Irish pub workers breathe easier after smoking ban
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Ireland’s nationwide ban on smoking in all workplaces has not only cleaned up the air in pubs and restaurants, it has also improved the health of the people who work there, researchers said on Sunday.
Since Ireland became the first country in the world to impose the ban nationwide in March 2004, other countries and cities have followed its example.
Professor Luke Clancy, an expert in respiratory disease at Trinity College, Dublin, has shown that particulate matter in the air, which is a feature of smoke pollution, in pubs has decreased and workers are breathing better.
“This is the first time that we have measured the pollution and measured the effects,” Clancy said in an interview.
“We found a dramatic decrease in particles. There is something like a 70 percent decrease in particles in the pub and that makes it quite similar to outdoor air in Dublin, which is quite good.”
Clancy and his colleague Dr. Patrick Goodman measured particles in more than 40 pubs before the ban was enforced and a year afterwards to gauge its impact.
In research presented at the European Respiratory Society meeting in Copenhagen, they said levels of two types of particles, PM2.5 and PM10, had fallen by 53 percent and 87.6 percent over the course of a year.
They also recruited 81 male bar workers and measured their lung function before and a year after the ban became law. The men also answered a questionnaire about their health and smoking habits.
“We found a 30-40 percent decrease in symptoms, both respiratory and irritant,” said Clancy, referring to shortness of breath, coughs and water eyes.
Lung function in the non-smokers also improved but it continued to deteriorate in smokers.
A study in Norway, in which restaurant and bar workers were interviewed on the telephone, showed similar improvements in health after a smoking ban was introduced there.
Opponents of the Irish ban had warned that the law would put Ireland’s famous pubs out of business, but their fears have not materialized.
Smoking, a leading risk factor of lung cancer and other illnesses, is the biggest cause of preventable death. Research has shown that second-hand smoke, or passive smoking, kills more than 600 people each year in Britain alone.
Sweden, Italy, Malta, Cuba, New Zealand and Bangladesh have also introduced bans on smoking in public places. Other countries have announced plans to curb smoking.
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