CAMPAIGNERS have welcomed calls by top health and safety advisers for the Government to press ahead with a total ban on smoking in public places.
In a letter to Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt, Health and Safety Commission chair Bill Callaghan has called for any exemptions, such as pubs and clubs that do not prepare food, to be removed from the final Health Improvement and Protection Bill, due before Parliament in November.
The Smoke Free Swindon website is campaigning to ban smoking in all public places.
Earlier this year the town's first non-smoking pub, the Dockle Farmhouse, in Bridge End Road, opened.
Deborah Arnott, director of Action on Smoking and Health said: "It would be absurd and wrong for the Government to recognise the health damage caused by second-hand smoke and then produce a law which fails to protect bar staff the group of workers at most risk.
"This call will surely make the pressure for the Government to opt for comprehensive legislation overwhelming."
To find out more about the anti-smoking movement in Swindon log on to www.smokefreeswindon.org.uk
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