Health campaigners blast "Smoke Spots" site

A website recommending "smoking friendly" pubs, nightclubs and restaurants may breach the ban on tobacco advertising, an anti-smoking campaign group has claimed.

Smoke Spots, which is owned by Imperial Tobacco, allows users to upload details of venues with smoking facilities. It also features blog posts, events listings and discussion forums for smokers.

But the charity Action on Smoking and Health (Ash) Scotland, which campaigns for tougher regulation of the tobacco industry, has lodged a complaint with Trading Stands in Scotland alleging that bus shelter adverts promoting the site violate the 2002 ban on advertising tobacco products.

While the site does not promote any individual tobacco brand, Ash's chief executive Sheila Duffy said it could still have the effect of encouraging smoking.

“We believe this is a clear breach of the Tobacco Advertising and Promotions Act (Tapa).

“It is obvious that the effect of this campaign on the part of Imperial Tobacco is to promote smoking. It is also clearly accessible to under-18s.

“It is our opinion that this PR blitz falls foul of the Tapa rule that prohibits anything that ‘has the effect of promoting a tobacco product’."

She added that the site's age restriction system, which simply requires visitors to state that they are over 18, made it trivially easy for children to gain access.

Scottish Green Party co-convenor Patrick Harvie, who has lodged a question with the Scottish Government over the legality of the Smoke Spots campaign, said he was alarmed at the site's inclusion of family-friendly events such as the Glasgow West End Festival in its listings.

"I share Ash Scotland's concerns about this campaign, which seems designed to get around advertising rules by promoting smoking in an underhanded and indirect way. The campaign website suggests that the tobacco industry sees no problem in encouraging people to smoke at the same time as promoting public parks, food markets and even events for children."

A spokesman for Imperial Tobacco defended the campaign, saying that it was intended as an information service for existing smokers.

We refute any suggestions that Smoke Spots promotes tobacco or smoking. As stated on the Smoke Spots website, it helps adult smokers find places where they can still enjoy a legal consumer product. It does not advocate smoking or advertise tobacco brands.

Television ads for tobacco products were banned in the UK in 1965. The prohibition on print and billboard advertising came into force in 2003. Recent legislation has also banned tobacco vending machines and required larger retailers to remove tobacco products from customers' sight.

In June 2014 doctors voted to push for an outright ban on tobacco sales to anyone born after 2000.