smoking ban????

Question

i work as a home carer, does that mean the houses i go into when i work they are not alowed to smoke? (we can ask them already to stub out) but the way i see it, it's THERE home, i personally don't mind if they smoke but would it be the law on july 1st as ALL work places are to be smoke free??

(england) yeah i know i can refuse to go in ( didn't realise it was 3 hrs though) but just wanted to knoe the legalitites

i said before i know i CAN refuse to go in if they are smoking and i don't just look after "old peole" as you put it!!!

Answer 1

Simple answer: a private residence is exempt from the legislation UNLESS :
the person uses part of it as eg. an office and employs some one to actually work in their residence. In effect the part of the private residence ceases to be private when it is being used as a work place with employees.
You actually pose quite an interesting legal question because despite the exemption under the no smoking legislation your employer, presumably a local authority or similar, still has a duty of care towards you under health and safety legislation.
You would be in the same position if you worked in a care home because individual residents in their own private rooms could be exempted by the care home management and be permitted to smoke but the care home does not have to grant that exemption. I know that some care home managers are asking their staff for their views, and any potential health risks, eg a care worker with asthma, so as to protect them under health and safety rules. Since you personally don't mind the client you visit can puff away happily and your employer is 'probably' in the clear. I say 'probably' because you can not volunteer to be injured and your employer can not exclude any liability for death or injury risks to an employee.
Interesting - now you see why the law is never really straightforward. Hope this helps.

Answer 2

The legalities are that the law will be unenforceable. Big brother will watch all public houses and restaurants etc. But work places i.e. work vehicles will only be watched by employers, and they will use this law as a quick way of reducing employees so that they can take on cheaper immigrant labour.

Within 5 years, if you smoke, you won't get NHS care anymore. All smokers will be the modern day lepers. Saving the government so many billions every year. But, so many people will stop smoking, and the government will have a major shortfall in taxes, so ultimately all non-smokers will have to pay for all smokers and ex-smokers too.

Get your purse or wallet out now!

Answer 3

For the legal - official standpoints you need:
http://www.smokefreeengland.co.uk/
and
http://www.gosmokefree.co.uk/
Both run by the NHS in conjuction with the NHS
As a Health care worker your own union, council and health authority will be able to answer the question as it relates to you specifically.

Doesn't especially answer your question but whichever side of the smoking / no smoking lobby you stand on, there are three factors you can't escape:

1. Cigarette company are making billions,despite the huge chunk taken in taxes and it costs a LOT to smoke

2. Even the cigarette companies (now) freely admin - It WILL affect your health, It can and frequently does KILL.

3. In the UK at any rate, the ban kicks in in full force and those that does like it will have to suck it up! (pun intended)
No prizes for guessing which side of the fences I sit on, but you have to wonder - You have a product with absolutely no benefits, that is proven you harm or kill you and those around you, but the manufacturers are inviolate. It's not corporate manslaughter is you are stupid enough to ignore the advice and warnings they (now) give in big bold letters but don't want you to take.

Hmmm?

I have a site on smoking as it happens. Not really populated but I only put it in this month, but there's a forum with polls for folk to vent their own views:

http://www.smokingrelated.com/smokingfor...

Rather good video on the site too, (from YouTube) by a teenager doing media studies

Answer 4

As much as smoking is unhealthy. It's no ones place to ban smoking. The only exception would be like dont smoke next to the childrens playground or inside a building.

Answer 5

If that is the way You feel, turn down the job. You should be up front and tell them Your position. It is their home. Check out the 4th Amendment! If they really want you to work for them, they can set up an area where you do not have to come in contact with their smoke. Otherwise, they can hire an Illegal Alien that would be happy to have the position!

You can check the Laws for all states at the below websites!

You are probably in California, where they want to ban eating hotdogs too at the Ball Parks. That's ludicrous.

Answer 6

I am a heavy smoker.............a real heavy smoker who has been smoking for fifty one years..............and am probably long past the age that most of you reading this, will live.

However, I do not smoke to annoy other people and would not think of lighting up in closed public places (although I would jolly well like to).

If I had to have the services of a carer, I would not smoke whilst she is there unless she would like to light up.

If I have a person visit me, who is on official business, the same would apply.

My windows are always open 24/7 ~ 365 days per year, even in the coldest weather, not because I smoke but because I can't live without FRESH air.

However, if someone wants to visit me for a chat, the answer is clear............put up with my smoke or don't bother to come. If someone wants a lift in my car, they would have to put up with my smoking (although, if the trip is short, I would not smoke).

Luckily, most of my friends are old biddies like myself, who also smoke. They are also old and healthy, apart from the usual aches and pains.

If I develop emphysema, I will accept that it is smoke related. However, if I develop cancer, I would want positive proof, that the cancer I have, has been caused through smoking.

Answer 7

no no no no unfortunately the law does not cover people who work in homes. This is a bad part of the new legislation.

If you are a painter, plasterer, chiropodist, health visitor, salesperson etc, there is no law that says that the resident who's home you are in cannot smoke in front of you.

Lorry drivers who work alone in a lorry cab for 40 hours have to pull over though at the motorway services if they want to smoke lol lol lol, because it is illegal for them to smoke in a lorry cab even when alone, how rediculous.

Communal areas such as stairways and corridors and lift ARE covered!!! BUT homes are not.

Answer 8

I am guessing that all people who smoke have a big red target on their backs saying: "Kill me before I kill myself".

The government and states tax cigarettes to death. You can't smoke in public places in most states, and in some, you can't even smoke outdoors in certain areas like parks, beaches, and within so many feet of an airport terminal.

They punish smokers and treat them like vermin.

They make smokers second class citizens.

And now ... they would like to prohibit smoking in your own home if you have an at-home health care worker? What if the worker smokes too? What then? What if the patient and the worker agree to light up and there's no one else around to see it?

This is all too silly and seems to me part of a larger scheme to ruin the lives of people who smoke.

Don't get me wrong. You shouldn't smoke. Its bad for you. Smoking can kill -- slowly. But the point is, tabacco was also the mainstay of economies of all of the major European and American nations.

Today, it seems, after profiting for hundreds of years in the business of growing, selling, manufacturing, distributing, selling, and taxing tabacco products, the Government and the states owe all of those who smoke at least a teensy bit of respect.

When you go to the airport, chances are if you want to light your ciggy, you have to go outside the airport to smoke. That means going past security again and again to get back in. Why do they inconvenience people they KNOW are going to smoke? Why not either make a patio or smoking lounge in a secure area of the airport so people who do smoke can smoke without disturbing non-smokers.

It seems ruthless and mean-spirited to do that to people who smoke. Its also callous. Smokers pay taxes too. They should be given a place to smoke in airports.

The same should be true of passenger train terminals and ports of all kinds. Same with trains. Have a smoking car.

The way things are, smokers are just treated with tyranny and bad manners.

Its just rude and insensitive.

Answer 9

i can understand smoke ban in some public places.
however in pubs everyone smokes. if i didnt smoke i wouldnt go near a pub coz thats the whole point of em -pint n ***.
the job part of it- dont work in a pub if u dnt want to breathe in smoke!!!!!
i suppose some pubs or clubs in large cities could be smoke free.... but def not all
i think the whole ban is stupid because you can avoid smokey areas even resteraunts and pubs hav non smoking areas
its just stupid.

Answer 10

It's a bit more complicated, I know that in residential care from the 1st of July the staff will no-longer be able to smoke on the premises but the people who live there will until the 1st of July 2008 giving them a year to stop smoking. I'm not sure if the people you care for will come under the same rules though.