Martin to study smoking ban on New York visit

HEALTH MINISTER Micheál Martin will get first-hand experience of the operation of the smoking ban in New York next week.

Mr Martin heads on a week-long trip to the US, focusing predominantly on the health effects of smoking, ahead of the introduction of the blanket workplace smoking ban in January.

Lobby groups against the introduction of the ban in this country have used the opposition arising from the ban in New York as an example of what could happen in this country next year.

Conflicting reports about the economic impact of the ban in the city have emerged in recent months and are being used to back up arguments on both sides of the campaign.

During his visit the minister will also meet with US counterpart, Secretary of State for Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson.

Starting out in New York on Monday, Mr Martin will sign the UN framework convention on tobacco control at the UN headquarters.

He is also expected to meet with officials from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office and medical officials from the New York City Health Department, to discuss the operation of the ban.

It is also expected he will take the opportunity to visit a number of hotels and bars in the city to see how the smoking ban is being implemented.

Moving on to Washington, Mr Martin will meet with Secretary of State Thompson, an Irish-American, and Senator Jack Reed, a Democrat member of the US Senate Health Committee.

Mr Martin will also meet the director of the National Institute of Health and tour the National Cancer Institute. The National Cancer Institute is a world leader in research in the field and also has a number of links to medical institutions in this country.

According to the minister’s spokesperson, the trip was due to go ahead irrespective of the introduction of the smoking ban. Mr Thompson visited Ireland last year to address a conference and Mr Martin was set to make a return visit, the spokesperson said.

Also yesterday, to coincide with the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting in Sligo, the pro-health group represented by the Irish Cancer Society, the Irish Heart Foundation and ASH, announced that a wide-range of health, social, trade and political organisations and trade unions representing well over 350,000 Irish people had indicated their formal support for the ban.

According to the group, there should be no compromise on health.

“Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) is a Group A Carcinogen as documented by the World Health Organisation. It increases the risk of lung cancer in co-workers by 20-30% and is linked to other cancers such as leukaemia and cancer of the bladder, liver and brain.

“It also increases the risk of heart disease in co-workers by 25-30%. Essentially, passive smoking kills. All employees have a right not to have to inhale other people’s smoke and be safe in their workplaces,” a spokesperson said.