| Ireland Blazes a Smoke Free Trail
Comment
Ireland led the way with a historic decision to ban smoking in public
that was enshrined in law on March 29, 2004. From that date a comprehensive
smoke-free law was introduced across the Republic that covered all indoor
workplaces, including bars and restaurants.
Now the British Government has announced that the smoking ban is to be
extended to cover the North of Ireland from April 2007.
However, Northern Secretary Shaun Woodward has still to fine tune the
workings of the ban and whether, for example, it will apply to people in
prison and those in psychiatric hospitals.
Whatever one’s opinions on the good and ills of smoking, an extension
of the ban on smoking in public into the North can be no bad thing.
The fact that the initiative introduced in the Republic of Ireland in
March 2004 did not apply to people living in the neighbouring North created
a natural experiment for those wishing to identify the effects of the new
law.
Now, according to not one but two studies just published in the Republic,
the smoke-free law is delivering results. A survey by the journals BMJ and
Tobacco Control concludes that the ban on smoking in public in Ireland is
protecting non-smoking bar workers from exposure to second-hand smoke.
In the BMJ study, researchers surveyed 329 staff working in rural and
urban pubs in the Republic of Ireland and the North in the six months leading
up to the ban in the Republic.
One year later, 249 were followed up to assess changes in exposure to
second-hand smoke and respiratory symptoms.
Work-related exposure to second-hand smoke dropped significantly in the
Republic but dropped only slightly in the North.
Furthermore, in the Republic after the ban there was a significant drop
in the proportion of bar staff experiencing respiratory symptoms.
There is evidence then that the smoke-free workplace law in the Republic
of Ireland has provided protection for one of the most heavily exposed occupational
groups by reducing their exposure to second-hand smoke both in and out of
the workplace.
The Republic’s ban on smoking in public has also seen it increase in
support among the public since its introduction. Whatever their reservations
before the law was introduced, the increasing support for the ban, even
among smokers in the Republic, underpins the law’s effectiveness.
Where Ireland led, the North is now to follow, as did Italy and Norway.
More than eight out of 10 Irish smokers say that the smoke free law was
“a good or very good thing,” while nearly half said that the law had made
them more likely to give up.
Of those who had stopped smoking, over 80 per cent said that the law
had helped them do it.
The British Government knows it is on to a good thing in following Ireland’s
lead.
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