The final vote on radical new health plans in Wales which could see e-cigs banned in public places takes place today

The final vote on the Public Health (Wales) Bill will take place today.

The bill which is expected to get passed is likely to come into force in 2017 and would seepeople in Wales banned from using e-cigarettes in some public places where children are likely to be present, including schools, places that serve food, entertainment venues and shopping centres.

The radical new law will also introduce new outdoor smoke-free places and make getting a tattoo or piercing safer as practitioners and premises will have to be licensed; it will also make pharmacies more responsive to local needs.

Further down the list of ‘radical’ plans are proposals for local authorities to publish a local public toilet strategy forcing council’s to assess the need for toilets in public area’s and how they plan to meet those needs.

Deeside has seen it’s public toilets locked off to the public or in the case of Connah’s Quay’s £100,000 ‘superloo’ completely removed due to constant issues with drug taking and discarded needles.

Connah’s Quay super loo’s were closed off to the public for months due to a problem with discarded needles and drug-taking, of course the problem has just been pushed to other parts of Connah’s Quay.

Health and Social Services Minister Mark Drakeford said the Bill aims to protect the health and wellbeing of people living in Wales.

“The Bill will help us to respond to a range of public health threats in Wales, including the risk of re-normalising smoking for a generation of children and young people who have grown up in largely smoke-free environments.  

“The Bill does not prevent the use of e-cigarettes to help people stop smoking if they believe they will help them. Wherever you can smoke a cigarette, you will be able to use an e-cigarette.”

If passed, the legislation will:

• Create a compulsory, national licensing system for acupuncture, body piercing, electrolysis and tattooing
• Prohibit the intimate piercing, including tongue piercing  of children under 16 in Wales
• Require local authorities to prepare and publish a local toilets strategy, which includes an assessment of the need for toilets for public use and details of how that need will be met
• Restrict the smoking of conventional tobacco products and the use of nicotine inhaling devices in public playgrounds, school grounds and hospital grounds
• Restrict the use of nicotine inhaling devices in certain public places where children are likely to be present, including schools, places that serve food, entertainment venues and shopping centres
• Make changes to the way pharmaceutical services are planned by health boards, moving from a system which is focused solely on dispensing prescriptions, to one which responds to the needs of local communities
• Introduce health impact assessments for certain decisions and policies. These will evaluate the likely effect of proposed actions on people’s short and long-term physical and mental health.

Professor Drakeford added:

“It is the government’s responsibility to create the conditions, which enable people to live healthy lives. This Bill strikes a balance between those actions which will make a big difference to people’s health without intruding unduly on the rights of individuals to run their own lives.”

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