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Cigarettes outlawed on entire hospital site
9:30am Thursday 21st December 2006
Comments (70)LIGHTING up outside York hospital will be banned from the New Year under a strict new non-smoking regime.
Notices have now gone up at the hospital advising patients and staff that its grounds will be a no-smoking zone from January 1.
Smoking was outlawed inside the hospital building in 2001, but the new move extends the restriction to the entire site, which ends at Wigginton Road.
Patients having a cigarette, sometimes still attached to drips, have long been a familiar site at the hospital's entrance.
That is all set to change after bosses from the hospital's board yesterday gave formal approval to the new regulations.
Nursing director Mike Proctor said staff would be enforcing the policy, but they should not put themselves into potentially difficult situations if patients were being aggressive.
He said: "We will be informing people they are not allowed to smoke in a non-confrontational and gentle way. Members of staff will take it upon themselves to try and enforce this as much as possible."
Banning smoking on hospital grounds has been a controversial issue for some, who say it is robbing patients of their rights - especially at a time when they are ill and vulnerable.
Simon Clark, director of pro-smoking freedom lobby Forest, said: "I think it's a great pity that hospitals take this stance.
"I understand that they don't want to condone people smoking but hospitals are supposed to be caring institutions and they should be making life comfortable for patients and even members of staff who want to smoke. Hospitals can be very stressful places, not just for patients but also for members of staff."
Mr Proctor said he understood that people might object to a no-smoking policy, but said patients could use coming into hospital as an opportunity to give up the habit.
He said: "What we're trying to do is introduce a smoke-free environment for the whole population. We haven't had smoking in the building since 2001 and it's not caused that many problems.
"The country is generally moving to a culture where non-smoking is the norm - what we're doing is reflecting the generally cultural move into that. We're moving in the direction of travel, not against it.
"Every time we make restrictions on smoking there are always huge protests and then it becomes accepted as the norm. I think this will be another example of that.
"We deal with the outcomes of long-term smoking this hospital every day, heart disease, lung cancer - it would be almost perverse for a hospital to allowing smoking on its premises when it causes such damage to patients' health."
Your Say YourPress
JL, says...
9:59am Thu 21 Dec 06
Now mothers in labour won't have to put up with smokers right outside the window, and pregnant women won't have to walk through walls of smoke trying to get into the hospital for their appointments.
Alan Oliver, says...
10:25am Thu 21 Dec 06
Philip, says...
10:30am Thu 21 Dec 06
Geoff, says...
10:33am Thu 21 Dec 06
Walking past smokers attached to drips to get in the hospital has long mystified me.
Mind you, smoking itself mystifies me. It takes all your money and then it kills you!
J, says...
10:49am Thu 21 Dec 06
Barry Bethal, says...
10:50am Thu 21 Dec 06
Mind you, smoking itself mystifies me. It takes all your money and then it kills you!
A bit like marriage really!
PJS, says...
10:54am Thu 21 Dec 06
Tk, says...
10:56am Thu 21 Dec 06
SD, says...
11:00am Thu 21 Dec 06
SK, says...
11:24am Thu 21 Dec 06
Bemused, says...
11:28am Thu 21 Dec 06
Will patients who smoke be able to sue York District Hospital for making them go cold turkey, or is it only heroine addicted criminals in prison who have rights?
Mister Sheen, says...
12:43pm Thu 21 Dec 06
Unfortunately, that first breath was laced with Benson & Hedges and Lambert & Butler!
What a lousy first view of the world!!
I support this rule woleheartedly!
JL, says...
1:11pm Thu 21 Dec 06
I would bet they would love to give up but its not as easy as that unfortunately
Why isn't it?
I was a smoker for many years, but made the decision to quit and managed it very successfully without any help or expensive replacement products.
These smokers who say they'd love to give up but can't have no intention of even trying to quit - its all about willpower.
And anyway, there is plenty of help out there if you really think you need it, so there is no excuse - if you're in hospital you're ill and shouldn't be smoking!
Leo, says...
1:21pm Thu 21 Dec 06
Will patients who smoke be able to sue York District Hospital for making them go cold turkey?
