Leading charity Cancer Research UK and union The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) showed their support for a ban on smoking in workplaces by issuing separate petitions to Downing Street calling for it to make all workplaces free of smoke without exception.
Top level support for smoking ban
The RCN gathered support from nearly 5,000 nurses for its petition to Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt. Dr Beverly Malone, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing said: “The Government proposals to delay a ban on smoking until 2008 and exempt licensed premises that do not serve food is nonsensical. The issue of whether a pub serves food or not is irrelevant. This is about having no choice about breathing in the smoke of others and the devastating effects of passive smoking on health.”
Cancer Research UK’s chief executive, Alex Markham, visited 10 Downing Street on 5 September to present over 17,500 signatures calling for smokefree workplaces. The charity has been collecting signatures for the petition since March 2005, both online through its CancerCampaigns website and face-to-face at events such as Race for Life.
