The Unwelcome Guest: How Scotland invited the tobacco industry to smoke outside

Abstract

First paragraph: Twenty years have now passed since publication of The Unwelcome Guest in the lead up to Scotland’s smoke-free legislation in 2006. This legislation, to prohibit smoking in enclosed public spaces and to protect the population from the known harms of second-hand smoke (SHS), has been a resounding success. At the time, First Minister Jack McConnell stated that “we in this parliament have a chance to make the most significant step to improve Scotland's public health for a generation” and he was to be proved right. The Royal Society for Public Health in the UK would go on to describe it as the number one public health achievement of the first 20 years of the 21st century, and it is widely recognised as one of the defining actions from the early years of the Scottish Parliament.