Mixed media: The state and the smoker

SOCIAL ENGINEERING

Irish dissent - Six months into Europe's first ban on smoking in the workplace, the Daily Telegraph has found that as trade in rural pubs plunges many are flouting the laws.

Pubs are allowing customers to smoke in rooms and restaurants after food has been cleared. Despite the threat of a $3629 fine and possible loss of their licences, landlords, some of whom have suffered a 50 per cent drop in sales, quietly allow customers to smoke. With only 40 "smoke police" from the Office of Tobacco Control, Ireland's 15,000 publicans are taking the risk in the hope that their distance from Dublin gives them a good chance of escaping prosecution.

* The Daily Telegraph

British blogger - I do not like cigarette smoke in pubs, bars and restaurants although I am partial to a good cigar. But I do like the right of owners to let customers do in them what they wish on their premises. And it seems that even a Government survey cannot produce better than 20 per cent support for a total ban.

Surveys nothwithstanding, the ban in Ireland caused a 15 per cent drop in trade. A similar loss of business in Britain would lead to the closure of 5000 pubs. And that's got to be a bad thing.

* Gabriel Syme on SamizData

Fighting talk - The Australian Hotels Association has vowed to fight the bans. The AHA's Victorian chief executive Brian Kearney says the bans are too restrictive and will have a financial impact. He has urged the Victorian Government to negotiate a sensible compromise and encourage community education programmes.

Shadow health spokesman David Davis says while he supports moves to restrict smoking, the Government has ignored the views of operators. "The Premier appears to have drawn this out of a hat in some arrangement with the New South Wales Premier and has done this without the proper consultation," he said.

* ABC news

Trade journal - Now it's not a matter of health, it's a matter of moral options. We will next see them standing outside pubs banging their tambourines and preaching abstinence.

All that has been proved is that this is a purely social engineering operation dressed up to look like something else. All this displays is the arrogant contempt in which this dishonest, devious Government holds the people of this country.

* Ken Nason in the Publican, UK

HEALTH CONCERNS

Scots paper: Dr Alan Mordue, leader of a women's health programme, said: "I believe a ban on smoking in public places would be hugely helpful. In one area of America, there was a 40 per cent reduction in the number of heart attack patients admitted to hospital after a smoking ban was introduced, but the numbers went back up to pre-ban levels when the legislation was repealed six months later."

* The Scotsman

German Resistance - A Europe-wide study of anti-smoking policies this week will criticise Germany's weak efforts to curb the habit. The European Network for Smoking Prevention will release a report ranking the European Union's 25 member states on a range of anti-smoking measures. The report heavily criticises Germany. EU Commission attempts to outlaw smoking in bars and restaurants, or introducing smoke-free workplaces, have met with rigid resistance in Germany. German cities are splitting at the seams with bars and restaurants and at best only one in two of them have a designated smoking section.

* Deutsche Welle

South Australian view - The South Australia State Government will drop plans to introduce strict controls on cigarette displays in stores. Instead, Health Minister Lea Stevens announced the Government would push for a national approach.

Opposition health spokesman Dean Brown said South Australia now had the worst approach to stopping smoking in public areas of any state in Australia. "The proposed controls over the sale of cigarettes in retail outlets has been abandoned," he said. "To make matters worse, South Australia now becomes the last state to stop smoking in pubs and clubs."

*Australian News

Ohio newspaper - Enforcing Toledo's smoking ban in bars and restaurants has been tough, but city officials say if voters approve an amendment to the ban on the November 2 ballot, their job will get much harder. The amended law will add a variety of exemptions for bars and restaurants that want to allow smoking. Primarily, two of the amendment's main stipulations would allow smoking in most bars in the city - those that receive less than 35 per cent of their revenue from food - as well as allow smoking in restaurants that have nine or fewer employees.

* The Toledo Blade