Boherlahan Dualla GAA club to introduce smoke and vape free grounds

The Boherlahan Dualla GAA Club with the support of Boherlahan Dualla Camogie Club and Boherlahan Dualla Ladies Football club have approved their Healthy Club Committee’s proposal that we adopt the GAA’s Smoke & Vape Free Policy for the entire of the Boherlahan GAA Grounds.

This policy will be launched by GAA County Chairperson Joe Kennedy next Saturday 3rd September 2022 at 1:30pm.

The Healthy Club project aims to help GAA clubs explore how they support the holistic health of their members and the communities they serve. GAA clubs already contribute to the health and wellbeing of their members by providing opportunities to develop their physical, social, emotional, and psychological health.

The project aims to help GAA clubs identify what they are already doing well, identify areas where they can or would like to improve, and empower them to ensure that everyone who engages with their club benefits from the experience in a health-enhancing way, be they players, officers, coaches, parents, supporters, or members of their local community.

The GAA Smoke & Vape Free initiative, which is implemented through the Irish Life GAA Healthy Clubs project is kindly supported by Healthy Ireland and the Tomar Trust. Over 440 clubs across the 32 counties are participating in the ground- breaking project which aims to transform clubs into hubs for health within their communities. Boherlahan Dualla joins a growing number of clubs within Tipperary, like Toomevara and Carrick Davins that have designated their grounds Smoke & Vape Free. The Smoke & Vape free initiative is also filtrating into the county structures with some progressive county boards interested in driving this agenda. As well as the obvious health impacts of introducing such a policy, the environmental impacts are also important for the Association.

To date 60% of participating Healthy Clubs have already implemented the GAA Smoke & Vape Free Policy which aims to:
protect the health of individuals in their clubs, wider communities, and visitors by keeping them safe from all tobacco related harm
discourage the use of tobacco as such activity is incompatible with a healthy approach to sporting activity
change social norms and encourage people to consider quitting and to reduce the initiation of smoking among young people.
set a positive example for clubs and communities
reduce tobacco use and exposure to second-hand smoke, which is severely harmful to people’s health
minimise tobacco and electronic cigarette related litter

By adopting this policy, Boherlahan Dualla GAA Club aim to protect the health of all individuals involved with the club as well as visitors to the grounds by keeping them safe from all smoke related harm. We recognise that second-hand smoke is severely harmful to health, in particular to the health of children. There is no safe level of exposure to second hand smoke. The Smoke Free Policy will help change social norms around tobacco use, encourage people to consider quitting and reduce the initiation of smoking tobacco or e cigarettes/vaping amongst young people.

Smoking tobacco is one of the world’s biggest public health threats killing more than 7 million people globally a year. Around 890,000 of these deaths are due to exposure to second-hand smoke (WHO, 2019). In the Republic of Ireland, there are almost 5,500 smoking related deaths each year and one in every two long-term tobacco users will die from a tobacco related disease (HSE, 2019). In Northern Ireland smoking tobacco has been identified as the single greatest cause of preventable illness and premature death with 2014 data revealing approximately 16% or 1 in 6 of all deaths were attributable to smoking tobacco (Public Health Agency, 2015).

The club has therefore adopted the GAA’s Smoke & Vape Free. It applies to the entire GAA club grounds, both internally and externally including:
• Buildings and dressing rooms,
• Doorways and entrances,
• Pitches and sports facilities (including spectator spaces),
• Cars parked on club grounds

There are NO designated smoking areas. This policy applies to all members, officials, coaches, players, parents, contractors, visitors and volunteers. We believe that we are setting a positive example for the community with genuine concern for everyone’s health.