Audiences 'at risk' from on-stage smoking

Audiences 'should not be exposed to smoke' from actors, says Prof Sargent Should actors be allowed to smoke on stage during a play if it's what the director and the play demand? Or would banning them be 'political correctness gone mad'?

The question arises because one of the world's top experts on diseases connected to smoking has complained to the National Theatre in London that he was shocked to witness members of the cast smoking in character during a production which was set in a red-light district.

Prof James D Sargent of the Dartmouth Medical School in the US has just published a big study of the effects of the ban on smoking in public places in Germany in the journal Clinical Research in Cardiology.

He and his colleagues found that heart attacks fell there by 8% after the ban came into place.

Prof Sargent has also studied Britain, and on his last visit went to a production of Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors at what is arguably Britain's premier theatre.

During the interval, some actors remain on stage as the set is changed and smoke as part of their performance as low-life characters lounging outside sex-shops and bars as the production demands.

But Prof Sargent does not accept that it was necessary for the drama: "It puts the audience at risk", he told the BBC.

"At the end of the interval, you could see the smoke in the air and clearly smell it."

He is adamant that this is dangerous.

There is no scientific evidence, he said, that the air has to be thick with smoke for it to be harmful, adding that there is an increased risk, he said, with relatively small amounts.

'Pot and soap'

The National Theatre said the actors smoked tobacco on stage because of the dramatic needs of the production.

But she would not comment on whether there was a health risk to the audience or to the cast, or whether the risk had been assessed.

Britain has a tough ban on smoking in public places, but she said theatres were exempt if there was "artistic licence".

She said the actors were only smoking for around five minutes, though she accepted that there "was a problem at one performance" where it went on for longer.

In films, actors are nowadays often asked to smoke non-nicotine cigarettes - in film, what the cigarette smells like doesn't matter because the audience can't smell it.

In the American series "Mad Men", for example, which is set in early 60s New York when offices were smoking zones, the actors often smoked herbal cigarettes.

Matthew Weiner, the creator of the series, was quoted in the New York Times as saying: "You don't want actors smoking real cigarettes. They get agitated and nervous. I've been on sets where people throw up, they've smoked so much".

The star of the show, John Hamm, who plays Don Draper, was asked what the herbal cigarettes tasted like. "Terrible", he said. "They taste like a mixture between pot and soap".

Smoking Could Kill 8 Million a Year by 2030: WHO

By Kate Kelland

Tobacco will kill nearly six million people this year, including 600,000 non-smokers, because governments are not doing enough to persuade people to quit or protect others from second-hand smoke, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

Since there is often a lag of many years between when people start smoking and when it affects health, the epidemic of tobacco-related disease and death has just begun, the WHO said. But by 2030, the annual death toll could reach 8 million.

The United Nations health body urged more governments to sign up to and implement its tobacco control treaty, warning that if current trends persist, tobacco could cause up to a billion deaths in the 21st century, a dramatic rise from the 100 million deaths it caused in the previous century.

So far, 172 countries and the European Union have signed up to the WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which came into force in 2005 and obliges them to take steps over time to cut smoking rates, limit exposure to second hand smoke, and curb tobacco advertising and promotion.

The WHO noted some encouraging recent moves -- Uruguay now requires health warnings that cover 80 percent of the surface of tobacco packs, and China last month implemented a ban on smoking in public places such as restaurants and bars.

Passive smoking 'kills 600,000'

The first global study into the effects of passive smoking has found it causes 600,000 deaths every year.

One-third of those killed are children, often exposed to smoke at home, the World Health Organization (WHO) found.

The study, in 192 countries, found that passive smoking is particularly dangerous for children, said to be at higher risk of sudden infant death syndrome, pneumonia and asthma.

Passive smoking causes heart disease, respiratory illness and lung cancer.

"This helps us understand the real toll of tobacco," said Armando Peruga, of the WHO's Tobacco-Free Initiative, who led the study.

'Deadly combination'

The study used estimates of the incidence of specific diseases and of the number of people exposed to second-hand smoke in particular areas.

The global health body said it was particularly concerned about the estimated 165,000 children who die of smoke-related respiratory infections, mostly in South East Asia and in Africa.

Call to ban smoking in vehicles

The charity also calls for unbranded packaging for tobacco products An anti-smoking charity has called for a consultation on banning smoking in vehicles in Scotland.

Ash Scotland made the call, along with 32 other recommendations, as part of a strategy to tackle "Scotland's biggest killer".

The charity said the change would highlight the impact of second-hand smoke on others.

However, the Tobacco Manufacturers' Association said such a move would be a "step too far".

Latest figures suggest a quarter of all adult deaths in Scotland can be attributed to smoking-related diseases.

Continue reading the main storyRelated storiesOne in four Scots still smokingSmoke ban blamed for pub closures Setting out their "Beyond Smoke Free" document, Ash Scotland said the country had taken major steps to cut smoking in the past six years, but that more needed to be done.

The document calls for a consultation on introducing legislation to ban smoking in vehicles and the development of "robust" intermediate and endpoint targets to reduce the effects of passive smoking in the home and in vehicles.

Other proposals in the document include calling for a UK law to require standardised, unbranded packaging of tobacco products and encouraging the UK government to increase tobacco industry accountability.