Province’s latest butt-out campaign

Dalton McGuinty chose Weedless Wednesday to launch a new anti-smoking strategy.

Almost one in five people in Ontario smoke, but the percentage is even higher in Hamilton, where 21% say they are tobacco addicts. The city is very diverse. In some neighbourhoods like downtown, 25% smoke, with the life expectancy there is only about 65. In Ancaster people are expected to live 20 years longer.

Hamilton health officials are really trying to get the message out about how much longer you can live, if you quit smoking, and where you can go to get help. The province is also encouraging people to quit, announcing that family health teams will give free nicotine patches and gum to smokers, as well as counselling, starting this spring.

But when CHCH News asked Premier McGuinty about new laws to protect people from second hand smoke, he said no: even if they live in the next apartment over from a smoker. “The individual who said, ‘a man’s home is his castle’, maybe he wasn’t thinking of multi-unit residential dwellings. But there’s still something important about that principle. A person’s home is her castle. It’s intrusive for us to go in there and determine what activities are appropriate.”

“It’s a line that I’m not crossing.”

The province says it spends almost $2 billion a year in direct health care costs for smokers. Productivity losses are estimated at almost $6 billion annually.