I won't be the slightest bit surprised if someone tries. No doubt they will have given a six figure sum in legal aid to pursue the case, while some poor sod whose lost his licence because of a defective speed camera or an overzealous policeman will have to risk his life savings to get the conviction overturned.
tony collins, says...
1:53pm Thu 21 Dec 06
Mister Sheen, says...
2:15pm Thu 21 Dec 06
Good job! - the extent to which they're hogging it with their respiratory disorders, induced cancers and clogged arteries!
"and for gods sake get a life you anti smokers."
We've got one! - and anxious to hang onto it thankyou - hence the reason why we don't smoke! - not even passively!!!!!
DG, says...
2:19pm Thu 21 Dec 06
tony collins wrote:Smokers are not treated like dirt. There is every help available in the NHS for those who want to quit just like an addict.Similary drug addicts would not be tollerated shooting up outside the hospital or any other public place. The only smokers treated like dirt are the ones trying to inflict their habit on others just as a drug addict would be.
the sooner a smoker sues the hospital for inhumane treatment the better,the doctors dont treat heroin addicts like dirt, why should they treat smokers worse.and to the woman who said smokers should be discharged or wasting money..well i hope one day a doctor will refuse to treat you with some idiotic reason..Smokers pay for the whole health service twice over in taxes.and for gods sake get a life you anti smokers.
Your analogy is actually a good one!
Oh and we anti smokers DO have a life and we want to keep it unlike you smokers apparently.
r, says...
2:54pm Thu 21 Dec 06
Morrissey the consumer monkey, says...
3:02pm Thu 21 Dec 06
wildthing, says...
3:30pm Thu 21 Dec 06
wildthing, says...
3:43pm Thu 21 Dec 06
Alf, says...
3:56pm Thu 21 Dec 06
Christmas Fairy, says...
4:45pm Thu 21 Dec 06
Barry Bethal wrote:Ohhhh... A man with a sense of humour...! How unusual :o)
Mind you, smoking itself mystifies me. It takes all your money and then it kills you!A bit like marriage really!
tony collins, says...
5:22pm Thu 21 Dec 06
Morrissey the consumer monkey, says...
5:41pm Thu 21 Dec 06
tony collins wrote:Nice one Tony Collins. Are you really a tourist or just a nutter masquerading as one. You've persuaded me to stop smoking anyway, so nice work.
oh well. you lot on this site,i wont bother coming to york ever again,spending my money on the tourist crap around the cathedral and buying coffee at extortionate prices.ill be goin to spain every holiday where at least you get value for money and can smoke in peace.you wont be so happy then when other tourists too decide to give the u.k. and york a miss because everywhere has closed down...have a happy life non- smokers.in your empty premises, you deserve each other...BYE....tony.
stan mc cabe, says...
5:57pm Thu 21 Dec 06
DG, says...
6:39pm Thu 21 Dec 06
stan mc cabe wrote:Anyone can eat, smoke, drink and drug to excess if that is their wish but keep it to yourself and don't inflict it on those who would prefer to choose their own route to the grim reaper if that is possible.
What exactly is the prize for being the healtiest corpse in the graveyard ? Or are we all going to live forever now. Smoke, eat, drink and drug to excess and have some fun in this life. We'll all be long gone and forgotten 50, 60,70 years from now. The Reaper awaits us.
At least you smokers are a dying breed in one way or another.
admiralsmurf, says...
7:01pm Thu 21 Dec 06
stan mc cabe, says...
7:08pm Thu 21 Dec 06
Mister Sheen, says...
7:34pm Thu 21 Dec 06
stan mc cabe wrote:Now, d'you know - I can't quite remember the last time I had cause to visit a sewage plant!
curry houses, cafes, bakeries, cars, sewage plants, laundries, women, men, sea water, river water, flowers, animals, food, all stink, cling to your clothes, no water and soap here, ban them all, protect us form ourselves, please please help us Governement, we're so scared. We're so scared of dying that we are afriad to live. Please once again, we all need HELP
It was....um....er...
DG, says...
7:47pm Thu 21 Dec 06
Happy smoking to you.
Geoff, says...
