Survey queries no smoking areas
Anti-smoking lobbyists have renewed calls for a total workplace ban in the wake of a study from Australia.
The researchers from Down Under say their analysis of air quality in no-smoking areas in pubs and restaurants in Sydney found a significant amount of second hand smoke.
Crucially, the research found that no-smoking areas alone led to around a 50 per cent reduction in secondhand smoke, reinforcing the UK Charter Group's argument that smoke-free areas needed to be supported by effective ventilation. The report's authors said that "provision of designated no-smoking areas provides at best partial protection" from smoke. The study has been published in the journal Tobacco Control.
Predictably, the findings prompted renewed demands for a workplace ban. Deborah Arnott, director of lobbying group ASH said: "This important new research confirms that 'no-smoking' areas in the hospitality trade just don't work.
"They don't properly protect the public, because smoke drifts. And they don't protect employees at all, because they still have to work in areas where smoking is allowed."
Oliver Griffiths, spokesman for the Atmosphere Improves Results (AIR) campaign suggested that a 50 per reduction was far from trivial. AIR research shows that ventilation and extraction can significantly improve this figure.
He said: "It is absurd to suggest that non-smoking areas cannot work just on the basis that smoke drifts in the handful of venues that they tested, which may or may not have been ventilated.
Mr Griffth added: "If you are putting in a non-smoking area you need the ventilation to go with it - otherwise smoke will drift and customers will not get the clean environment that they want."
