The net is closing in on smoking in the workplace. Ireland has done it. Wales is about to do it, as is Scotland. England might do it. Some day. Maybe.
So if you are sitting in a smoke-clogged office peering through the tar-laden fog at your Personnel Today, just remember that there is always someone worse off than you.
Take the hazard faced by a Cathay Pacific air crew, when a passenger decided to open a door in their workplace to have a quick smoke. This might sound very considerate on the part of the smoker but, unfortunately, the ‘workplace’ was in mid-flight at the time.
Frenchwoman Sandrine Helene Sellies had a fear of flying and subsequently told a court she had drunk alcohol and taken sleeping tablets ahead of the flight from Hong Kong to Brisbane. She said she had no memory of her attempts to open the emergency door and said she had a history of sleep-walking. That defence went up in smoke when a judge in an Australian court failed to see the lighter side of the incident.
When the smoking ban comes in, Guru will stub out all smoking puns. There’s an offer that should hurry the government along a bit.
