A burning issue
Should
the UK follow Ireland's lead and ban smoking in bars and restaurants?
It’s about freedom, isn’t it? A ban on
smoking in bars and restaurants infringes on a smoker’s right
to enjoy their tobacco wherever they choose. To force people who smoke
out on the street, or to hide furtively in their homes, is surely
anathema to our liberal, democratic philosophy. Furthermore, millions
of pounds will be lost as smokers and non-smokers alike desert sterile
smoke-free pubs to stay at home and watch telly.
Get real! Anyone who seriously believes either of these cynical arguments
rolled out by a tobacco industry that sees its profits under threat,
has their head in a cloud of smoke.This is about the freedom of the
majority not to be forced to share the health problems smokers choose
to inflict upon themselves.
Let me get one thing clear. I’m not in favour of banning cigarettes
or drugs. However, smoking is not something you can do in isolation.
If I drop an E in a nightclub, I affect myself only. If the smoker
standing next to me lights up a cigarette, they share their drug with
everyone. This may not be critical for the average person, but for
those who work in bars, it is a real danger.
Numerous medical studies have shown that bar and restaurant staff’s
exposure to tobacco smoke is equal to active smokers. An eight hour
shift in a smoky room is equivalent to a twenty-a-day habit, with
all the attendant health risks. Action on Smoking and Health estimates
that passive smoking causes 600 deaths from lung cancer and 12,000
deaths from heart disease among British non-smokers every year.
“If they don’t like smoky pubs,” smokers often argue,
“why don’t they go and work in a juice bar instead?”
Such arguments are arrogant and disingenuous. Most people do these
jobs out of financial necessity and are hardly able to go out and
pick their ideal job. However, it seems that smokers would rather
put these peoples’ health at risk than get off their arse and
go smoke in the street.
For several years I lived in California, where smoking in public places
was banned in 1997. Despite all the dire warnings from smokers’
rights groups (most of which are funded by big tobacco companies)
the ban did not lead to the death of the vibrant bar culture in San
Francisco and LA. Smokers have not become an oppressed minority, abandoned
by their social circle. They just pop outside when they want a smoke.
It’s that simple.
The predicted financial catastrophe also failed to materialise. Studies
have shown either neutral, or slightly positive effects on bar and
restaurant revenue since the ban came into effect. In fact, many smokers
were shocked to discover how much they enjoyed the results of the
ban. It became an unexpected pleasure to go home after a night on
the town and find that your clothes and hair didn’t reek like
an ashtray.
When Ireland introduces its smoking ban later this month, I predict
life will go on as normal. Those who choose to smoke will continue
to do so; they will just have to put on a jacket and do it in the
street. Those who choose not to damage their health by smoking will
actually be able to do so for the first time. And maybe those who
are trying to give up will find it that little bit easier to resist
temptation. Everyone will probably wonder why the hell they didn’t
think of this before.
