2014: bid to ban smoking

No designated smokers’ areas, Commonwealth Games urged

ORGANISERS of the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow are being urged to go fully “smoke- free”. But the campaign to make Scotland the first country to enforce a total ban on cigarettes in all areas of a major sporting event has been attacked by critics as “extremely petty”.

The anti- smoking charity Ash Scotland is launching a campaign for an outright ban on smoking at the Games.

Sheila Duffy, the charity’s chief executive, says sporting events have a crucial role to play in influencing positive lifestyle changes. “This event is about celebrating people’s achievements … and smoking works against that because it undermines health,” she said.

Although smoking will be prohibited at indoor Games venues, it is understood the current intention is to provide designated smoking areas outside. This reflects the approach taken by other major sporting events in which smoking is mostly prohibited but not banned outright.

Football body Fifa has l ong supported the campaign by the World Health Organisation ( WHO) for smoke-free sport events, with a ban at football stadia since 2002 including all sponsorship and advertising.

But although next year’s World Cup in Brazil is billed as “tobaccofree”, it is understood it will include some smoking areas, similar to the 2012 London Olympics.

Duffy welcomed moves towards an outright ban at major events, but added: “None has entirely managed it yet – so there is a real opportunity for Glasgow’s Commonwealth Games to be the first major sporting event to actually be smoke-free.

“When it comes to taking up smoking young people are influenced by their role models. For example, they are three times more likely to smoke if their parents do – so having the Games smoke-free is about protecting the next generation.”

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said it supported the aspiration to make the 2014 Games smoke- free. A spokeswoman said: “We will be entering into discussions with the Organising Committee to make the Games as smoke-free as possible.”

Glasgow 2014’s spokesman said it would “comply with existing legislation” and that it was considering options to extend this further.

Ash Scotland says making the Games smoke-free is in keeping with a Scottish Government strategy to decrease the “normalisation of smoking”. A five-year vision was set out last month, including making 2034 a target date for cutting smoking prevalence to 5% and making hospital grounds smoke-free by March 2015. Today, around 21% of Scots smoke.

But Simon Clark, director of smoker’s lobby group Forest, criticised the campaign. He said: “Apart from the difficulty of enforcing a smoke-free policy, it would be extremely petty to ban smoking in all outdoor areas.

“Instead of making everyone feel welcome, many visitors would feel unwelcome and excluded.

“The event must not be hijacked by public-health campaigners who are determined to impose their views on everyone else.”