EU ventilation study backs up Martin
But publicans’ representatives described the findings as a joke and said the information was outdated and obsolete.
Backing up the Minister for Health Micheál Martin’s forthcoming blanket smoking ban in the workplace, the EU research centre found that environmental tobacco smoke is a major contributor to indoor air pollution.
EU Joint Research Centre director general Barry McSweeney stood over the findings of the research and said the study was continuing.
In the study, tests were done to investigate the impact of various ventilation rates indoors on the effect of tobacco products burning.
Environmental tobacco smoke comes mainly from side-stream cigarette smoke emitted between puffs.
“Preliminary evidence indicates that changes in ventilation rates during smoking do not have a significant influence on the air concentration of tobacco components.
“This means, in effect, that efforts to reduce indoor air pollution through higher ventilation rates in buildings and homes would hardly lead to a measurable improvement of indoor air quality,” the report says.
Dismissing the study’s findings, the Vintner’s Federation of Ireland said the research makes the same mistake as the Expert Report which the minister used to introduce this proposed smoking ban.
The research is totally discredited and refers to ventilation equipment which changes air once every five hours or at a maximum of once every hour, the VFI said.
According to VFI chief executive Tadg O’Sullivan, no pub has had equipment that changes air once an hour in the last 20 years.
“This research makes the same mistake as the so called Expert Report which the minister relied on to introduce this proposed smoking ban. It is totally discredited,” he said.
The Chartered Institute of Building Service Engineers has set down recommendations of a minimum of 10-15 air changes per hour and they point out that it is quite possible to filter the air, Mr O’Sullivan said.
