Loneliness KILLS

Elderly smokers refused shelter from the elements in their flats community room and faced prosecution for smoking there.

I've always liked my own company.

Don't get me wrong, I do like socialising too, but on my own terms. To me, sitting in a public house, whiling away a few hours of an evening and sinking a few beers with a smoke whilst chatting to the punters that idle by, is a real tonic. I would always get chatting to someone that I'd never seen nor met before and before you knew it they were calling last orders.

Now that they have imposed this diabolical smoking ban upon us I am quite happy to while away a few hours in front of my computer screen playing freecell (it's a card game) while sinking a few cans of Stella and smoking without freezing my nuts off. The downside though is I am smoking much more than I used to.

Although not socialising outside these four walls anymore I have always thought of those who's only break on the onset of depression due to loneliness was that trip to the pub a few times a week. An outing that most of them, I'm sure, couldn't come fast enough.

The recent Triblogology really brought loneliness through my doors and into my heart, especially the videos, which I give a second airing below.

Best viewed in 'full screen.' Click on the bottom right of this vid

The Loneliness Triblogology - Part 3

The Scream

Can't see the video above? Then click here.

We conclude this third and final part of our trilogy predominantly by letting some of the 15 million people who still smoke in the UK and Ireland, and their non-smoking friends, speak for themselves about loneliness and the personal impact of the smoking ban.

Some of the quotes we have collected are taken from the blog site of Frank Davis, and from those who have made comments there. Frank has posted regularly and movingly on the subject of loneliness and the smoking ban, and particularly its effect on older people.

We open, however, with a poignant letter written by pensioner Jane Daniel in the evening of New Years Eve 2010.  (Thank you to our commenter on the first Loneliness Blog, The Witch of Essex, for posting this.)

“I have accepted all of that and never smoked where I was not welcomed to do so.

I am now in my mid 70's and can now only smoke either at home or in the open air.

I am now disabled (accident damaging my hip) and so can not get out as much as I would like to. So now I only smoke in my own home. This is a very lonely existence and I would love to be able to go to a pub for a drink occasionally. However, as a smoker I know that I can't do this and enjoy a drink and cigarette in safety and comfort in a pub.

I accept all this and am sorry that my pleasure upsets so many people. I wish that my life was different, but after smoking for over 60 years it is difficult to stop.

It really hurts me to hear that smokers are now classed as disgusting filthy death carriers as I really hadn't considered myself to be thus.

Now that I am all these horrible things I am glad that I am nearing the end of my life.

How cruel and malicious are these people that have ostracised me and cast me out from society. I am so sorry if my 'habit' has offended people and wish that I had never taken that first cigarette all those years ago.”

We believe that legislation should never be used to force anyone, never mind a pensioner, to apologise or demean themselves because they indulge in a lawful activity; it should not force anyone into a way of life that they do not desire.

Here is Frank Davis talking in his own words about a tragic suicide:  

“For some people, like Lawrence Walker, it was too much. He took his own life about 6 months after the ban came into force. He had become, in that time, a complete exile. He had lost all connection with everything and everyone. He probably didn't have an internet connection, deep in the Cornish countryside. I at least have that, and so belong to the strange virtual communities which flourish within it. Such communities are - like e-cigarettes - better than nothing. But they don't compare to the real thing, the actual experience of meeting people and talking to them.”

This 67 year old describes what has happened to his group of friends:

“We once were a happy crowd.

Ernie. Disabled .Parks his wheelchair behind a wheely bin to keep out of the draught

John . 86  Far East Veteran huddles in a doorway with two other Veterans

Doris 82, Widow .Stays in 7 nights a week now

Meryll 72 Widow . Friends dont go out anymore

George 82 Manchester Reg (sic). isolated

Jeff 74 Lancs Fusiliers, Non smoker. Friends dont come out any more

Beryl 78 misses her friends at bingo stays in

Joan widow 59, Pat 64, Helen 74 widow, local shut

Jud:  Ex Para Suez Drives round looking for friends

Me 67 smoker (55 years) used to be 7 nights a week in the pub ,now once a fortnight. “

Another pensioner writes:

“We are all as we get older becoming hermits on account of this ban & I know this is not the way I wanted to end my life being denied a pleasure to me that I have done all my life (since 16 anyway) & denied the social activities that I looked forward to. I have considered myself a good, honest, hardworking, tax paying citizen all my life & now feel like a 2nd class citizen. Go figure!”

