Call for prisons to be Smokefree workplaces

In November 2011, the Prison Officers Association (POA) called for all prisons to be made smoke-free workplaces, in line with all other workplaces in the UK and for the government to conduct an urgent survey of prisons to establish the extent of the problem.

A prisoner’s cell is currently classed as a “home” and is exempt from the ban. The Ministry of Justice has so far refused the POA’s request, or to conduct independent monitoring of the prisons to establish the risk to health. Results from a pilot study suggest a significant problem, with prison staff “exposed to considerable quantities of secondhand smoke during their working time”, and one prison in particular recording non-smoking prison officers with continine levels (a biomarker for exposure to tobacco smoke) close to the levels measured in bar workers before the smoking legislation was introduced.