Smoke ban boosts music quality

It will be music to the ears of the anti-smoking lobby as doctors have claimed that the Irish smoking ban is improving the quality of music in pubs.

The ban has helped musicians clean up their traditional instruments such as the accordion, concertina, melodeon, and Uilleann, and Irish bagpipes and means they can produce clearer sounds, a report from doctors at Dublin's St Vincent's Hospital reveals.

People involved in the cleaning, repair, maintenance and renovation care of accordions were surveyed for the report.

Writing in the British Medical Journal, John Garvey and colleagues said they wanted to check the impact of the smoking ban on the quality of traditional Irish music played in the smoke-free pubs.

They managed to contact six of the seven Irish experts who work with the instruments.

All said there was a strong smell of cigarette smoke from accordions played in a smoke-filled environment when they are opened.

Soot-like dirt was deposited throughout the instrument.

The report said: "One repairer commented that the deposition of dirt could be substantial enough to affect the pitch of the reed.

"Two others claimed that if a musician tended to play in a particular key, that this could be determined from the distribution of dirt around particular reeds."

All the repairers were categorical that these signs had definitely improved in accordions they had worked on since the introduction of the smoking ban in Ireland.

The doctors concluded the smoking ban has been "music to the ears of the people of Ireland."