Coming soon, smoke free Northern Ireland (continued)

Do people in Northern Ireland want enclosed workplaces and public places to be smoke-free?

The answer is yes. In 2005 the Government held a consultation to ask people in Northern Ireland if they thought a law to make all enclosed workplaces and public places smoke-free should be introduced.

The Minister for Health at that time, Shaun Woodward, announced that over 70,000 responses to the consultation on smoking were received:

• 91% of responses supported the introduction of a law to make enclosed workplaces and public places smoke-free;
• 8% of responses supported a partial ban (for example, bars that don't serve food would not have to ban smoking);
• 0.5% of responses supported self-regulation (ie, allowing workplaces to decide for themselves if they want to allow smoking).

As most people in Northern Ireland don’t smoke (7 out of 10) we shouldn’t be too surprised by this result. After this consultation Mr Woodward made the announcement that enclosed workplaces and public places in Northern Ireland are to go smoke-free in April 2007. Recently the new Minister for Health, Mr Paul Goggins, announced that from 30 April 2007 smoking in enclosed workplaces and public places will be against the law.

Business matters

Some people try to argue that laws to make workplaces and enclosed public places smokefree are bad for business, but there is nothing to suggest that this is true. In fact, being smokefree can help businesses. Non-smokers may go to coffee shops, restaurants and other entertainment businesses more often and smokers do get used to being smokefree. Having smokefree workplaces can help to reduce the number of people smoking, which means that less money will be spent on tobacco and other, more productive industries, will get a boost. Many business owners may find that their cleaning and maintenance cost less and that employees will be off work sick less often because respiratory illnesses are less likely.

Can’t we just use good ventilation?

Opening windows or using ventilation systems doesn’t remove all the harmful chemicals found in second-hand smoke. Increasing ventilation can dilute the smoke in a room, but will not make it safe since there is no known safe level of exposure to the dangerous chemicals in cigarette smoke. Indeed, it would take a tornado-strength level of ventilation to reduce the health risks significantly. As there is no acceptable level of second-hand smoke, removing the source – cigarettes and cigars – is really the only solution.

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