Smoked out
Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2012 3:41 am
Smoking will be banned at bus stops, taxi ranks, playgrounds, public sports grounds, and swimming pools and outdoor dining areas under tobacco reforms announced today by the NSW government.
Health Minister Jillian Skinner said a pre-election promise to the clubs industry prevented the bans from being implemented in outdoor commercial dining areas until March 2015, but bans in the other areas would take effect immediately.
She said the government would honour its memorandum of understanding with ClubsNSW.
Mrs Skinner said smoking-related illness accounted for 5200 deaths and 44,000 hospital admissions each year in NSW - costing NSW $8 billion each year.
The head of the NSW Cancer Council, Andrew Penman, said he was "pragmatic" about the government's decision to delay introduction of the smoking bans as far a clubs' outdoor dining areas until 2015.
"The history of tobacco control has been a history of compromise," Dr Penman said.
Mrs Skinner said reducing the harm "which tobacco inflicts on our community is a key priority for the O'Farrell government".
"The distress and cost that smoking inflicts on families, and the burden this imposes on NSW's health system, is simply not acceptable," she said.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/smoking-in-pu ... z1mz5O0vH3
