Doctors in Northern Ireland oppose plans to allow actors to smoke on stage

Doctors in Northern Ireland have condemned plans that would allow actors to smoke on stage.

Last week the Northern Ireland Assembly tabled the Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, which contains an amendment that would permit actors to smoke where the “artistic integrity of the performance” made it appropriate to do so.

However, BMA chairman Dr Brian Patterson said it was “not a valid argument… when the whole basis of the legislation was to protect the public and all workers from the dangers of passive smoking”.