The smoking wars

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Friday Features

Friday, 03 February 2012

Author / Source : Nilufar Rahim

Outside two of London’s busiest train stations, I’ve noticed stalls selling cigarettes. This seemed particularly out of character as it’s something one doesn’t see – people promoting cigarettes. Even more peculiar, the salespeople were temptingly smoking themselves and inviting passers-by to indulge in a puff, as if they were vendors of a foreign market stall in a holiday destination for tourists. One of the salespersons approached me with his cigarette and as I steeled myself to haughtily inform him that I didn’t smoke, I was introduced to his electronic cigarette.
This little gadget, which looks just like a real cigarette, apparently provides the same cigarette taste as well as a boost of nicotine, but is completely smokeless making it possible to ‘smoke’ legally indoors, since smoking indoors in public places has been banned in the UK since 2007.
It’s interesting how gadgets such as these appear once the need arises. I remember, when England was considering the ban (which already existed in Scotland, Wales and Northern Island at the time) there was a huge cry from smokers’ camps about how banning smoking in public places would severely impact social and personal freedoms and hurt businesses such as pubs and nightclubs. The protest developed even further, becoming a prolonged political battle that split the Government, and inflamed critics of the UK as a nanny state.
Post-ban, it wasn’t long before smokers got accustomed to the different ways of life and new smoking habits formed fairly swiftly. You began to see clusters of employees huddled outside offices puffing away in the cold. Pubs installed heaters outside their buildings to provide places for their customers to pop out comfortably for a smoke.
There was no reason the ban wouldn’t take off since its objective was sound and beneficial for all. The main reason for the ban was to cut deaths from second-hand smoke which killed hundreds of people each year. 
While the electronic cigarette is aimed at a particular clientele, there is also another development, focussed on a different aim - safety.
These are fire safe cigarettes (also called RIP cigarettes) which are made to extinguish more quickly than standard cigarettes, with the intention of preventing accidental fires. These cigarettes are produced by adding two or more bands to the cigarette paper during manufacture. The idea is that if a fire safe cigarette is left unattended (not puffed by the smoker) the burning tobacco will reach one of these bands and self extinguish.
I don’t know if these cigarettes actually work in the way they were intended – to prevent fires. I do however feel that this way of thinking is most valuable. We do need to think about safety as well as health. Fires started by smoking materials remain the top reason for house fires in the UK; on average, 800 fires a year in the city of London alone are started by smoking materials.
For this safety initiative, I applaud the London Fire Brigade which has been campaigning for safer cigarettes for years now. And they should know as the first on the scene at hundreds of domestic fires started by cigarettes. Fires which could have been prevented.
A fire safer standard is already in force on cigarettes in other places around the world such as Canada, Australia, Finland, and some American states. In 2008, European Union countries voted for a new fire safer standard for all cigarettes sold in the EU and this standard came into force across the EU on 17 November 2011. 
Although it is a voluntary standard, manufacturers have a strong incentive to comply, as the standard will provide a ‘presumption of safety’ for cigarettes manufactured within it. 
The idea is already a tried and tested one so what have we to fear in introducing small changes which will have the biggest impact of all, saving lives? We already know for instance, that in Finland –the first EU country to require fire safer cigarettes– the number of smoking related deaths fell by 40%.
People will continue to smoke, despite the clever advertising campaigns, the large warnings on the front of cigarette cartons, and information about lung cancer. And so, the smoking wars continue. That each year there are more than 80,000 deaths caused by smoking in England is without doubt, a strong reason to walk forward on this warpath. 
Most recently on that path, it was the turn of doctors who were having their say. According to the British Medical Association, the government should now consider banning smoking in cars. Backing up their plea with hard facts, they reported that toxin levels from smoking in closed vehicles can be 23 times higher than in a typical smoky bar. The risks to passengers, especially children and the elderly are clear.
The reasons for not smoking are abundant. The reasons for, are not going to be found in any writing of mine.


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The writer is a columnist for
The Independent