Children's voices used to shame hospital smokers

Rua and Ela recently recorded messages which will be played to warn smokers

People lighting up outside four hospitals will be urged to put out their cigarettes by the voices of schoolchildren.

Buzzers have been installed at Cardiff and Vale health board sites, with visitors and patients urged to press them if they see anyone smoking.

A recorded message will then tell them off for doing so.

Smoking on hospital grounds is illegal and anyone seen smoking could be handed a fixed penalty notice of £100.

Despite the fine, staff at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, University Hospital Llandough and other facilities at these sites continued to be concerned.

“We hope these loudspeaker messages will make people think twice about lighting their cigarettes and seek free, professional support," said a spokesperson.

The messages were recorded by Rua and Ela when they were year six pupils at Creigiau Primary School in Cardiff.

They can be activated by a large red buzzer located just inside the four entrances, where the offender is unable to see who is pressing it.

Four bilingual stop smoking messages are then read out to smokers flouting the rules.

The message read out by the children reminds smokers that "cigarette smoke can be very harmful to babies and children as our lungs are still developing".

The messages will urge smokers to put out their cigarette or seek help to quit

"While smoking rates have come down across Wales in recent years, the health board continues to receive complaints about smoking on hospital grounds, putting the health of patients, colleagues and the public at risk," said the health board's Principal Public Health Practitioner Catherine Perry.

"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 which is deeply unpleasant."

The health board said smokers could also be referred to seek support by their GP or practice nurse.

Some pharmacies in Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan also offer Help Me Quit advice and products, the health board said.