Irish pub workers breathe easier after smoking ban

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 yesterday.

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, has decreased in pubs and workers are breathing better.

"This is the first time that we have measured the pollution and measured the effects," Mr Clancy said in an interview.

"We found a dramatic decrease in particles. There is something like a 70 per cent decrease in particles in the pub and that makes it quite similar to outdoor air in Dublin, which is quite good."

Mr 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 per cent and 87.6 per cent 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 per cent decrease in symptoms, both respiratory and irritant," said Mr 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 materialised.