Target: Wes Streeting, UK Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Goal: Advocate for outdoor public smoking ban to safeguard children from respiratory effects of secondhand smoke.
In just one year’s time, hospital visits for asthma rose nearly 50 percent in England. The respiratory condition, which has a disproportionate impact on children, typically results from irritation in the airways. Physicians have called for an expansion of so-called “clean air zones.” Addressing air pollution is one way to help mitigate asthma cases. While pollution caused from greenhouse gas emissions is a major point in need of remedy, another – more localized – prevention method could help, if the United Kingdom (UK) were to enact an approach it has long delayed: smoking bans.
France recently took the transformative step of banning public smoking in a wide array of outdoor spaces, including parks, beaches, bus terminals, swimming pools, and schools. Leaders enacted these reforms to protect children (especially vulnerable children) against the effects of second-hand smoking. The UK had considered a similar ban but ultimately abandoned the plan.
Sign the petition below to urge UK leaders to reconsider a proposal that puts children’s welfare ahead of profit.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Secretary Streeting,
An estimated one in 10 UK children have asthma, with those numbers quickly multiplying every year as hospital visits increase. UK leadership has stated its commitment to tackling air pollution as a serious public health threat. But when it comes to the concentrated pollution caused by cigarette smoke, leaders have fallen short.
In response to the recent widespread outdoor public smoking ban in France, that nation’s leadership offered the following insight: “Tobacco must disappear from places where there are children,” and they cited “the right of children to breathe pure air.” When will the United Kingdom begin operating by the same philosophy?
The UK has already taken the steps of banning public smoking in enclosed spaces and has taken decisive steps to address the threat to children caused by disposable vapes. Now is the time to close the last major loophole and to resurrect the United Kingdom’s own proposal for outdoor public smoking restrictions. Put the children first.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Lilartsy
