Ireland should declare complete ban on smoking, says heart specialist

IRELAND should declare an outright ban on smoking, according to one of the country’s leading heart surgeons.

Only by making it illegal can smoking-related diseases be radically reduced, Tom Aherne, cardiac thoracic surgeon at Cork University Hospital said yesterday.

“I support the Minister for Health’s drive to limit smoking in the workplace but I believe Ireland could take a lead by banning smoking altogether,” said Mr Aherne.

He added the Government should say achieving a total ban is its long-term policy.

“Seven thousand people die every year in this country because of smoking

related illnesses. There are a further 100,000 people who endure bad health because of smoking. Apart from lung cancer, smoking causes cardiac diseases, strokes and vascular problems.

“Smokers are 30 times more likely to develop cancer than non-smokers. No other single activity has such devastating health consequences,” said Mr Aherne.

While acknowledging it would be difficult to achieve this in the short term, Mr Aherne said he believed it could be possible to enforce a total ban within a generation.

In the meantime, the sale of tobacco should be confined to specialist shops. “It should be more difficult to get cigarettes,” he said.

He added: “It would probably be considered laughable to do it right now but people’s attitudes have changed and I think that in years to come most people would come to accept it.

“There was a time not so long ago when smokers felt it their right to light up anywhere they liked, even when visiting patients in hospital. Now that would be unthinkable,” he said.

Mr Aherne said it was essential to educate young people on the dangers of smoking and health issues should be made part of the school curriculum.

“Smoking is our biggest public health issue and it is sad to see young people taking up smoking. They need to be educated about its adverse effects.

“Not only does it lead to lung cancer and other life threatening illnesses but it auses severe skin damage.

“The notion of a pregnant woman smoking is unthinkable. The damage to the foetus is considerable.”

Mr Aherne is part of a team which earlier this year presented the results of research into the affects of a new heart disease drug to the European Association of Cardio-thoracic Surgery.

Last year research into cancer cells won the team a gold medal, a rare honour for Ireland. Those findings will be presented to the Cancer Research Forum in New York in January.

The latest research project was carried by a team from the departments of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine at the hospital.

Their pioneering research shows the drug Dopexamine helps to increase blood flow in partially blocked arteries.