Health Bill

Yes, the hon. Gentleman and his colleagues went a long way towards achieving that. I draw a distinction between avoidable and unavoidable risk. Being exposed to second-hand smoke is not an inherent part of working behind a bar, so we can, and should, do something about that. I want to say a word or two about the two major exemptions. As several hon. Members have eloquently said about the exemption for food, there is no logical basis for saying that whether food is served has anything to do with whether second-hand smoke is bad for people. As far as I understand it, people may smoke if pork scratchings are served, but if pork chops are served, they may not. If pork sandwiches are served, it might depend on where they were cooked, whether they were hot or cold, and whether they were brought on to the premises. Nothing in the exemption has anything to do with the welfare of people working in pubs. It is entirely irrational. Allowing people in so-called wet pubs—I have never quite followed that phrase—to be exposed to second-hand smoke seems to be in conflict with a recent campaign of which I have become aware. The campaign is an attempt to raise awareness of something called the ““invisible killer””. There will be adverts to"““highlight the fact that ‘Secondhand smoke is a killer’””." One of the main advocates of the campaign says:"““smokers and non-smokers don’t appreciate the full dangers of secondhand smoke. Tobacco smoke contains around 4,000 different chemicals, including . . . 50 known cancer-causing substances, such as arsenic, formaldehyde and ammonia””." The campaign is, of course, the Department of Health’s. The person who gave that evidence was the Under-Secretary of State for Health, the hon. Member for Don Valley (Caroline Flint), who will wind up the debate. The NHS campaign was launched on the Department’s website this autumn. How can the Department cite all these terrible things about second-hand smoke, which are true, yet say that it is all right for people who work in pubs that do not serve food to breathe it in? I do not understand how the Minister can simultaneously hold those two opinions. I want to warn the House about the rise of death burger. Many of us who went to university will remember the burger vans that used to ply people on the high streets and what their products used to do to our health. If people can smoke in pubs provided that no food is served there, there will be an explosion—if that is the right word—of death burgers. Burger vans will park outside pubs, and people who want to smoke and eat will go out of the pub to buy a burger and quite possibly bring it back into the pub to eat it. As the burger would not have been provided on the premises, that would be no problem. Such people would get a triple whammy. They could go out to drink, nip outside for a burger and go back into the pub and smoke. The Department of Health is approving that behaviour, so I think that we are missing the point. It is not only the exemption for food that is irrational, but the link between that exemption and the alcohol policy. It is clear that pubs that serve only a bit of food and do not make much money from that will stop serving food altogether. We will see more of what is inaccurately called vertical drinking—I have never quite understood why it is called that. There will be more pubs in which people will stand and drink, rather than sit and eat. All the concerns about alcohol abuse will increase.