KIDS were showing cigarettes are off limits’ in the play area of their park as preparations were under way for one of London’s first smoking bans in a public place. They were invited to the launch at East London’s Mile End Park as NHS officials were getting ready for the ban starting Monday
KIDS were showing cigarettes are off limits’ in the play area of their park as preparations were under way for one of London’s first smoking bans in a public place coming into force.
They were invited to the launch at East London’s Mile End Park (pictured) as NHS officials were getting ready for the ban starting Monday.
Smokers wandering too close to the children’s playground will have to stub out their cigarettes from July 20. Warning signs are already appearing around the park.
EXAMPLE
The ban is aimed at avoid kids being subject to passive smoking and should “set an example to impressionable youngsters,” says the Tobacco Control Alliance run by NHS Tower Hamlets and the local authority.
The move comes after figures released this week show record numbers of smokers in Tower Hamlets have quit.
One-in-three adults smoke in the East End, which has one of Britain’s worst heart disease and cancer rates, compared to one-in-four of the national average.
A fifth of all deaths in Tower Hamlets are smoking-related, compared to 18 per cent average across the rest of London.
But the alliance has already helped 2,300 smokers give up since January, exceeding its annual target for 2009 and putting Tower Hamlets among the top three London boroughs for its health programme.
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