Monday 13 December 2010

Smoking ban in homes

Action on Smoking and Health (in the UK) is getting more fanatical by the day. In this BBC report, Martin Dockrell, ASH's policy officer, concludes:  'There is a strong case for social and private sector landlords designating some entire blocks as smoke-free to respect the choice and the health of the great majority of their tenants.'

This directly contradicts Deborah Arnott's words reported by The Independent only yesterday: 'While we can't pass legislation to prohibit smoking in the home, smoking in cars can and should be prohibited by law' [emphasis added].

The background to Dockrell's urgent about-face? A study led by Jonathan Winickoff (who invented third-hand smoke) declaring that children who live in apartments are more exposed to smoke than children in detached houses. They tested children across the US for cotinine, which is found (but not exclusively) in tobacco.
Researchers limited the sample in this study to children who live in a household where nobody smokes.
No control, then?
Overall, researchers found that 84.5% of children who were living in blocks of flats had a cotinine level that indicated recent tobacco-smoke exposure, compared with 79.6% of children who were living in attached houses and 70.3% who were living in detached houses.
So nearly three-quarters of children of non-smokers in detached houses have a high degree of cotinine in their systems, and children in smoking households were not studied. Exposure to nicotine is measured, but not the effects of exposure, which we are left to imagine. The study carries the authority that one expects from the man who coined the phrase 'third-hand smoke'.

Martin Dockrell should be ashamed to peg ASH's policies on such rotten calculations.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

If the powers that be listen to such crap and try to impliment a smoking ban at BigYin Towers then there is going to be one almighty fight on their hands. I've been waiting for such a ban ever since 2007.

There are quite a few elderly smokers here, although I know not how many in the 92 flats. I witnessed them going outside for a smoke when the had a games night recently. They were not happy and very cold.

JJ said...

'While we can't pass legislation to prohibit smoking in the home'

We?...can't pass legislation. Did you think you could pass legislation...or is that something you hope to be able to do in future?

You ASHites really are too big for your nasty little jack-boots!

Unknown said...

Well picked up JJ. The arrogance of these Cnuts is breathtaking!

Anonymous said...

It's already happened in many places.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPIIcyUjvy8