoking legislations, as with so much else, where New York leads, the
rest of the world can find itself following.
After the city banned smoking in restaurants, bars and clubs in 2003 - itself
following Los Angeles, which introduced similar curbs a decade earlier - it
helped drive a global trend.
France, India, Ireland and Italy were among the nations which introduced bans
after New York. Scotland prohibited smoking in enclosed public spaces in 2006
and the rest of the UK followed the year after.
So it is not surprising that the latest development in New York is attracting
global interest.
Smoker As a result of the ban, New Yorkers could face fines if they light up
outdoors
The city's latest anti-smoking measures cover public golf courses and sports
grounds as well as plazas like Herald Square.
Smoking will be allowed on pavements outside parks, and car parks in public
parks. One area the ban does not cover is "median strips" - known as the
central reservation in the UK - the sliver of land in the middle of a large
road.
City authorities say they hope the new law will be enforced by New Yorkers
themselves. But if someone refuses to stop, the public is advised to inform
park wardens, and should someone refuse to stop smoking they could be fined.
The New York ban itself comes after Spain outlawed smoking near hospitals or in
school playgrounds from January 2011. But whether other countries follow suit
largely depends, of course, on whether the move proves effective.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office has cited studies suggesting that
sitting three feet away from a smoker outdoors can expose people to the same
passive smoking risk as would occur indoors.
Not all those who oppose smoking believe the ban is justified, however.
Analysis
image of Tom Geoghegan Tom Geoghegan BBC News, Washington DC
Many New Yorkers remain unaware of the new ban but among those most affected -
smokers - there is a great deal of anger.
They say the science behind the mayor's passive smoking fears is false and the
ban unenforceable. A public flouting of the law is planned at Brighton Beach in
Brooklyn on Saturday, when smokers will gather for a group puff.
One invoked the civil rights movement when she described it to me as "our Rosa
Parks moment".
In a country which is very sensitive to any sign of government intrusion in
their lives, there are some non-smokers who also believe this represents a step
too far.
Earlier in the year, the New York Times newspaper, which supported the initial
law, said its extension takes "the mayor's nannying too far".
Michael Siegel, professor of community health sciences at Boston University,
wrote in the New York Times that the ban was "pointless" from a public health
perspective and could, in fact, increase the risk of passive smoking by
creating "smoke-filled areas" near park entrances.
Whichever way the debate in New York is resolved, it will be watched closely
abroad. Prof John Britton, chair of the Royal College of Physicians Tobacco
Advisory Group, says the very existence of the ban could have an impact on
countries like the UK.
He says the risks of second-hand smoke outdoors are "quite small unless you're
right next to the smoker".
However, Prof Britton believes that seeing such a system in operation would
convince those who might otherwise argue that such legislation would be
unworkable.
"They did it when smoking on the London Underground was banned [in the 1980s],"
he says. "Then they did it with the smoking ban in July 2007. But once it comes
in, not only do people accept it, they say 'Why didn't we do it before?'"
Indeed, smoking bans are coming into effect in countries where observers would
not have easily imagined citizens giving up their cigarettes.
China - home to one-third of the world's smokers - outlawed smoking in bars,
restaurants and buses from 1 May 2011 and Russia plans to implement similar
legislation from 2015.
This July will be the fourth anniversary of the ban on smoking in public places
having reached all parts of the UK.
In the year following its introduction, more than two billion fewer cigarettes
were smoked and 400,000 people quit, according to researchers at University
College London.
Around the world
Smoker
health clinics
and indirect advertising of tobacco is also forbidden
smoking in enclosed spaces by 2015
extended to open areas near hospitals, schools and children's playgrounds
places including restaurants, cinemas, theatres and on public transport. The
restrictions apply to the nargile, or hubble-bubble pipe
As a result, the UK smoking lobby is watching developments across the Atlantic
with trepidation.
Simon Clark, director of Forest, which campaigns against smoking bans, believes
the New York initiative is "ludicrous" and that there is no evidence that
anyone is at risk as a result of someone else smoking in the open air.
Some political leaders in the British Isles have already begun looking at
tightening the law further.
In March 2011, the public health department in Jersey said it was considering
whether to ban smoking in all motor vehicles on the island.
Martin Dockrell, director of research and policy at the campaign group Action
on Smoking and Health (Ash), acknowledges that there is no clear evidence of a
significant harm to health from second-hand outdoor tobacco smoke.
But he says there are compelling reasons for banning smoking in some outdoor
areas, such as children's play parks, as a means of shifting long-term
attitudes.
And he argues that if such a ban is put into place, it will not be due to the
influence of New York - but because the tide of UK public opinion has hardened
against smoking.
"It already has happened in the UK," he says. "Glasgow has smoke-free parks. In
the north-west of England there are a number of parks that have gone
smoke-free.
"We'll see more of this incrementally as more and more communities become
non-smoking."
Smokers and non-smokers alike will make up their own minds in the months ahead.
What remains to be seen is not just whether the new ban can make it in New
York, but whether it can make it anywhere.