BMA cries foul over e-cigarettes

Medical leaders have urged Scotland’s Celtic and Rangers football clubs to reconsider their links with an e-cigarette company amid concerns that such links will damage efforts to reduce smoking, according to a story by Lyndsay Buckland for The Scotsman.

Last month the E-lites brand said it had become partners with Celtic, allowing its products to be sold at the stadium and smoked in designated areas. A similar link-up with Rangers was revealed shortly afterward.

But the British Medical Association’s board of science has written to the clubs, raising its fears over the impact of allowing the products to be sold and used on their grounds.

In the BMA’s letter, general practitioner Dr. Andrew Thomson said sport was a health activity and clubs such as Celtic and Rangers “should be leading by example to encourage healthy living rather than advertising a smoking product, which contains the addictive substance nicotine.”

The doctor said the BMA wanted e-cigarettes to be included in the ban on smoking in public places, and encouraged organizations to prohibit their use.

Companies including ScotRail, Starbucks and the Wetherspoons pub chain were said by Buckland to be among those that had already announced bans on e-cigarettes.