Smoking ban- the Irish Light

In Ireland, 10 Years of Fresh Air - NYTimes.com: "On the morning of March 29, 2004, global television crews gathered outside a Dublin restaurant stocked with celebrating lawmakers to witness what few thought possible in this welcoming land of brilliant but noxious pubs.

“We called it Ireland’s first smoke-free breakfast,” said Dr. Fenton Howell, Ireland’s national tobacco-control adviser. “It was the first day of our ban on workplace smoking — the first of its kind in the world — and there were some doubts that our cherished pubs would obey the law.”

But obey they did. Within a month, according to health-ministry studies, there was 97 percent compliance in all workplaces, including Ireland’s then-7,800 “public houses.” Polls even showed an 80 percent approval of the ban among Irish smokers.

The ban “absolutely” increased tourism, said the Irish minister of tourism, Michael Ring, a devout smoker 25 years ago. “But as an Irish person, I thought this ban would never happen. It was just part of our culture — a drink and a smoke.”

Ten years later, amid anniversary celebrations by Ireland’s health community, the ban appears to have unquestionably improved lives. It has also motivated dozens of countries to copy Ireland’s legislation and forever altered an Irish institution that some thought impervious to change."



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