Extreme anti-smoking laws

Adam Cresswell, Health editor
The Australian
February 22, 2012

SMOKING will be banned at outdoor public places including bus stops, taxi ranks and near the doorways of public buildings, under plans announced by the NSW government that will make the state’s tobacco restrictions among the harshest in the nation.

Under the plans, which make good on a non-specific pre-election pledge to tighten tobacco laws, smoking will be banned at public playgrounds within 10m of children’s play equipment, in open areas of public swimming pools, at major sports grounds and facilities, and within 4m of any building open to the public.

It will also be banned at public transport stops, including bus stops and taxi stands, and at railway and light-rail stations.

While the changes will become effective shortly after the expected passage of the legislation this year, the ban at outdoor dining areas will be deferred to 2015.

The planned NSW laws — expected to carry fines for non-compliance of about $550 — will be far more restrictive than in Victoria or South Australia, where there is no legislation requiring outdoor areas to be smoke-free.

The NSW plans also go further than in the Northern Territory and Western Australia, where legislation relates to outdoor dining and drinking areas. The laws will be comparable to or slightly more stringent than in Queensland and Tasmania, where beaches are included in restrictions.

NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner defended the decision to include transport stops in the ban, saying they were places where it was “difficult, because of queueing, for a non-smoker to remove themselves from exposure to other people’s tobacco smoke”.

“I am advised NSW Health receives regular complaints from community members who are affected by other people’s smoke at transport stops and stations, particularly from those with . . . asthma, or where children are using public transport to travel to and from school,” Mrs Skinner said.

Cancer Council NSW chief executive Andrew Penman welcomed the move, saying the evidence was clear that passive smoking caused cancer. “We should be driven by that, and not expect specific evidence of a body count (caused by ambient tobacco smoke) before we bring in these restrictions,” Dr Penman said.

David Bernie, vice-president of the NSW Council for Civil Liberties, said the harms associated with tobacco justified the laws, but warned that they might prove difficult to enforce.