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Some UK councils restrict smoking in your place of residence. How much further will this go?As people are once again told to work from home, our freedoms in this realm become more crucial than ever.
One freedom that is being progressively eroded is the choice of whether or not to
smoke in your home. The home - or place of residence - was until relatively recently considered immune from any public smoking regulations. The UK's 2006 ban on smoking in enclosed public places restrictions explicitly excluded places of residence.
Yet now, with bans on smoking indoors and outdoors in mental-health institutions, prisons, and other state institutions, the mood is shifting.
When I asked UK councils about their current policy on employees' smoking, Hammersmith and Fulham replied to my Freedom-of-Information request with a document (produced in alliance with Kensington and Chelsea council in 2015) that said council home workers were banned from smoking in their private offices.
The document stated that: 'any part of a private dwelling used solely for work purposes will be required to be smoke-free... home workers are expected to have the same set-up at home as they do in the office. Smoking is not allowed in any of the council's offices and home workers should not smoke at their workstation during office hours.' It even said that 'family members should not be allowed to smoke in the home worker's office'.
Comment: See also: Let's All Light Up!