Extending the smoking ban to more public spaces is rather nice for those like me that don’t smoke. But is seems an odd policy priority.
Strained NHS budgets are naturally foregrounded. And polls show it’s popular; the public sees smoking as a huge financial burden. So, we’re set for another inconclusive dispute over the simple equation, A (tax revenues) minus B (healthcare costs), for which data is sufficiently muddled to be confoundingly difficult to evaluate.
But is it really that simple, anyway? Non-smokers live ten non-productive, post-retirement years longer than their smoking peers. They draw ten more years of public pensions, require ten more years of late-life care, including costly nursing homes, and are more likely to suffer from dementia. Eventually, they land the same burden on the NHS for heart disease and cancer as smokers. Not even smoking compares to old age on morbidity outcomes.
If banning smoking in pub gardens were really about public finances, we’d see this analysis. It’s not, so we don’t. Individual freedom must necessarily be limited when it opposes the public good, but there must be a test — and that test must be passed.
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