7:55pm Thu 21 Dec 06
stan mc cabe wrote:You just don't get it do you Stan?
What exactly is the prize for being the healtiest corpse in the graveyard ? Or are we all going to live forever now. Smoke, eat, drink and drug to excess and have some fun in this life. We'll all be long gone and forgotten 50, 60,70 years from now. The Reaper awaits us.
If you want to smke, then fine. Smoke if that's what you want.
Only, don't do it where others can breathe your ciggie smoke. And don't expect people to be happy seeing you up the access to the hospital doors while you gasp away, coughing and spitting up phlem.
You carry on smoking matey, you'll soon be dead and there will be one less smoker to annoy the rest of us!
stan mc cabe, says...
7:59pm Thu 21 Dec 06
Mister Sheen, says...
8:09pm Thu 21 Dec 06
Roy Castle might have had something to say about that!
"I can easily produce a statistic that states that " life expectancy has dratically increased since tobacco was first smoked"
Go on then! (But do so with evidence of a consequential link to smiking!!)
"Live, laugh, love."
....cough lots, be a burden on others and die horribly!
TL, says...
8:14pm Thu 21 Dec 06
s, says...
10:09pm Thu 21 Dec 06
Geoff, says...
10:59pm Thu 21 Dec 06
And don't say that they make it up, they **** well don't!
mandy, says...
12:59am Fri 22 Dec 06
No-one owns the air.
Nurses and Doctors are not robots, should they wish to smoke somewhere should be provided.
Maybe we could have some nice underground tunnels so the smokers could be hidden away. Oh then we would need other tunnels so fat people could not be seen either. I do not have a problem with chubby people, I do however have a problem with fat antis. Intolerance leads to intolerance, Countries have been there and we are going backward not forward.
There is so much hate from the posts I read it is scary.
Smokers to the left - chubblies to the right - make way for perfection.
Your likely to get more from being in the hospital than you are from walking past smokers.
Rodrigo, says...
1:22am Fri 22 Dec 06
I presume you're one of that big debate/freedom2choose mob who have convinced themselves that smoking is safe, even good for you.
You really don't get this do you? Most people don't object to smoking in their presence because the smell is distasteful, they object because they feel it is either irritant or harmful to them, and you have no right to inflict that on other people.
You may not have a problem with chubby people, but I bet you would have something to say if a 25 stone fat bloke sat on your knee in the pub! His personal choice to be overweight stops being only his business when he starts to crush someone else.
Nobody has ever been killed in a pub by being sat on by a fat bloke, but its still not something you would want to have inflicted on you every time you go out.
Neil E dunn, says...
1:25am Fri 22 Dec 06
I took part in contact sports and broke limbs, I sailed and had to be rescued, I climbed mountains and had to call upon rescue teams, oh yes, and I smoke.
During all this time I was applauded for everything but smoking yet smoking is the only thing I ever paid tax on. Sorry if tobacco tax adds up to about 5 times the cost of treating smokers but shouldn't we ban all these other expensive (to the NHS) activities?
Anti-smoking crusaders are out of control with their lies and coercion.
No Geoff, we don't pop out every 10 minutes for a fag - that's just one of the intolerant anti-smoking sound bites.
I was brought up in a tolerant, socially inclusive society yet despite Tony Blairs' recent dream words find myself excluded.
wayne, says...
1:45am Fri 22 Dec 06
freedom2choose co uk
But if you go you our site you will see we are pushing for separate smoking rooms and good ventilation, then the air will be very clean. But this is also about freedom of choose, they will not stop here, some places in the USA, they dont allow you to smoke in parks, and this is about stopping the UK nanny state, they are trying to control us slowly, after the smoking, they are then going to focus on diet and health and drink.
They are spending and wasting 50million or more on this so called smoking ban, and that money should be used to save real lives, to buy new machines for hospitals, or it should be used to help the starving of this World, or be given to me to by more blow hehehe.
But there is a problem with the clean air issue, perfume, and as just about everyone drives a car, and every time you start it you contaminate the air big time, one hour drive in just one car put more pollutants in the air, than all the passive smoking has ever done,
second-opinions.co.uk/die...ng_cancer
MSP Patrick Harvie said spending 24 hours in Glasgow city centre was the equivalent of smoking 15 cigarettes. Oxford city centre has the worst air pollution in the country, according to a survey which compares inhaling the air there to smoking 61 cigarettes a day, so passive smoking is one big needle in one big haystack. So with all the toxins in the air, is a ban in bar and clubs, really worth all the time and money, as your breathing in toxins all day, the only difference with cigarettes, is you can see the smoke, when good ventilation could be far more useful. When good ventilation could be far more useful, and it can get rid of all the toxins in the air, I can prove evidence and links.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4401628.stm
archive.thisisoxfordshire.co....8/27/9214.html
David Attenborough program, the average family of four, with cars and homes produces 40 TONES; have to repeat that 40 TONES of toxic fumes each year from the petrol, diesel, electricity, gas and so forth, diesel fumes contain four known carcinogens.
As the Government keeps bring up numbers that stat anywhere from 600 to 6000 people die each year from passive smoking, BUT NO ONE DOES DIE, OR GET HARMED, IT'S A COVER UP OF ALL THE TOXIC FUMES IN THE AIR, as no one can name one person, no not "ONE", not the Government themselves no the UK statistics can not name one person, the BMJ can not name one person, no can the Office of Tobacco Control.
The names and address of these people, and the hospitals they went to treat them, as all hospitals keep records, and would have logged down how and what effects the second hand smoke did to these people, and also please name confirmed people that have been harmed because of second hand smoke, and the names and address of these people, and the hospitals they went to treat them, as all hospitals keep records, and would have logged down how and what effects the second hand smoke did to these people.
So why is all this money being wasted ??? When these millions could be used to save real lives, I am totally dumbfounded by the whole issue, as with all the pollutants in the every day air we all breath in, breathing in a little bit of passive smoke is so dame trivial, if your going to worry about passive smoke after breathing in all the pollutant and toxics in the air, it is like compeering passive smoke one very small needle and the air outside one very big haystack.
What if I tried to convince you of an illness, but could not produce one casualty, bet you would look at me as if I was dumb, that is what I/we look at you.
Mandy, says...
1:46am Fri 22 Dec 06
My, you do make yourself sound so superior, firstly, they are not a mob and they do not promote smoking.
They gave me a voice, and somewhere to vent my frustrations at the lies you feed to people.
wayne, says...
1:51am Fri 22 Dec 06
WE ARE TAKING THE GOVERNMENT TO THE HIGH COURT WITH A JUDICIAL REVIEW PLEASE HELP.
If some of you like me love a cigarette, then stroll down to your local bar for a few beers and cigarettes, next year the government are trying to stop us. We have worked out that not one person has died from passive smoke and no one has been harmed, and the smoking rates are up in Ireland and Scotland since the bars, if you want hard evidence of this please ask.
We have so much evidence, like smoking rates are down but cancer is on the rise, is all the diesel in the air and other pollutants, but the numbers of smokers have gone up in Ireland and Scotland since the bans came in.
Had to take the ws out, but sure you can work that out.
freedom2choose.co.uk
Our new site is up and running, please please please could you donate, it would make our day, a £1 £10 £100, or even a £1000000 pounds, I hate asking for donations, not sure if I can on this site, sorry if I can't, but it is for a great thing, it's for the Judicial review to stop the UK Government from implementing the smoking ban in pubs and clubs, come on all lets put one over on the Government, lets show them ****'s up, we actually had an amendment put in the house of Lords, it was for smoking rooms in pubs and good ventilation, 70 Lords voted for, but 215 against, when we win we will then help every country.
Here is a little bit from,
smokersclubinc.com/module...ticle&sid=3374
Speaking exclusively to the MA, their leader and spokesperson Robert Feal-Martinez said,
"We had a full consultation meeting last week with Swindler Gill of Omero's. "Mr Gill is a Judaical Review specialist and has indicated that we have a number of key areas on which to challenge the Government.
"We have devised an action plan and are currently collating the evidence ready to refer to our Barrister"
He went onto say that Mr. Gill has consulted with Richard Gordon QC a top civil rights Barrister who is keen to take on the case.
