Justification for ban vanishes in a puff of smoke
The report was based on a survey carried out during December 2002 to February 2003 (before the smoking ban) by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) as part of the quarterly national household survey.
Respondents were asked whether they had suffered an illness that the respondent believed was caused or made worse by their work in the past 12 months.
Guess what? No one was affected by environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). In fact, injury and illness in the workplace had been falling since 1999, again, before the smoking ban.
This startling fact must be digested in the light of ex-Health Minister Micheál Martin's contention that workers in the hospitality industry are dropping off like flies due to smokers.
Indeed, given the hysteria around cigarettes and cancer, it might surprise smokers to know that only one workplace death was attributed to cancer but that was caused by past exposure to asbestos and not ETS, according to the National Cancer Registry.
Not one person in this country, or any other country for that matter, has died of ETS. No doctor has put ETS on a death certificate as the cause.
As above, workers are not reporting illness due to ETS. Now the Office of Tobacco Control who are running a series of ads on smoking, are concentrating on the hated smell of cigarettes, not on health issues.
Having falsely convinced the general public, stirred up fear and confusion, and created an unnecessary health scare around ETS, the Government rushed through a smoking ban to
victimise over a million smokers.
One could be forgiven for believing that, were the same energy and single-mindedness applied to restructuring the Health Service, then beds in corridors would become only a horrific memory.
So, as a million smokers stand in the rain and cold outside their workplaces, pubs and restaurants this winter, they will have plenty of time to ponder the intolerance that would not permit a reasonable compromise which respects the rights of both non-smokers and smokers.
John Mallon
Shamrock Grove
Mayfield
Cork
