Smokers’ rights campaigners have criticised calls for smoking to be banned on beaches in Guernsey.

Simon Clark, director of the smokers’ rights group Forest said:

“Smoking in the open air is not a public health issue because there is no evidence that smoking outside is harmful to anyone else’s health, including children.

“Environmental issues can be addressed by providing more cigarette bins, or promoting the use of pocket ashtrays so smokers can take their cigarette butts home.”

He added:

“It’s tiresome that, almost two decades after smoking was banned in every indoor public place, smokers should be having to fight for the right to smoke in the open air.

“Yes, smokers should be considerate to the environment and to those around them, but banning smoking on beaches would be a massive overreaction.

“It would also be very difficult to enforce without the threat of significant penalties that are out of all proportion to the alleged offence.”