60 Percent Of People Think UK Should Ban Smoking Outdoors

Oxfordshire has recently announced plans to become the first place in the UK to ban smoking outside.

With that, we took it upon ourselves to do a little poll and the results are in.

After nearly 11,500 votes, it seems 59.1 percent of people want the entire UK to follow Oxfordshire's example while 40.9 percent said the UK shouldn't ban smoking outside:

The idea behind Oxfordshire's move is to get the region to be completely smoke-free by 2025.

After putting it to LADbible readers on Twitter, one person wrote: "No, it's people's choice to smoke at the end of the day as it is to drink or take drugs, and in a garden the smoke or smell isn't a nuisance to anyone either."

Another said: "It's horrible to have to inhale poisons to go in in a pub or coffee shop. I can't work in these places because the smoke causes instant coughing and sore throat as well as breathlessness.

"Even a split second exposure does it. My mum smoked which sensitized my lungs."

A third wrote: "I think that it should be banned in like town centres (such as the main high street) and outside buildings like hotels and pubs unless in the designated smoking area of a pub garden.

"Especially away from the kids play frame etc. So that non smokers don't have to inhale the smoke."

PA

According to reports, a councillor has asked Cherwell District Council, in Oxford, to make all new pavement licenses - which allow bars and restaurants to have outdoor seating areas - smoke-free.

Officials would also aim to encourage employers to stop people smoking outside offices and factories, and to create new smoke-free areas in pavement dining spaces.

Last week, Oxfordshire's Public Health Director Ansaf Azhar said the strategy was a 'long game' to change smoking culture, with hopes that it will prevent deaths from diseases linked to tobacco.

Speaking to the county's health improvement partnership board, he said: "It is not about telling people not to smoke. It is about moving and creating an environment in which not smoking is encouraged and they are empowered to do so.

"But that is not going to happen overnight."

Topics: UK News, News, UK, Smoking

Rebecca Shepherd

I'm Becky - a journalist at LADbible. I graduated with a First Class BA in Journalism before going on to cover criminal court cases, medical tribunals and breaking news for the national media - which inevitably and eventually became as glum as it sounds. Can often be found rocking a bag for life - which I made a 'thing' way before Rihanna. You can contact me at [email protected]

@RJShepherd94