Smoking is to be banned in mental hospitals by 1st July, as part of the general workplace smoking ban, according to this report:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7265537.stm
Apparently 70% of mental patients are smokers, as compared to 26% of the population at large. 70% of schizophrenics smoke too, and I can’t help but wonder if there is a connection between smoking and mental illness. If it’s just coincidence, it’s a hell of a big one. It’s not just mental illness either: 56% of people with depression smoke.
I see three major possibilities:
1. Smoking is a factor in causing mental illness and depression
2. Those who suffer from mental illness and depression start to smoke, possibly to help cope with it
3. They are unrelated.
Which of the 3 do you think is most likely?
Whatever the situation, it’s going to be a bad time for the 70% of smoking mental patients for whom hospital is their home. I would have thought the last thing many of them needed was a forcible stop in their smoking to add to their other problems.
Rather curiously, prisons are exempt from the ruling in the mainland UK. The Isle of Man is different though: it's now banned in their prison and a hunger strike in protest has recently come to an end. Result: the prisoners lost even though one of them lasted 10 days without food. If anyone wonders how strong the smoking addiction is, think about how well you'd manage 10 days without food!
Cheers, Tom.
P.S. I’ve posted far too many sunset pictures recently, so my next few blogs (after this one) will contain pictures of something else. Something different, but hopefully equally interesting.