Committee
Health and Sport Committee 16 June 2015
16 Jun 2015 · S4 · Health and Sport Committee
Item of business
Smoking Prohibition (Children in Motor Vehicles) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
Simon Clark
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I am not an expert, so I probably should not answer that question. I think that parents should err on the side of caution. It is common sense that any parent who has small children, particularly babies, should err on the side of caution, and I think that most would. Much of the research into passive smoking has been flawed. The largest-ever study on passive smoking, which was carried out in California, studied a group of 119,000 people between 1959 and 1999, and found that it had no significant impact. The problem with the research that has been carried out in cars is that it is inconsistent because there are so many variables—such as whether a window is open and whether it is open one inch or two—that all make a huge difference. Often, the research that we have seen focuses on that moment—it may be literally a few seconds—when someone has just lit a cigarette and there is a significant amount of smoke in the car. Within seconds, that smoke has normally been massively diluted because a window is open, or whatever. I do not want to come across as if I am justifying or defending people who smoke in cars with children, because I am not. I simply think that the legislation is excessive. Perhaps I may step back a bit and talk about the smoking ban in Scotland in 2006, which I think was grossly excessive. I totally accept that it is fine to ban smoking in restaurants, but I think that a comprehensive ban in every pub and club in the country, without even allowing designated smoking rooms, was outrageous. I still believe that nine years later, and I am not alone. A Populus poll last week before the ASH report came out asked a random sample of 2,000 people whether they would allow well-ventilated designated smoking rooms in pubs and private members clubs, and 57 per cent said that they would. I accept that people obey the law and do not want to get their landlord or publican into trouble, but I dispute the idea that the smoking ban has been hugely popular. It has very high compliance rates, but when people are asked whether we should allow well-ventilated designated smoking rooms, in general the majority of people favour that idea. You said that the idea of a well-ventilated smoking room is complete nonsense, but it is not. Modern technology can solve the problem of environmental tobacco smoke extremely well, but sadly we have not gone down that route. Underlying this legislation is a desire to stop people smoking—that is what it comes down to, despite the fact that tobacco is a perfectly legal product. People talk about making Scotland smoke free by 2035 or 2030, or whatever, but if we leave smokers alone, smoking rates will continue to fall slowly for a number of reasons. Health is a serious issue. A lot of people start smoking when they are quite young, but they give up in their 20s and 30s when they start having families and do not want to smoke around children and all the rest of it. We will continue to see a gentle decline in smoking rates, but unfortunately that is not good enough for the tobacco control lobby. It has already set a target of getting Scotland to be smoke free by 2035—smoke free means that just 5 per cent of the population smoke. The only way that we will get smoking rates down to 5 per cent is by introducing more and more bans and legislation restricting where people can smoke. The way we are going, eventually people will not be allowed to smoke in a public park. We are starting by banning smoking in children’s play areas, even though they are in the open air. Some councils in England have exclusion zones around play areas—eventually people will not be able to smoke anywhere where a child might be present. Those rules and regulations have not been brought in for health reasons, because nobody argues that smoking in the open air is a risk to any bystander, whether they are an adult or a child. The argument now is, “We do not want you to smoke in a public park or anywhere near children because we do not want you to be a bad role model for children. If a child sees you smoking in a park, it might encourage them to take up smoking”. Again, there is no evidence that children take up smoking because they see a complete stranger smoking. All the evidence suggests that children take up smoking because of peer pressure or the influence of family members. That is another reason why some people are trying to crack down on family members smoking, whether in the car or at home, or whatever. There is a desire to stop parents smoking in case they become bad role models for their children. We must remember that tobacco is a legal product. I would have far more respect for people who came out and said that we should ban tobacco completely. Instead of that, Governments are more than happy to put 86 per cent taxation on tobacco—that is the average taxation on a pack of cigarettes in this country; 86 per cent goes to the Government. 11:30 It comes back to the principle that we should try to discourage the few people who smoke in a car with children present. FOREST would be more than happy to join that campaign, so long as it was educational rather than threatening people with fines, penalties and all the rest of it. We feel the same way about litter. We would like to encourage smokers not to drop litter, but it is a two-way thing. It needs some help, rather than rather draconian bullying tactics through which smokers are threatened with fines and other penalties if they drop litter or smoke in a car.
