Smoking ban suffers setback

THE smoking ban suffered a setback last night after doubts emerged over a controversial change in the law, which will aid the ban’s enforcement, to list passive smoke as a cancer-causing substance.

While Government officials insisted that the workplace smoking ban is definitely going ahead on January 26, there may be a hold-up on the parallel move to designate environmental tobacco smoke as a carcinogen.

Combined with Health Minister Micheál Martin’s smoking ban, the carcinogen regulations have been described as a double-whammy, as it will make the ban easier to enforce by putting passive smoke in the same category as asbestos.