Four days to go – ‘C’ what you can do to make Northern Ireland smokefree

There are just four days left to register support for Option C in the public consultation on smoking, the option which proposes a ban on smoking in all enclosed public places and workplaces.

The Health Promotion Agency for Northern Ireland (HPA) was at Pizza Hut today, which has been smokefree since 2003, to encourage people to register their support for Option C through the Smokefree Northern Ireland website (www.smokefreenorthernireland.com).

Susan Montgomery, Company Director of Pizza Hut said: “Pizza Hut believes that families should be able to take time to have a leisurely meal in a restaurant without exposing their children to other people’s smoke. It is equally important that our staff can work in a smokefree environment. We feel that Pizza Hut's successful move to ban smoking in all of its restaurants last year was a significant step forward for the UK restaurant industry and we hope that some of our competitors will follow suit in the near future.”

The Smokefree Northern Ireland website was launched last month with the aim of enabling and encouraging the public to respond directly to the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety’s consultation, A healthier future: a twenty year vision for health and wellbeing in Northern Ireland. The partnership website, facilitated by the HPA, incorporates 40 statutory, private and voluntary organisations from across Northern Ireland.

Dr Brian Gaffney, Chief Executive of the HPA said: “This is the most important consultation we have had in relation to public health in Northern Ireland and the outcome will have significant implications for the health of generations to come. To date the partnership website has received over 63,000 hits in the four weeks since it went live. If just 5% of these are transferred into responses backing Option C, this would send a clear message about public opinion on smoking in Northern Ireland.

“Research carried out by the HPA and other organisations indicates growing support for a smoking ban. The public are now more educated about the serious health implications of smoking and second-hand smoke, which not only worsen existing health problems but also directly harm health. Passive smoking has a major impact on children’s health. Research shows that 17,000 children in the UK under the age of five are admitted to hospital each year with illnesses that are a direct result of passive smoking¹.”

The HPA research conducted in March 2004 found that 70% of all respondents to the survey thought that public places (indoors) in Northern Ireland should be smokefree. MORI Ireland had similar results in a more recent survey with over two thirds of respondents (69%) in favour of a smoking ban in public places, including pubs, clubs and restaurants. Nearly 4 in 10 indicated that if a smoking ban was introduced they would be more likely to visit pubs, clubs or restaurants.

END

Notes to the editor

• The partnership website can be accessed at www.smokefreenortherireland.com
• Responses to the consultation will be accepted by the DHSSPS up to 5pm on Friday 25 March 2005.

For further information contact
Rosie McGaughey at the Health Promotion Agency -Tel: 9031 1611 or 9031 1514.

¹ Smoking and the Young. Royal College of Physicians. 1992.