Child’s plaintive voice shames illicit smokers outside hospital

SMOKERS outside a hospital are being shamed by a loudspeaker broadcasting a child’s voice warning of damage their second-hand smoke is doing.

A big red buzzer has been installed in the reception of the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff that sets off the messages.

In the first 10 days of being installed, the buzzer was pressed 200 times to shame the loitering smokers.

A child’s voice says: “You smoke, we choke. Cigarette smoke is harmful to babies and children. Please put out your cigarette. This is a no-smoking hospital.”

‘You smoke, we choke. Cigarette smoke is harmful to babies and children’

Smokers began to hear the message from a speaker on the wall outside the women’s unit after staff became concerned about patients and visitors lighting up in hospital grounds.

A spokesman from Cardiff and Vale University Health Board said: “When people smoke on hospital sites, patients are forced to breathe in toxic second-hand smoke – including some of our most vulnerable.

“Sometimes patients have to walk through second-hand smoke to get in and out of the hospital.

“To address this, we recently installed a loudspeaker system outside our women’s unit.

“Four stop-smoking messages recorded by children are played in English and Welsh in order to make people think twice about the harm their smoke is causing to others.”

In June 2019 it will become illegal to smoke anywhere on hospital premises and those caught will be handed fixedpenalty notices.

Currently smokers can only be fined if they are caught littering with their cigarettes.