Creative design needed to stop people smoking outside Queen Alexandra Hospital
120219_VOXPOP_SMOKING_19/01/12 Do smoking sign at QA Hospital Cosham. 'Do you think people should smoke outside of Queen Alexandra Hospital Cosham?' Picture: Jake Ratcliffe (120219-780)
HEALTH chiefs want to stub out the problem of people smoking outside the main entrances of the Queen Alexandra Hospital.
There are two smoking shelters on the Cosham hospital site, but scores of patients and visitors ignore this and continue smoking in supposedly smoke-free zones.
Now bosses hope to tackle the problem by getting the community involved in designing hard-hitting posters.
Peter Mellor is company secretary of Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs QA, and also sits on the smoking committee.
He said: ‘Our campaign is not about trying to force people to give up smoking, but to try and persuade those who choose to smoke outside at Queen Alexandra Hospital to think about the effect that their smoking might have on others. In other words please don’t light up your cigarette right by the doors to the hospital and affect others with your smoke but move to one of the two smoking shelters provided – think about others. Please help us by designing a poster that alerts a smoker to the effect it might have on others. This includes newborn babies, pregnant women and people with breathing problems.
‘We respect the rights of people who choose to smoke to do so, but please can they do so without affecting others.’
The competition is open for all ages. To enter, send your poster, along with the completed voucher printed below, to: QA Poster Competition, The News, The News Centre, Hilsea, Portsmouth, PO2 9SX. The winning design will be made into a poster and will also win £100. Second prize wins £75, while third prize is £50. The closing date for the competition is February 28. Normal News competition rules apply.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Portsmouth
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 13 C to 25 C
Wind Speed: 22 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 13 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 24 mph
Wind direction: East
Comments
There are 5 comments to this article
Page 1 of 1
becky6224
Wednesday, February 29, 2012 at 05:22 PMI am getting slightly annoyed with people making comments about smokers as if we are all scum. I understand smoking near a non-smoker isn’t pleasant and we don’t go out our way to smoke around a non-smoker. Visiting someone in hospital can be a very traumatic time and the first thing we like to do at the first chance of being outside (outside being the only place we can smoke) is to light up. We sometimes forget that we have to be treated like caged animals and have a located area out of the way under a shelter and made to feel like an outcast or like it’s a dirty secret. Tobacco is also a way of making money in taxes. I don’t see alcoholics being treated like an outcast or like an animal or complained about so openly, you all just walk away from a drunk in the street which, by the way you can still do if you was near a smoker. A drunk swearing and shouting in the street and no one seems to batter an eye lid, but a smoker smoking in a non smoking area is frowned upon. Smokers cant smoke inside pubs, restaurants, buses stops no where unless out side, so when we are outside we chose to smoke and still that isn’t good enough for some of you non smokers. Breathing the air outside (whether near a smoker or not) has a big impact on health everyday, especially when breathing pollution, CO gases and lots more airborne bugsgerms. Oh and you may be thinking ‘a drunk isn’t damaging to your health like a smoker - truth is, it is damaging to you, especially when there urine or spit is on the pavement. Spitting by the way carries more germs then being near a smoker. “According to medical experts, when a tuberculosis patient spits on the ground and it dries up, the wind spreads the bacteria in the air. TB is spread the way other airborne illnesses are – through coughing, spitting and sneezing. The germs can float in the air for several hours, depending on the environment. People who breathe the air containing these TB germs can become infected. The bacteria in saliva encrust themselves as spores and survive the heat of the street. Mixed with dirt, they begin spreading through the air waiting for someone to infect, and diseases transmitted this way spread very quickly. This is the main reason why spitting is considered an ultimate despicable act. The saliva of people with hepatitis B can contain the hepatitis B virus, but in very low concentrations, compared with blood. Injections of infected saliva can transmit the virus; this means that when one gets in contact with saliva of a patient of hepatitis B, especially, those who spit through the windows of buses, the disease can be transferred. It was reported for the first half of the year, recorded 1,322 cases of Tuberculosis (TB), as against 1,675 cases recorded for the same period the previous year.” As for the littering of our fag ends, yes it don’t look nice but it does not encourage ratsmice or any other pest - where as everyday littering has a big part in the overwhelming amount of pests we have in this city. I see plenty of people dropping their rubbish…. From crisp packets, McDonald containers, wraps, drinks, uneaten chips, ect… I also don’t see many complaining as much as they do about smokers. I feel smokers are an easy target for a lot of people to complain when really we should be looking at the bigger picture.
Chris Ayres
Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 01:39 PMsimple get the security to do the job ,,i hav seen them smoking and when told them they just ignore ,,its time to fine people ,,stop feeling sorry for them ,,anyone smoking in the grounds fine them 20pounds and make the guards do the job ,,and if the people dont do or paye refuse them entry to visit ,,,,its called discipline ,,something most smokers dont have
Hairystring
Monday, January 23, 2012 at 06:34 PM"Smoking is prohibited in the hospital grounds..." Why do smokers have such an arrogant disregard for for where they choose to light up? Their selfish, lazy ignorance only goes to enhance their perceived reputation as being selfish, lazy and ignorant. Oh and I forgot to mention inherent litter bugs. Why do smokers think it is acceptable just to drop their cigarette ends wherever they please? The amount of butts dropped under the no smoking sign at QA is an absolute joke, let alone elsewhere in the community. QA is not saying you can't smoke, as they have provided a smoking shelter to use (more than generous) but they are pointing that smokers should consider where they are, and perhaps smokers should also consider how many people are in that hospital due to smoking related diseases. I'm sure the overworked staff would like to thank you personally for increasing their future workload even more.
southseabeach
Monday, January 23, 2012 at 04:53 PMLe Critique - you cannot get fat from standing close to obese people. Passive smoking is proven to damage your health(ask Roy Castle's family) and make your clothes stink. It is also littering if you throw your cigarette butts on the pavement or road. It has nothing to do with a Nanny State. Sometimes I wish the government would get more involved in our lives...just look what has happened to the western world under the free market of the last 30 years. People can surely go for a couple of hours without a cigarette, after all they sleep for 6-8 hours without waking up craving. btw I'm a smoker!
Le Critique
Monday, January 23, 2012 at 04:28 PMHa ha....those smelling of nicotine, with hagged faces, yellow fingers and smelly breath, they want to take away your right to enjoy being unhealthy. The nanny state is still at it. As I walked around QA hospital last week I noticed plenty of overweight and obese nurses and staff in general. It seems that it's more socially unacceptable to smoke than it is to be obese even though both cost the NHS a lot of money. If you're going to penalize smokers you should also do the same with those who are supposed to be promoting good health but don't. They say they respect people's rights to smoke, well they don't seem to. They're not respecting rights at all but are pretending to in a politically correct and sneaky way. I don't smoke and I'm not obese but I can't stand these PC snakes in the grass. They don't have the power to take away people's rights but they still do their best to get at them. The sad thing is that those who are having a dig at the smokers probably smoke and do so as they please.
Page 1 of 1
Your view
Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.