The goverment's recent White Paper on Public Health plans to make most enclosed public areas, including offices and factories, smoke-free zones. The Department of Health received an unprecedented one thousand submissions from individuals regarding the paper. It will only be private members' clubs (where votes will decide) and pubs (which do not serve prepared food) that will not have to adhere to the new laws. This means up to 90% of bars will become smoke-free within the next few years. The restrictions will come into force in NHS and goverment buildings by 2006, with public places following suit in 2007, and licensed premises the year after that.
Whether the government will eventually be willing to follow their Irish counterparts by enforcing an outright nationwide ban on smoking in all pubs, restaurants and workplaces, as the British Medical Association would like, remains to be seen. As the law currently stands in Ireland, pub and restaurant owners face fines of up to £2,000 if punters are caught puffing on the premises.
It seems that due to the pragmatic nature of the Irish, the ban has been declared a success, even leading to a fall in the sale of cigarettes.
But can it work here?
JD Wetherspoon has announced plans to ban smoking in all of its 650 pubs by May 2006; two years before government laws come into action. The company, which pioneered no-smoking areas, has said that 60 of its pubs will become smoke-free zones in May of this year, amid worries that smoky pubs are deterring customers.
Smoking in public places isn't just a concern for us Brits. Bans have been introduced in a wide range of different countries across the world, from Australia to Tanzania.
In Oz, sparking up a fag after surfing on Manly Beach, one of the most picturesque stretches of coastline down under, will result in a hefty fine.
Sound harsh? Then try lighting up in the remote Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, where they have introduced a total ban on tobacco sales. The penalties imposed on hotels, bars and restaurants is the loss of their business licenses and heavy fines. Could Bhutan become the world's first smoke-free nation?
In Cuba, the home of the cigar, their chuffing dictator Fidel Castro can't even blaze-up in a restaurant in his own capital without having to cough up some pesos for the fine he'd be subsequently slapped with. You're Havana laugh, (apologies).
So smokers are being marginalised the world over: some say demonised. Pro-smoking campaigners have suggested that businesses should be allowed to choose their own policy to suit customers and staff, for what is a perfectly legal habit that brings in millions of pounds to the treasury each year. Are smokers being treated like snoutcasts? Fag lepers? Should they ring bells to warn of their coming? Well, maybe not quite yet.
It seems things aren't as cut and dried as they first appear with regards to people's tolerance of smoking bans. Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine recently reported that a pub landlord had lifted a smoking ban at The Junction Inn in Groombridge, Kent after sales plummeted by 'thousands of pints' during the 6 months of fume-free fun. Although food sales improved during the ban, they met only half of the loss in beer sales, which, over a 3-month period was equivalent to 100 barrels. The landlord said that said that the village regulars had felt alienated by the ban and had voted with their feet, but were now coming back and pushing sales up drastically.
So it can be difficult to gauge public opinion on this divisive issue. Ultimately, there is no way that non-smokers should be forced to breathe in other people's smoke against their wishes. No-smoking areas are not satisfactory - smoke is a feral beast, seemingly oblivious or ignorant to No Smoking signs, rendering them almost pointless.
Smoking is without doubt a killer. However, on the flip-side, the pro-smoking lobby isn't just made up of hardliners who think that Nicorette patches are for people who are too scared to smoke proper tabs. A great proportion of them would love to kick the habit, but you know, smokes just go so well with beer.
So we need a climate of tolerance and choice do we not? If you don't want to breathe in smoke, you shouldn't have to. If you do, then you should be able to.
Why not smoking pubs and non-smoking pubs? Then we can make our own choice of where we work, eat or drink. Not all non-smokers object to the evil vapour. Not all smokers insist on sucking the twisted mist constantly. In a democracy, where minorities are supposed to be represented, we should all have the choice...
Er, anyone got a light?
