Ash warns on actionable secondhand smoking

The hospitality trade faces a rising threat of legal action from employees whose health is damaged by secondhand smoke, Action on Smoking and Health (Ash) and personal injury and trade union law firm Thompsons has warned.

The warning is contained in letter Ash has sent to all the UK's leading hospitality trade employers, warning them that the "date of guilty knowledge" under the Health and Safety at Work Act "is now past", and that employers "should now know" of the risks of exposing their staff to secondhand smoke.

Employers who continue to permit smoking in the workplace could be held liable by the courts for any health damage caused, the letter added.

Ash and Thompsons said that they intended to use the letters in any future court cases as evidence that employers have been fully informed of the issue.

Ash and Thompsons also plan to encourage employees who believe their health has been harmed by smoking in the workplace to seek legal advice on making a claim for compensation. These will be announced shortly, they said.

The letter stated: "Secondhand smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals, including benzene, formaldehyde, arsenic, ammonia and hydrogen cyanide. The US Environmental Protection Agency has classified environmental tobacco smoke as a known human (class A) carcinogen.

"The immediate effects of inhaling secondhand smoke include eye irritation, headache, cough, sore throat and nausea. Exposure for just 30 minutes to secondhand smoke has been shown to reduce coronary blood flow. Long-term inhalers of secondhand smoke suffer an increased risk of a range of smoking-related diseases..."

Intake of passive smoke in bar staff in the course of their work can be two or three times higher than that arising from living with a partner who smokes. Living with a smoking partner is known to increase the risk of lung cancer by 20-30% and of heart disease by 30%, Ash claimed.

The health charity has also criticised the government for its "failure to follow the example of New York, California, Norway and Ireland and ban secondhand smoke in the workplace", including pubs, bars and restaurants.

To date fewer than 30 pubs in the UK are fully smoke-free, and although some major restaurant chains - such as Pizza Hut - have now banned smoking in their premises, others - such as Pizza Express - continue to permit it.

Deborah Arnott, Director of Ash, said: "The time is long past when employers should have known that secondhand smoke is bad for their staff, and bad for the general public.

She added: "If employers will not act from conviction or common sense, and if the government still refuses to legislate, then the issue will be forced to a head in the courts."

(gmcg)