Plan for smoke-free prisons a union victory

A UK government announcement that smoking will be banned in all prisons in Wales and four in south-west England from next year has been hailed as a ‘victory for health and safety’ by the prison officers’ union POA. The phased roll-out, which will eventually see all jails in England and Wales go smoke-free, will  first see smoking barred inside buildings at all open prisons in England and Wales from November 2015.

PJ McParlin, national chair of the POA, said: “This is a crucial victory for health and safety in the workplace for prison officers. Prison officers have been denied the basic protections from second-hand smoke that other workers have had for almost a decade. We have repeatedly raised at every level of the prison service our members unnecessary exposure to a known health risk and now at last vital workplace protection is to be set in place.”

Passive (or ‘secondhand’) smoking is linked to higher rates of cancer (and is a top rated IARC group 1 carcinogen), heart disease and other health conditions.

imsupport

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *