What the outdoor smoking ban in Australia could tell us about UK's future

What the outdoor smoking ban in Australia could tell us about UK's future #chad.co.uk #bbcnews #bbclondon

Transcript

00:00Jack Berman takes a long drag and then exhales, slowly, in the covered terrace of a 150-year-old

00:06pub in a Sydney beach suburb. Around him are others like him, pub-goers enjoying the winter sun,

00:13a beer glass in one hand, a cigarette in the other. On the other side of the pub,

00:18patrons are tucking into their lunches. There's no cloud of smoke around their heads,

00:24nor anyone angled away from their neighbour, it's a no-smoking area.

00:28This is how smoking is regulated at pubs in Australia, where bans at many outdoor

00:33spaces have been in place for two decades. As the UK government looks to clamp down on

00:39outdoor smoking, could Australia, where smoking has plummeted over the past 25 years, be a model?

00:46And how have pubs there coped? Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer says his government is looking

00:52at tightening outdoor smoking rules to help reduce the number of preventable deaths linked

00:56to tobacco use and the burden on the NHS. We don't know the scope of what the UK government

01:02is considering. In Australia, rules vary from from state to state but, broadly speaking,

01:09at pub gardens and parks, designated smoking sections or zones are set up to protect non-smokers

01:15from second-hand smoke. At beaches and playgrounds, smoking is banned altogether.

01:21Mr Berman has been smoking since he was 15 and has lived through all of Australia's reforms.

01:27Back then you could smoke on trains, in cinemas, everywhere really, he says. But while pub culture

01:34has evolved, he doesn't feel left behind, evidenced by the fact that he's having a pint at midday with

01:40an old mate. A short walk away, there's a table of young men who are all self-confessed, social

01:46smokers. They smoke when they've had a bit too much to drink but not often, they say. When that

01:53urge strikes, James Beltrame, 28, doesn't mind having to move to another section of the pub.

02:00He likes the random social interactions in the smoking area. You sort of meet new people,

02:06it creates a different atmosphere. But Kenny James, 26, finds it all a bit grim.

02:13I feel like smoking areas are often away from everything and in some random spot,

02:18like it's not an experience that you seek out.