A 74 year old widow says:

“I am getting too old to stand outside pubs or restaurants. Plus I was taught that it was only 'ladies of the night' that stood in the street smoking.

I have been 3 years away from any social contact other than the odd hello with neighbours.

Being a widow with no family it was always going to be hard to get back into some semblance of normality with regard to socialising, but I didn't think that it would be this bad.

I used to meet up in a cafeteria with some lady friends, but now that has stopped as a few of the ladies were smokers and didn't want to stand in the street to have a cigarette.

I went to a quiz night at the local pub as there were quite a few elderly 'singles' there. That has stopped. I also played bingo once a week and that too has stopped as there is no pleasure in having a drink there with no cigarette.

I am now on anti depressants and wish that I had the courage to kill myself and join my dear husband.

Thank you politicians for making my life not worth living after working from age 14 until 68. I am now 74 and have lost my soul and will to live in this lonely place.”

An elderly Irish man writes:

“I'm still lonely over this smoking ban. I miss all the great laughs we used to have together without any interruption what-so-ever. I feel lost standing outside the pub door. I feel like a naughty school boy put into the corner of the classroom. It seemed so much better before. I think we have lost something very precious.”

June Brown, the 81 year old actress who plays Dot in Eastenders, said:

“You can't go anywhere and smoke now - it's ruined my life. It's ruined the whole end of my life.” 

Another smoker from Ireland writes:

“I'll be the first to admit that I am a die-hard smoker. It's lonely now being a die-hard and I was acutely aware of this today when I had an outside coffee with my daughter. It felt as if there were all these little Berlin walls all around me denying me access to other people. I certainly felt left out but it doesn't stop me smoking if you know what I mean. I don't know if it will stop many people at all. I felt today that the whole thing is just a useless adventure and was made worse when I saw a 12-13 year old walking along the street smoking. Are you sure you have done the right thing by bringing in this smoking ban? I think it's all a bit of a mess and needs to seriously be looked at.”

And a wonderful comment from a teenager written not only in the teenage style but also from the heart!

“OMG these ladies are my nans age and its people who are younger than them who made these horrible laws that make them stand out in the cold and they should be ashamed at throwing their parents in the street, my nan smokes and says she would rather be at home and i thought it was because she was old but now i think its because she dont want to stand in the street, i cried when i read this letter and wish that my nan could go out to see people and not sit indoors unhappy, they are bastards who do this to old people.”

Even the mainstream news services have begun to pick up on the theme:

“It has hastened the death of many elderly people either from being shoved outside to develop pnuemonia (sic) or to face a lonely existence in their own homes devoid of any social interaction. It has caused arguments between family members and instigated positive hatred towards a large section of law abiding citizens”

And finally, the Government itself now considers mental health and wellbeing as being as important as physical health. On 2nd February they launched their new strategy “No Health without Mental Health”

“New plans to transform the mental health and well-being of the nation and ensure – for the first time – that mental health is given the same importance as the nation’s physical health, were announced today by the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg and Andrew Lansley and Paul Burstow from the Department of Health”

Our conclusions

Our trilogy of blogs on loneliness shows that:

Loneliness is a serious and wide-ranging condition that strikes at any age, although it can be particularly hard for older people. Loneliness is the leading cause of premature death. Loneliness severely impacts people’s social and mental wellbeing.

We believe that the total smoking ban is a major factor in creating loneliness, premature death and poor mental health, and has substantially increased the breakdown of communities, the dissolving of supportive social networks and the fragmentation of social cohesion.

This has been the unintended consequence of our public health anti-smoking legislation, and the people whose stories we have quoted are a tiny fraction of those millions suffering “collateral damage”.

It is obvious to us that loneliness has increased since July 1st, 2007. It is the silent killer that is creeping up on our nation.

We cannot understand why anyone would choose to promote (as ASH have done) or to pass (as successive governments have done) legislation that increases the burden, that makes more people lonely: after all, it should be the role of politicians to serve, represent and protect their constituents, not to put them in harms way. 

Our conclusions beg the question: Now that our political representatives are aware of these facts, what are they going to do about it?

----------------------------------------------------------

Frank also said on his own blog:

"May I suggest to anyone who is reading this that, if they are elderly (65+) and they smoke, they send me an email at author@idletheory.info setting out their personal experience of the smoking ban.

And may I also suggest that if you know any elderly smokers, you get in contact with them, and ask them how life has been for them, and write it all down, and send it to me.

I say elderly, not because I'm unsympathetic to less elderly, but because I think that this ban has disproportionately hurt elderly people, who are the most vulnerable. I'd like to be able to tell their story.”...

“What is happening .... is happening to millions of people. I know a 75-year-old who used to meet up with friends at a pub once a week, and with other friends at a cafe. That's all ended. "I'm too old to stand outside," he told me, when I last visited him in his little flat, which is the only place I see him these days. It's the same everywhere.

If we had media with any sort of social conscience, stories like this would be found in every single town and village in the country. But instead we have a political correctness which regards smokers as being non-persons, and they never get a hearing. It's utterly shameful.”

Hat Tip to Frank Davis.


Writing team for this The Loneliness Triblogology were:

Karen Bunn

Brenda Orsler

John Watson

Phil Johnson

Carol Cattell

Graphics by John H Baker and music by Paul Kearns.

The Loneliness Triblogology - Part 2

The Scream by Edvard Munch circa 1893–1910

Best viewed in 'full screen.' Click on the bottom right of this vid

In the Thirteenth Century, the German king, Frederick II, was curious to learn what language babies would speak if no one spoke to them.

The king wondered whether they would come to speak Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Arabic, or perhaps the dialect of their biological parents if the infants were left on their own. To find out, a select group of infants were chosen.

The king ordered the foster mother and nurses who were to care for these tots to be absolutely silent. "Nurse them, clean them, bath them, but don't coo or speak to them," was his command. In the end, the experiment was a dismal failure. Not only did these children fail to develop any language skills. They all died.

A contemporary of the king, a man named Salimbene, offered this succinct analysis of what happened: "They could not live without the petting and the joyful faces and loving words of their foster mothers."

Kenneth Newberger: Hope in the Face of Conflict.

This relationship between loneliness and mortality has been of interest to psychologists since around 1914 – some 700 years after Frederick II’s failed experiment - when the medical profession finally woke up.

Newburger again:

Dr. Hamill; Philadelphia: “no infant admitted (to the orphanage) under 1 year of age lived to be 2 years old."

Dr. Southworth; New York City:  "… it was customary to enter the condition of every infant on its admission card as hopeless." 

Dr. Knox Baltimore: "... None of those that stayed continuously in the institutions lived to the end of the first year."

The question is – does this sad state of affairs apply only to the very young? A recently published review of all the research to date suggests overwhelmingly not.

Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic Review  

This report confirms what we have been saying for years:

Loneliness kills.

• It kills through physiological pathways: we are social animals.
   
• Loneliness will kill you early whether you are a smoker or a non-smoker.
   
• It carries a greater risk of premature death than smoking itself.
   
• It carries a greater risk of premature death than obesity, alcohol and not exercising.
   
• More premature deaths are caused by loneliness than any other cause.
   
• The most important factor in avoiding premature death is avoiding loneliness.

   

   

Comparison of odds (lnOR) of decreased mortality across several conditions associated with mortality.

Click chart to enlarge.

 Loneliness, in itself and independently of all other causes, is the leading cause of premature death across all age groups.

The reasons are complex, but there are implications that the impact of social isolation triggers potentially lethal physiological changes, possibly by suppressing the immune system. Many of the studies upon which this analysis draws relate to cardiac disease.

If you are already a smoker and stop smoking, it won’t increase your life expectancy by anything like as much as stopping being lonely. If you are a non-smoker, and your opportunities for social engagement are restricted, this puts you at more risk of premature death than being a smoker

In accepting the findings of the report - that isolation and loneliness pose a serious threat to physical good health - then we must acknowledge that any legislation resulting in the involuntary isolation of any group of citizens is culpably raising the mortality rate of that group.

In short, smokers, whom anti-tobacco lobbyists claim are suffering because of their habit, may equally be suffering as a direct result of the loneliness imposed on them by their (legislated) social isolation.

Furthermore, the report concludes, current public health intervention policies are seriously flawed because they are based on distorted perceptions: since there is far more published research on smoking than on any other 'lifestyle' issue, smoking becomes the most important factor - and certainly makes it the easiest to measure. This has led to the current obsession with smoking cessation, to the exclusion of other significant risk factors, in particular loneliness and our need for social engagement.

