There is no justification for banning smoking in outdoor public places because there is no evidence that smoking in the open air represents a risk to anyone else’s health, including children. Smokers should be considerate to others when lighting up in any public place, but banning smoking in large open spaces such as parks and beaches has nothing to do with health. It’s designed to bully smokers until they conform and quit smoking a legal product. If we ban smoking outside simply to protect young children from the sight of someone smoking, what next? Should we ban adults from drinking alcohol outside as well in case they are bad role models for future generations?
This is what was stated by Simon Clark, chairman of the smokers’ rights group FOREST, in relation to the smoking ban in parks and beaches in France which has been proposed to be extended in the Republic of Ireland by the Irish Heart Foundation. The Irish Heart Foundation, through its president Frank Feighan, declared support for further extensions to the existing smoking ban in Ireland which has been in place in workplaces and other indoor and public places since 2004. These extensions would include beaches and parks in Ireland as well as other outdoor and open-air areas.
Tobacco products in Ireland are now sold to consumers over 21 at exorbitant prices after tax, which are in excess of €15 for a pack of 20. The law that limits their sale to adults over 21 years of age was approved by parliament last year in 2024 and came into force by the president of the Republic of Ireland who signed it at the beginning of 2025. The same age limit of 21 years for the purchase of tobacco products also applies to the United States where it was legislated by Donald Trump during his previous term in 2019. This led to a drastic reduction in the percentage of American smokers ranging from 11%-12% which broke a historical record for the US. The same applies from 2024 also in Indonesia where minors were legally allowed to smoke up until 2020.
The British smokers’ rights group FOREST, which has a branch in Ireland whose president John Mallon died before New Year’s Day 2024, organised a six-hour event in support of freedom against the generational ban on the purchase of tobacco by future generations of adults born after 2009 in The Miller pub in Central London named “The Future of Liberty and the War on Smokers” in collaboration with American student organisation Students For Liberty.
According to the generational ban on the purchase of tobacco for adults not born before 2009, the only people entitled to purchase tobacco are those born before 2009 with a variable age limit that increases by one year each year. The bill banning the purchase of tobacco by future generations is making its way through the House of Lords, having been approved by the majority of the House of Commons, with proposed amendments such as setting the age limit for tobacco purchase to 21.
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