Encouraging people to smoke when you can't control them

This news report has been on the BBC News Online: UK: Wales since Thursday, 14 June, 2001, 19:36 GMT 20:36

School's smoking policy attacked

Anti-smoking campaigners have hit out at a south Wales special school which allows pupils to smoke during breaks.

Children at Greenhill Special School in Cardiff have been allowed to smoke if they have parental consent.

The school, in Rhiwbina, which caters for children aged 11 to 16 years with emotional and behavioural problems, introduced the policy in a bid to maintain discipline.

But on Thursday anti-smoking pressure group ASH (Action on Smoking and Health) said the plan contradicted government anti-smoking efforts.

They said: "We are absolutely shocked and cannot see the rationale behind this.

"We are surprised that a school would condone such behaviour.

"The decision is one the school could regret. It flies in the face of all government efforts to discourage smoking."

It is illegal for anyone to sell cigarettes to under-16s, but children can smoke without breaking the law.

Cardiff County Council defended the school, saying Greenhill was a unique case. A no-smoking policy operates in all the city's other school.

Council officials let the school introduce supervised smoking in the playground to avoid breaches of discipline by the children, who have severe behavioural problems.

The Department of Health conceded the policy was "very unusual."

The department said: "We encourage all parents to give up if they are smokers and pass on information about the damage smoking does to their children.

"We expect schools to pursue health education, but, at the very last resort, it's up to the schools."

On 4 October 2009, in a related breadth, Malaysia's Kosmo! portrayed a similar news about another school in Headlands, Penarth in Cardiff, that allowed its student to smoke in a special room at class intervals!

Amazingly true, but the Kosmo! news did not mention whether it is a special school for students with behavioural problems.

Yes, it's a special school alright. The high school, run by the charity Action for Children, caters mainly for residential – and some day pupils – who have behavioural and learning difficulties.

I checked the Oct. 2 walesonline.co.uk/news and it is true the school considers providing shelter for its student to smoke. You can read them here.

For many health care providers and health promoters in Malaysia, this news may have freaked them out!

But wait till you hear some facts about a few speakers (and lecturers in Malaysia) who likes to lecture to their subjects about how healthy they are even after smoking for so many years! and how they rubbish those facts about the dangers of smoking...! and that they are preaching this in class to their students - year in, year out!

My counter advice - keep your puffing advice to yourself and don't encourage others to choose a lifestyle you have idiotically lived by.

If you think the smoke is not going to kill you, something else would. Just wait for the time to come. It would knock you out without you ever realizing it coming in to your head!

Good smokin' luck!