Scots smoking ban helps bar workers' health

The Scottish smoking ban has brought health benefits for smoking and non-smoking barstaff, according to research published today.

The study, funded by NHS Health Scotland and the Scottish government, tracked more than 190 bar workers from more than 70 bars over the first year of the ban.

It found that workers reporting problems, such as wheezing, shortness of breath, cough and phlegm, fell from 69 per cent to 57 per cent. The number experiencing problems such as irritated eyes and sore throat, also dropped from 75 per cent to 64 per cent.

In smokers alone the percentage reporting wheezing fell from 48 before the ban to 31 a year after the ban, introduced in Scotland in March 2006.

Professor Jon Ayres, of the Institute of Occupational & Environmental Medicine, at the University of Birmingham, said: "These findings for the Scottish smoking ban show a similar result to the bans in the US and Ireland.

"But, significantly, for the first time, we have found that smokers also reported important improvements in their health."

The Bar Workers' Health and Environment Tobacco Smoke Exposure study also showed that in non-smokers the biggest reduction in symptoms were in the proportion of staff reporting phlegm production, which fell from 32 per cent to 14 per cent.

Sally Haw, senior scientific adviser at Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research & Policy, said: "The main aim of the Scottish smoking ban was to protect the health of non-smokers and findings from the national evaluation not only have demonstrated this but have exceeded our greatest expectations.

"These new findings about the impact of the legislation on smokers add to the growing list of positive outcomes associated with the introduction of the Scottish smoking ban."