Tobacco Control is demanding nothing less than State-sanctioned manslaughter!

The great Freedom Bill swindle

So it has finally arrived, the much vaunted Freedom Bill that is. It is supposed to come on the back of the much vaunted, and humiliated, website that asked you, Joe public, which intrusion into your everyday lives that the last Labour government brought to the statute books since 1997, all six thousand of them, you would like to see on the bonfire of nannyism.

Needless to say the smoking ban experiment was off limits, despite a massive assault on that disreputable site by you all asking for a repeal, or, at the very least, an amendment to it. An amendment like allowing the hospitality industry the freedom 2 choose whether they go smoke free or not, after all, it is their business we are talking about here, don't they have property rights?

Nick Clegg, an occasional smoker, has been brainwashed by the bansterbators and actually believes the fairy story that SHS kills non smokers.



The Chairman of Freedom2Choose, Phil Johnson says it as he sees it:

"The previous government obviously felt that we were all prospective criminals, so created a society of distrust. That is set to change.

The CRB situation has long needed a dramatic overhaul as we need to get those whom were happy to volunteer their valuable time and services and may now return back to doing the good work they once did.

The ID card system is to be scrapped, thank goodness. Why did born & bred British subjects need to carry a card around with them to tell them who they were? Were Labour going to set up checkpoints between north & south, east & west? ID cards were never wanted nor indeed needed.

Of course the biggest disappointment as far as Freedom2Choose are concerned is that Nanny' is not going to back off when it comes to dictating our lifestyles.

The health lobby are intruding heavily into our lives with

what we eat and what, when & how much we drink and of course smoking. All three are a matter of personal choice yet this government thinks it can save valuable NHS expenditure by limiting/reducing these activities! It is a fools paradise for  this government, or any other, that can afford a country of centenarians claiming pensions and benefits for longer periods of time than many already do! Advise-yes, educate-yes, dictate-no.

Clegg destroyed his political career in the minds of 27% of the

population in a 15 second video when he aligned repealing the smoking ban with bringing back hanging.  That didn't show any tolerance or a softer approach to what 'they' consider to be a major problem! Democracy is fairness for all-this coalition obviously does not believe in true democracy!"

Below is the video that Phil Johnson refers to.



It is no coincidence that you Nick and your party are called The Illiberal Liberal Party.

Newsletter-February 2011

CHAIRMAN'S MESSAGE

ASH is furious. The longed-for Scottish display ban, scheduled for October 1st this year, has been postponed because Imperial Tobacco is taking legal action - not for the first time! Typically, ASH has thrown the proverbial dummy out of the pram, with not a care for the loss of businesses, jobs and homes such a ban would inevitably cause.

Rubbing salt into the wound, JTI, the giant Japanese cigarette manufacturers, have signed a 5-year sponsorship deal with a leading British charity, enabling thousands of disabled people the privilege of computer usage. The Leonard Cheshire Charity is what we would all consider to be truly charitable: committed to doing everything they can to help people with disabilities; financed out of good will; independent of government funding and supported by over 2,500 volunteers unlike ASH.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

Congratulations from F2c to Ignacio Cubilla Banos of Cuba who, on Jan 13th, reached the impressive age of 111. Bilbo Baggins needed the services of a wizard to light up his eleventy-first but, for Snr. Banos, the company of many of his 11 children, 40 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren - and a fine cigar – were celebration enough!

A TALE OF TWO CULTURES Spiked editor Brendan O’Neill bemoans the triumph of healthism over art.  This time it’s Mark Twain’s cigar that’s being airbrushed from history, making American actor Hal Holbroke’s one man show, Mark Twain Tonight! increasingly difficult to stage, not only at home but across segments of Europe, too. Holbroke might try his luck in France, where the dead hand of Evin Law has at last been lifted by a government prepared to acknowledge that:  "The falsification of history, the censorship of works of the mind, the denial of reality must remain the heinous marks of totalitarian regimes".  Originally intended to prevent the promotion of tobacco, Evin Law caused outrage by robbing such French cultural icons as Jacques Tati, Coco Channel and Jean-Paul Satre of their trademark smokes. "Before the law, nobody was complaining" And, staying with France, comes a report that the ban in nightclubs in the South of France is all but over. In a Google translation entitled Marseilles: the great return of smoking in bars and nightclubs, we learn that those ‘irreducible love cigarettes’ are back on the South of France club scene because, "we quickly realized the harm she [the ban] has done."

