Complete smoking ban to be introduced in all workplaces

The government has announced that the smoking of tobacco products in all workplaces in Ireland is to be banned from the beginning of 2004. The move follows the publication in January 2003 of a new report on the health problems caused by passive smoking.

Following the publication of a report on the health effects of passive smoking in the workplace, the Minister for Health and Children, Michael Martin, has announced that the government is to ban the smoking of tobacco products in the workplace from 1 January 2004. The Minister made his announcement on 30 January 2002 at the launch of a report on the health effects of 'environmental tobacco smoke' (ETS) in the workplace, commissioned by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) and the Office of Tobacco Control (OTC).

Under the new rules, the onus will be on the employer to prevent smoking and there has already been some unease expressed by employers that they may have to 'police' the new law. Some employers have suggested that smokers themselves should be made responsible for their own actions, due to the fact that ensuring compliance will be difficult for employers.

Apart from the finding that ETS is carcinogenic, one of the main conclusions of the report is that the current range of available air-conditioning ventilation systems are ineffective in removing the risk of ETS to health, leaving workers inadequately protected. The report’s conclusion that ETS can cause lung cancer is based on an International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) study, which provided evidence of a 'dose response relationship' between exposure to ETS and the risk of lung cancer.

The report, which has been welcomed by the Union of Retail, Bar and Administrative Work (MANDATE) and theServices Industrial Professional and Technical Union (SIPTU), makes it clear that bar staff and other hospitality industry workers are likely to have higher and more sustained exposure to ETS than other occupational groups. A number of studies are cited to show that waiters, bartenders, counter-workers, and food-service workers have an increased risk of lung cancer. The studies put the rate of increase at up to 50%.

Minister Martin concluded that, as ventilation control systems were inadequate, 'banning smoking in the workplace' was the only option open to him. For that reason, he decided to 'publish draft regulations', which will come into effect on 1 January 2004, after the European Commission has been notified. The delay in bringing the regulations into force will also allow time for consultation on the draft regulations, which state that smoking will be prohibited in:

• a place of work as defined in the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 1989, which basically means any place where work is carried on;

• aircraft, trains, ships, other vessels and public service vehicles, in so far as they are places of work; and

• licensed premises (pubs) and registered clubs, in so far as they are places of work. Dwellings which are places of work will be excluded from the scope of the regulations.