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ASH Daily News

20 November 2003


HEADLINES

Ireland: Religious sector escapes smoking ban
US study debunks tobacco industry myth: smoke-free laws have no effect
on charitable bingo profits

FULL TEXT


Ireland: Religious sector escapes smoking ban

The Government's smoking ban will not apply to many convents or
religious institutions under the Minister for Health's final list of
exemptions. The list of sectors which will not have to comply with the
ban was sent to the European Commission last week and includes premises
where "a majority of the persons maintained are members of a religious
order, or priests or clergy of any religion".

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said this line had been
inserted in the regulations to ensure nursing homes of all types will be
covered by the legislation. The ban will outlaw smoking in the
workplace. However, the Minister has announced a range of exemptions
including hotel and guesthouse bedrooms, psychiatric hospitals, student
residences, hostels for homeless, nursing homes, hospices, prisons,
outdoor places and the Central Mental Hospital.

The Irish Hospitality Industry Alliance, which is lobbying for a
compromise to the ban, yesterday called for similar exemptions for pubs
and restaurants. "These exemptions raise the question of why there can't
be a realistic compromise for the hospitality sector, when we have a ban
which was not meant to have any exemptions in the first place," an IHIA
spokesman said.

It has also emerged that just 40 environmental health officers will be
available to help implement the smoking ban. Department of Health
sources have confirmed that it is seeking to extend the role of officers
attached to health boards to help with the implementation of the ban.
Negotiations are continuing although no specific provision was contained
in last week's Estimates for extra resources.

A Department spokeswoman defended the number of environmental health
officers appointed to police the ban and pointed out that similar bans
in Boston and New York are enforced by a smaller amount of staff. The
ban is due to be implemented at the end of February, once a three-month
period allowing EU member states to raise objections to the plan
expires. However, attempts to secure the enforcement of the ban have run
into legal difficulties which threaten to delay full enforcement.

Department of Health officials want tobacco smoke to be officially
labelled as a carcinogen, which would allow health and safety officials
to also enforce the ban. However, the Department has received legal
advice that relevant legislation - the Health and Safety Act (1989) -
would not allow for the banning of tobacco smoke in the workplace. A
review of the Health and Safety Act is currently underway which will
include provision for the banning of tobacco smoke.

While the heads of this new bill have been issued, they will have to be
amended and it is unclear how long it will take to pass through the
Oireachtas. Department of Health officials, however, hope that HSA
officials will be able to conduct their work under the Department's
separate legislation. This is still being examined by legal experts.

http://home.eircom.net/[...]78134?view=Eircomnet 18/11/03


US study debunks tobacco industry myth: smoke-free laws have no effect
on charitable bingo profits

A new economic analysis of bingo profits from all charitable
gaming demonstrates that, contrary to claims by the tobacco
industry and its political allies and fronts, smoke-free laws had
no effect on these profits.

The new study - the first objective study of the effect of
smoke-free policies on profits from gaming - collected information
on profits from state licensed bingo and other charitable gaming
from the 220 towns and cities in Massachusetts that permitted
such games from 1985 through 2001 from the Massachusetts State
Lottery Commission, the state agency that supervises these
games. Researchers Stanton Glantz and Rebecca Wilson-Loots from
the University of California San Francisco analyzed these data
to see if enactment of smokefree laws had any effect on the
profit trends that had been established before the laws went
into effect.

The analysis showed that, while bingo profits were falling over
the entire period studied, this trend was well-established
before smokefree laws started passing (in the early 1990s) and
was unaffected by these laws . . . .

The new study was presented at the American Public Health
Association 131st Annual Meeting.

Source: Americans for Non-Smokers Rights
18 Nov 03
URL: http://www.no-smoke.org/AJPH_PRESS_RELEASE.doc






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Amanda Sandford
Research Manager
ASH
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