 Glasgow’s Phoenix, the first smoke-free
pub in Scotland
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SEPARATE SURVEYS FROM
TWO countries that recently introduced smoking bans in indoor public
places have both concluded that there is an immediate improvement in
health, particularly among staff. In Scotland, where smoking was
outlawed last March, researchers from the University of Dundee found
that there has already been a beneficial effect. They examined
non-smoking bar workers one month before the ban and one and two months
afterward. Dr. Daniel Menzies who wrote the report, was surprised to
find that ‘improvements in health were evident only one month after the
introduction of a smoke-free policy’. Lung function levels had improved
by between 5% and 15% in staff who had spent an average of nine years
behind the bar. The improvement was particularly marked among asthma
sufferers.
Italy passed a very similar law which came into effect in February last
year. Now scientists from the University of Turin have come up with
figures which show an 11% fall in hospital admissions for heart attacks
in the Piedmont region for people aged under 60. The survey compared
the period February to June 2005 with the same one in the previous
year. Before 2004 heart attacks had been increasing so ‘the reduction
we saw in the first half of 2005 was not attributable to long-term
trends’ according to Dr Francesco Barone-Adesi, the lead researcher.
‘Our findings suggest that smoking regulations may have important
short-term effects on health’ he continued.
Smoking in enclosed public places will be outlawed in Wales and
Northern Ireland next April and an English ban will be started some
time next summer. The TUC wants employers to negotiate smoke-free
workplaces now however: ‘For every month that employers wait to
introduce a ban, more employees will die or become seriously ill as a
result of second-hand smoke’ said General Secretary Brendan Barber.
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