Two city squares will become Britain’s first major public outdoor spaces to go smokefree when a voluntary pilot launches today.
The initiative will come into effect in Millennium Square and Anchor Square - both popular with families – on Bristol’s harbourside.
It follows a major report last year by former health minister Lord Darzi which suggested that London and other UK cities should ban smoking in public spaces and parks.
Cities including New York, Toronto and Hong Kong have already banned smoking in key outdoor locations but Bristol is the UK’s first to pilot smokefree zones.
Millennium and Anchor Squares are home to the At-Bristol science museum, shops and restaurants, regularly host events and festivals and are well-used play spaces for children.
The pilot builds on the smokefree play parks project, which reduced smoking near playgrounds in the south west by 34% through bright, positive signs asking people not to light up.
Mother Kirsty Vass, 33, inspired the smokefree pilot in Bristol after being diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) a year ago when one of her lungs collapsed.
Ms Vass, who smoked 20 cigarettes a day for more than 15 years, is now constantly short of breath, unable to travel and has to be supported by her 15-year-old daughter, Lucy.
Source: Irish Examiner, 02/02/15
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