Introduction to Fire Safety Management

8.4.6 Smokers and smokers’ materials
As with each of the previously mentioned sections 
establishing a policy in relation to formalising the stand-
ards, who is responsible and for what, with practical 
preventive control measures and the training and aware-
ness of staff and all those who may be affected, are the 
primary steps to take in the management of smokers 
and their discarded smokers’ materials.
Many organisations have effective smoking policies 
based upon making arrangements for designated 
smoking areas and prohibiting smoking in all other 
areas. Less successful are those policies based upon 
a complete ban; however, this only serves to drive 
smokers into out of the way, secluded locations such as 
plant room, storage areas, toilets and emergency escape 
staircases with no disposal arrangements, where a small 
fi re has a chance to grow undetected.
While the provision of smokers’ booths strategic-
ally located away from combustible materials and any 
potential fl 
ammable atmospheres, together with the 
provision of facilities to discard used smokers’ materials 
(ash trays metal bins, etc.), provides practical solutions 
to the management of this risk, this cannot always be 
secured in places of work.
Places of public entertainment and public assembly 
will undoubtedly benefi t from being smoker-free zones 
as the ban on smoking in public areas takes effect; 
however, it is likely that premises such as nursing 
homes will still need an effective management strategy 
to reduce the risk of fi re from smoking materials. Such 
arrangements are likely to include:
➤
Ensuring smoking only takes place in designated 
areas by establishing a monitoring regime
➤
Provision of metal or glass ash trays or bins for dis-
carded materials
➤
Ensuring when ash trays are emptied (before leaving 
the area at night, for example) that checks are made 
to ensure all material is extinguished before placing 
into external bins, which are separate from combust-
ible waste