Stub It Out!

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New campaign to curb smoking in playgrounds

A new campaign's been launched to try and curb smoking in children’s playgrounds in the borough.

Signs produced by Smokefree Ealing will be used in playgrounds across the borough. They have a clear message from children to adults: ‘Please do not smoke around our play areas’.

The voluntary measure encourages people to think about the implications of smoking near play areas, so children do not see it as a normal, harmless activity.

Councillor Hitesh Tailor, Ealing Council’s cabinet member for health and adult services, said: “Playgrounds should be places where children can enjoy healthy physically activity. This is also about changing social norms for children so that they don’t watch adults and think that smoking is a ‘grown-up’ or aspirational thing to do.”

Research shows that, through copying parent’s behaviour, children with smoking parents are three times more likely to become smokers than those with parents who are non-smokers. Research also suggests that when parents do not smoke near their children it sends a strong message that smoking is not a good thing.

A 2011 YouGov poll showed that the majority of adults, including smokers, supported the idea of not smoking around children’s playgrounds.

Around 15% of Ealing’s residents are smokers. A survey by The Office of National Statistics states that 80% of smokers take up the habit before their 18th birthday.

 

30th March 2015