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Wales Set To Ban Smoking Outdoors In Certain Public Spaces

Wales Set To Ban Smoking Outdoors In Certain Public Spaces

The Welsh Assembly is considering some of the harshest anti-smoking laws in the world, including banning smoking in hospitals and schools

Mike Wood

Mike Wood

A raft of new legislation in the Welsh Assembly could see the Principality become the first part of the UK to ban smoking outside.

Wales already has some of the toughest anti-smoking laws around and is now set to extend the areas in which smoking is forbidden to include hospital grounds, school grounds and playgrounds. If enacted, the law would come into effect next summer.

Wales' Health Minister, Vaughan Gething of the Labour Party, said: "I am proud that Wales continues to be at the forefront of UK action to reduce smoking and prevent young people from taking it up in the first place."

"We have seen significant changes to the attitudes to smoking since 2007. Back then we received some resistance to change, but we have seen a remarkable culture-change and I am pleased our plan to extend smoke-free areas to outdoor public spaces has received overwhelming public support."

PA

"This is another step in the right direction to de-normalise smoking in Wales."

The move was influenced by Gething's visit to Glan Clwyd Hospital in Rhyl, where staff informed him that they regularly fielded complaints from new mothers in the maternity units about people smoking outdoors in the hospital grounds.

Smoking inside has been banned in Wales since April 2007, before England and Northern Ireland but after Scotland.

All four constituent parts of the United Kingdom banned smoking inside separately, though within several months of each other. The Republic of Ireland has similar legislation, brought in in 2004, the first such law anywhere in the world.

Since the smoking ban was introduced in 2007, over two million Brits have given up the habit. Of those who have quit, one in seven have said that the smoking ban influenced their decision to stop.

Smoking remains the main cause of death in Wales, with almost 5,500 deaths a year caused as a result of smoking. It is estimated that smoking costs £302 million a year to the National Health Service in Wales alone.

Outdoor smoking bans are rare, but there are a few places that have them.

No American state has banned it outright to the extent that Wales intends to, though some individual cities have stringent rules: New York City banned smoking in public parks, while many Californian cities have outlawed smoking outside in designated areas.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: News, law, UK, Smoking, Health