FIRE! Expect to see more Smokers as Arsonists reports as the date for mandatory fire-safe cigarettes draws near.  The EU expects us all to be puffing on carpet glue come autumn, when the normal, fire-unsafe cigarette will become a thing of the past. London Fire Brigade led the successful lobby, egged-on by ASH who, if reports from the USA are to be believed, quite possibly see RIP as a promising ‘quit smoking’ mechanism. Much research has gone into the technicalities of RIP,  virtually none into its health implications.  Harvard University found a significant increase in some chemicals already present in the processed tobacco, from which they concluded, ‘Who cares?  They're only smokers.' FROM SCOTLAND From Scotland we can report that, following Holland's  welcome repeal, the Scottish Licensed Trade Association recently called for an amendment to the law to provide for pubs to offer smoking rooms.  No further statements have been issued by the association, which advocates the use of air cleaning technology in smoking rooms. Progress in implementing the tobacco display ban in Scotland has been halted by legal action against the legislation taken by Imperial Tobacco, who argued that the Scottish Government is not competent to pass the legislation.  In spite of losing at the first hearing in September, the company has persevered, and the ban will not now be implemented in October this year as planned. Prisoners exposed to secondary smoke are reported  to be about to call the Scottish Government's bluff by claiming damages.  Whether the Government will deny all responsibility, or open itself to unknown numbers of potential claims, remains to be seen. Freedom-2-Choose (Scotland) Blog NEWS FROM THE FRONT Banning smoking in cars is proving popular with anti-smokers especially north of the border.  It appears to be a logical step to evade privacy issues and opens the door to stopping you smoking in your own home – as housing officials in Watford are discovering.  They propose sending tenants in rent-arrears to smoking cessation courses.   ***** The tobacco-display ban lobby was given a leg up by The Guardian who resurrected last November’s study from the UK Centre for Tobacco Control. This study concluded that young people’s awareness of cigarettes in shops falls in the wake of a display ban.  Gosh.  Not a bit like their smoking, then,  which carries on regardless. ***** Unbelievably, main stream journalism appears to be taking Third Hand Smoke seriously.  The Independent’s ‘simple tips’ for keeping the children safe: shower after smoking; wash clothes immediately, do not smoke indoors… While lazy, gullible journalists are nothing new, what does alarm is the willingness of some medical professionals  to adopt this latest ‘little white lie’ in their increasingly desperate war on tobacco. Chosen targets  - young parents Inevitable outcome - fearful, ignorant, guilt-ridden young parents.

SPAIN AND GREECE Spain’s beefed up anti-smoker law came into effect on Jan 2nd – followed three days later by reports of widespread defiance. Restaurant owners are organising petitions, displaying signs that openly proclaim ‘business as usual’ and calling for solidarity within the trade.  In Spain’s current financial plight, they are justifiable fearful for their future. What a good job, then, that Spanish tobacco control group NCPT is on hand with the reassurances.  According to NCPT:  Ireland, for example, saw a 13.7 percent increase in employment in the sector… while in Britain the number of bars increased by about 14 percent. This extension to the ban makes smoking in some open spaces illegal, surpassing even the EU’s demands for all 27 member states to have banned smoking in enclosed areas by 2012. ***** Spain shares its problems with GREECE, another Mediterranean country on its uppers and facing a dissatisfied populace.  Greece’s extended ban has been universally ignored since September, giving rise to a brief flurry of hope that the government would launch a smoking license scheme.  The rumour was scotched within hours by Prime Minister George Papandreou, a dedicated anti-smoker, who  has enlisted an army of 800 inspectors to police this widely unpopular law.

