Back the smoking ban, say respiratory physicians

MUCH of the debate on the proposed ban on smoking in the workplace has focused on either the economic impact of days lost at work due to episodic illness or the incidence of lung cancer due to environmental tobacco smoke and smoking.

However, the single biggest cause of death from tobacco smoke is a disease called Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).

Over 2.9 million adults die from COPD each year and it ranks as the fifth cause of mortality worldwide.

COPD very simply limits the ability of the lungs to exhale air, causes shortness of breath, wheezing and increased secretions in the lungs.

While prevalence of COPD seems to have peaked in men, it continues to rise in women.

An ageing population and a significant number of smokers mean that the burden on our health services from COPD will increase in the next ten years.

While new effective treatments are becoming available, the single greatest contribution to reducing mortality from this major disease is to reduce the number of smokers.

To coincide with World COPD Awareness Day today, we the undersigned, representing Ireland’s respiratory physicians, would urge all politicians, employers (including publicans) and the general public to support the move being made by the Minister for Health and Children, Micheál Martin, to ban smoking in the workplace.

If it reduces the number of people who smoke and the health impact of environmental tobacco smoke, as we believe it will, it will save many Irish people from a disease that has a debilitating impact on, and ultimately shortens, their lives.

Dr Neil Brennan, Consultant in Pulmonary Medicine, Mercy Hospital, Cork. Dr Seamas Donnelly, Consultant in General & Respiratory Medicine, St Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin. Dr Sean Gaine, Consultant in Respiratory Medicine, Mater Misericordiae Hospital, Dublin. Dr Charles Gallagher, Consultant in Respiratory Medicine, St Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin.Dr James Hayes, President, Irish Thoracic Society and Consultant in Respiratory Medicine, Cavan & Monaghan Hospitals. Dr Joe Keane, Consultant in Respiratory Medicine, St James’s Hospital, Dublin. Dr John Kiely, Consultant in Respiratory & General Internal Medicine, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda.Dr Stephen Lane, Consultant in Respiratory Medicine and Allergy, Tallaght Hospital, Dublin.Dr Patrick Manning, Consultant Respiratory Physician, Bon Secours Hospital, Dublin.Dr Timothy McDonnell, Consultant Respiratory Physician, St Michael’s & St Vincent’s Hospitals, Dublin.Dr Eithne Mulloy, Consultant in General and Respiratory Medicine, St John’s Hospital, Limerick.Dr Maire Nolan, Consultant Respiratory Physician, Bon Secours Hospital, Cork. Dr Finbarr O’Connell, Consultant in Respiratory Medicine, St James Hospital, Dublin. Prof Shane O’Neill, Consultant in Respiratory Medicine, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin.

On behalf of the Irish Thoracic Society, a grouping of respiratory physicians and thoracic surgeons in the whole island of Ireland.