The British Medical Association (BMA) has said there is no justification for pubs and restaurants to have an extended lead-in time to change to smoke-free than other businesses.
It also rejects the proposal to allow non-food pubs to be exempt from the smoking ban.
In a response to the government’s consultation on smoke-free workplaces, Dr Vivienne Nathanson, the BMA’s head of science and ethics, said each year 50 hospitality workers to died as a result of exposure to second-hand smoke while at work, which the BMA said was ‘totally unacceptable and completely unnecessary”.
The BMA said the government’s plans to exempt licensed premises in England that do not prepare and serve food are “arbitrary, inequitable and have no basis in the health evidence”.
The doctors’ body response concluded that “second-hand smoke kills, whether or not there are pies with the pints”.
Nathanson said: “The medical profession is united in its calls for a total ban on smoking in all enclosed public places and workplaces.”
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