Health not before economy, GRTU official says

Health does not come before the economy, the hospitality and leisure representative of the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises (GRTU), Philip Fenech, said yesterday.

GRTU representatives did not attend yesterday's sitting of the Malta Standards Authority's technical committee working to establish the specifications of air quality inside local entertainment establishments.

Contacted by The Times, Mr Fenech said that although the GRTU was not a pro-smoking lobby it did not put health before the economic impact.

He said the entertainment industry in countries where smoking bans had been introduced were suffering. Cigarettes were a legal substance and, in a free market, people had the right to make their own choices, without being imposed upon, he added.

The hot issue of the smoking regulations for entertainment establishments came to the fore again this week after the GRTU's bars and restaurants section announced a walkout from the technical committee.

Mr Fenech said the GRTU did not like the way the meetings were being conducted, adding that the committee was striving to reach a level of air quality that was not even found in an operating theatre.

"This is an impossible mission," he said.

Despite the GRTU officials' absence, the committee still finalised the specifications, which will now be transmitted to the Health Ministry, sources said.

The smoking regulations were scheduled to come into force in all public places as from last April but a few weeks before that the Health Ministry announced an extension of between six months and a year for entertainment establishments to comply. Establishments measuring over 60 square metres were given six months to designate specific smoking areas while those under 60 square metres have until April to meet air quality levels established by the MSA.

Despite warnings by the GRTU that it will issue directives to its members before these "impossible regulations" come into force, the government is determined that the smoking rules in entertainment establishments will start coming into force as from October, as promised earlier this year, sources close to the Health Ministry said yesterday.

The GRTU is claiming that the government wants to burden small establishments by means of the smoking regulations. In a statement issued yesterday, the GRTU said "manoeuvres" within the technical committee by ministry representatives were clearly intended to make it impossible for some establishments, as small as they might be, to maintain a smoking area.

It added that after promising it would not introduce a total smoking ban, the Health Minister was burdening the entertainment industry with regulations that made it impossible for anyone to have a smoking area.

The MSA committee, it insisted, was solely an excuse to introduce a total smoking ban in Malta.

In the face of the GRTU's accusations, the Health Ministry said the government had not breached any agreements with the GRTU and neither had it gone back from its original agreement.

In a statement, the ministry said the GRTU's claims that the government was acting dishonestly were not justified, especially when one considers the temporary concessions that were granted.

It said that during meetings between the GRTU and the ministry, GRTU director general Vince Farrugia had expressed his conviction about the existence of equipment that would eliminate the health hazards from tobacco smoke and even asked the government for financial help to install this equipment. It said both parties had agreed on the setting up of the technical committee.

The statement said the GRTU had attended the meetings regularly and only withdrew when it became clear that the conclusions would not be those the GRTU wanted.

"The ministry is obliged to safeguard the people's health from the harm caused by smoking. The ministry will continue to follow the recommendations of the committee and not act only if it suits it," the statement said.

The ministry added that the government did not have any intention to put extra burdens on small establishments.