The man for us Martinez said: "Obviously we are delighted with this news, we identified Mr. Gordon early on as the man for us, and hopefully this will be the case."
Freedom to Choose now needs to raise the money for the case and would ask that any group, company or individual who can financially assist gets in touch.
Martinez said,"We have been writing to individual members of various trade bodies as we feel the executives of the main organizations have let their members down. We are getting more and more support."
He concluded by requesting that trade leaders now get involved, "Surely it's better for Pub's and brewers to donate a few thousand to our fight rather than spending millions which in the end we believe will not be necessary. Our legal team are confident we can win. So are we."
Wayne
rab, says...
2:28am Fri 22 Dec 06
DG, says...
9:11am Fri 22 Dec 06
Freedom to choose clean air will ALWAYS come above freedom to pollute someone elses body.
No contest. You all have freedom to smoke now, just keep it to your self. Roll on the ban!
Bill Gibson, says...
9:23am Fri 22 Dec 06
tony collins, says...
9:29am Fri 22 Dec 06
Eric Johnson, says...
10:05am Fri 22 Dec 06
With the backing of every medical doctor in the UK (who, let's face it, are pretty bright!) this legislation will go a long way to prevent the misery of a painful early death for thousands.
Robert Feal-Martinez, says...
10:06am Fri 22 Dec 06
'Surely, even smokers will understand that it is a harmful, dirty, smelly, unsociable habit - and has no place near a hospital where people are trying to get well. I wonder how the lobby, Forest, would feel about preaching their case to people who have lost loved ones to cancer caused by smoking - or worse, by passive smoking.'
The lack of knowledge and understanding about the so called effects of Passive Smoking leads to comments such as yours and I do not think it's a coincidence that it heads the comments section. However passive smoking has never killed anyone (and that includes Roy Castle). It is an irritant pure and simple, and I would agree anti social to some. However with modern ventilations systems the smell and the smoke can be removed. If you really are interested in the truth go to www.freedom2choose.co.uk where you will learn the truth not the lies you currently believe. As for the hospital grounds it really is just a matter of time for more court cases. As was reported in the national press a hospital have to pay over £40'000 just for the hurt feelings of a smoker. Can an NHS strapped service keep stumping up cash because of fanaticism.
Eric Johnson, says...
10:21am Fri 22 Dec 06
Saying passive smoking doesn't cause cancer just because there hasn't been much research done on it is fairly ludicrous.
Robert Feal-Martinez, says...
11:59am Fri 22 Dec 06
Nigel Hall, says...
12:34pm Fri 22 Dec 06
Have Yorkshire folk always been so charitable and easy-going, or is it just a recent thing?
emma, says...
1:34pm Fri 22 Dec 06
Eric Johnson, says...
2:49pm Fri 22 Dec 06
Your arguments hinge on outdated as well as unpublished(and therefore unverified) research?
Oh please.......
Smoker's logic:
"Science has shown that if you shoot yourself with a gun you will die, however no research exists to prove others will die if you shoot them with the same gun".
Roy Rogers, says...
9:55am Thu 21 Dec 06
I can understand smokers who say "yes, its bad for me but I enjoy it". At least most of those people try their best not to subject others to their habit.
I am really looking forward to the move to ban smoking in pubs next year, although a little concerned that we will have to walk through a shroud of smoke to get through the doors. Having visited York Hospital recently, it was quite unpleasant having to walk through smoke to enter the building - and so this move is most welcome!
Surely, even smokers will understand that it is a harmful, dirty, smelly, unsociable habit - and has no place near a hospital where people are trying to get well. I wonder how the lobby, Forest, would feel about preaching their case to people who have lost loved ones to cancer caused by smoking - or worse, by passive smoking.
Of course, the government bears a huge responsibility - and their continued refusal to ban smoking entirely and simply put up taxes is further evidence that if the price is right, anything goes! If guns kill and are illegal - why is smoking not illegal? The goverment insists on tobacco companies telling us - "SMOKING KILLS"!!!!! Of course, you can't tax guns....