In the same item of business
The Convener
Lab
Agenda item 4 is evidence on the Smoking Prohibition (Children in Motor Vehicles) (Scotland) Bill. I welcome Simon Clark, director of the Freedom Organisatio...
Richard Lyle
SNP
I am a car driver and a smoker, and I do not feel threatened by the bill. Your position as expressed in your submission is: “FOREST does not support the int...
Simon Clark (Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco)
I do not think that you should ban everything that might not be wise. Parents should err on the side of caution on certain things. We have been saying for ma...
Richard Lyle
SNP
I have two grandchildren. I have two child seats in the back of my car. I do not smoke in my car when my grandchildren are in it. At the end of the day, the ...
Simon Clark
To be frank, I am slightly sceptical about them. Introducing legislation on the basis of surveys of children of that age is a bit dodgy. We cannot simply ass...
Richard Lyle
SNP
The nub of your argument is that you feel that the bill is an encroachment on people’s civil liberties. I smoke, and I smoke in my car, and I do not feel thr...
Simon Clark
Obviously, I cannot speak for the police. They are going to speak on the subject a bit later. As a member of the public who does not know enough about the po...
Dr Simpson
Lab
May I just correct one thing? Kenny Gibson, with my support, introduced a bill in 1999, proposing that there should be a ban on smoking in restaurants—anywhe...
Simon Clark
I am not an expert, so I probably should not answer that question. I think that parents should err on the side of caution. It is common sense that any parent...
Dr Simpson
Lab
So we can add to the list that passive smoking research is not valid, and research on smoking in cars—
Simon Clark
Now you are exaggerating.
Dr Simpson
Lab
That is what you are saying.
Simon Clark
I am not saying that it is not valid.
Dr Simpson
Lab
You are saying that the research is not valid unless it supports your case.
Simon Clark
I am saying that the threat of second-hand smoke has been exaggerated. I cannot repeat often enough that I am not encouraging people to smoke in a car with c...
Dr Simpson
Lab
The Government did not accept Kenny Gibson’s proposals in 1999 because, at that point, the research on passive smoking was not good enough. However, within t...
Simon Clark
The problem is that workers could have been protected by the provision of designated smoking rooms.
Dr Simpson
Lab
We tried that. When Susan Deacon refused to take up Kenny Gibson’s bill in 1999, she said that ventilation systems would be introduced. It was clear from the...
The Convener
Lab
That is in the past. We are dealing with another bill today.
Dennis Robertson
SNP
I am a bit confused, Mr Clark. You say that you would have more respect if the Government called for a ban on tobacco altogether. Fair enough, there would be...
Simon Clark
No, sorry.
Dennis Robertson
SNP
I did not think that you would.
Simon Clark
I am not sure where you got the 24 per cent figure. Our understanding is that research shows that fewer than 13 per cent of children are exposed to tobacco s...
Dennis Robertson
SNP
So you say that that is too high.
Simon Clark
About 1 per cent of children are regularly exposed to tobacco smoke. If someone is just exposed very occasionally, among that 13 per cent, I do not believe t...
Dennis Robertson
SNP
You mention the figure of 13 per cent, but that gives you no idea whether any of those children have respiratory problems. If an adult is smoking irresponsib...
Simon Clark
Again, that would be patronising for the vast majority of smokers who know how to behave. I am a bit disturbed about some of the language that you use—for ex...
Dennis Robertson
SNP
I did not say that smoking was to blame for asthma; I said that a child’s asthma could be exacerbated by an adult smoking.
Simon Clark
Sure. However, I do not think that we have gone down the education route on smoking in cars when children are present. I think that legislation should be a l...
Dennis Robertson
SNP
The point that I cannot come to terms with in your argument is that you seem to accept that, during a three-year moratorium, children will still be exposed t...