29/07/2013

Health Minister To Push Smoking Ban To Outside Schools

The smoking ban is to be extended to school campuses and creche grounds, as health minister James Reilly pushes forward with a raft of new anti-smoking measures.

The minister a number of new measures have been passed by the government in a document titled, Tobacco-free Ireland, which sets out an aim to reduce the number of the population smoking to 5% within 12 years.

The new measures include:

• a ban on smoking on and around school campuses

• a ban on smoking on and around childcare facilities

• urging local authorities to ban smoking in parks and on beaches

• a ban on people under the age of 18 selling tobacco products in shops, supermarkets etc

• more powers for the Office of Tobacco Control along with the creation of a "anti-smoking czar", to coordinate anti-smoking efforts

It is understood that an objection of these actions is to "denormalise smoking".

A timetable for the introduction of the new measures has not yet been revealed.

(MH/CD)

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