PUBS Continuing bad news for British pubs, with both Enterprise and R&L Properties blaming tough trading conditions for the sale of, between them, a possible 707 venues.  The much smaller night-club/restaurant operators Cougar Leisure Properties is, like R&L Properties, in administration  and selling its remaining stock of 6 pubs and bars, all located in the north of England. ***** Signs of desperation in the West Country, where the Plymouth Herald publish three separate pleas in the space of two days on the ‘use them or lose them’ theme, only one of which gives a passing nod to smokers. ***** Continuing carnage both sides of the Irish border: 100 pubs in NI are currently in receivership whilst latest figures from the Republic cite the closure of 1,300 pubs in the last 5 years, bringing the post-ban total up to almost 2,000. ***** The British Beer and Pubs Association are estimating a £257m shortfall in tax to the British exchequer. “Pub beer sales have fallen by a dramatic 20.2 per cent in the past three years alone, as tax rises have hit trade.” (Our emphasis) LONELINESS British Universities’ research finds that smoking bans significantly reduce the life satisfaction of smokers who experience "diminished perceptions of freedom" and a sense of stigmatisation. Will this be considered when the Happiness Index team gets to work? It was certainly never mentioned by a new campaign launched last month and aiming to highlight the problem of loneliness, very much on the increase for older people of whom 1 in 10 say they are ‘intensely lonely’.  The Campaign to End Loneliness believes lonely old people are a Public Health issue: “Loneliness has been shown to be closely linked with depression and research has revealed that loneliness makes it harder to regulate behaviour, leaving people more likely to drink excessively, have unhealthier diets or take less exercise.”                                                                                                     Loneliness, once more, lies at the root of a really serious situation developing in Ireland. Kerry South coroner, Terence Casey, says "there is a trend that suggests social isolation and loneliness are at the root of a surge in the numbers of older people taking their lives… this sense of being abandoned was caused, in part at least, by the closure of traditional centres of social interaction — the local pub, the post office and a huge range of small, community-based businesses.” FIGHTING BACK! Ohio; USA:  Keith and Pam Parker are among a group of bar-owners who, since August last year, have been invoicing their Health Department for the cost of policing the ban. Pam admits she doesn't expect the Health Dept to cough up but explains: "If they want to put in writing that it's THEIR job, not ours, then our reply will be to have one of their inspectors report to work at our tavern every day at noon.  They can't have it both ways." So far there has been NO response from the authorities - so a 10% penalty has been added to the outstanding bill. Ohio has spent $4m dollars enforcing the ban, and penalised some 939  businesses, the vast majority of which are family-run establishments and private clubs.  The bar-owners are seeking an exemption for licensed bars, which traditionally cater to smokers and are, in any case, strictly off-limits to under-21s. ***** On this side of the pond, it’s heartening to know that in the absence of any organised trade resistance at all, we have politicians like Philip Davies (Con, Shipley) and working men’s club member David Ward (Lib Dem, Bradford East).  Both men are willing to put their heads above the parapet in support of the people they represent. Philip Davies is a veteran of many a run-in with the Nannies of Westminster. Here, he explains his position on the smoking ban: “I don’t think I was sent to Parliament to ban everybody else doing things that I don’t like myself, so whatever attempts there are to amend the smoking ban to allow a pub to have a dedicated smoking room, I would absolutely support.” ODDS & SODS Bulgaria’s Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, announces that the planned full ban will not now go ahead until 2014, giving the hospitality industry time to prepare. ***** Smoking is to be banned on all US submarines, despite the fact that twice as many submariners smoke (40%) than average. ***** China has yet to enforce a smoking ban as prescribed by the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control to which China signed up five years ago.  The Government is said to be reluctant to impose a ban, which was due to come into effect Jan. 9th. ***** A top pharmaceutical company could be facing as many as 1,200 lawsuits from dissatisfied customers who say that Pfizer’s stop-smoking drug Chantix (UK Champix) causes neurological problems, most frequently depression and suicidal thoughts.  Pfizer will contest any action. ***** One to make your heart bleed – Scottish MPs have been booted out of their smoking corner-of-choice after complaints from non-smoking colleagues.  “It seems like a heavy-handed approach,” bleats one vagrant smoker, horrified to find himself now exposed to the elements and to public gaze.  You don’t say! ***** And finally – evidence at last that within the clipboard-wielding ranks of NHS Grampian, there flickers a spark of human kindness.  Bucking the national trend, Dr Roelf Dijkhuizen says he would like to see imaginative ways of accommodating smokers in the region’s hospital grounds, adding, “we should look at alternative ways of providing designated areas without forcing people to stand in the rain.” A sentiment  shared, no doubt, by one or two MSPs! Freedom2choose: c/o John H Baker 22 Glastonbury House, Priestfields, Middlesbrough, Cleveland TS3 0LF Tel/Fax 0845 643 9469

Freedom2choose (Scotland):
c/o The Dalmeny Bar, 297 Leith Walk,
Edinburgh EH6 8SA
Tel 0845 643 9552

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