'Tobacco-free' plan for Republic of Ireland

[klr]

... well, not quite, but that's what the headline says.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24386229

'Tobacco-free' plan for Republic of Ireland

The Irish health minister has published a plan to make the state "tobacco-free" by 2025.

Dr James Reilly has defined a "tobacco-free Ireland" as a state where less than 5% of the population smoke.

According to the latest figures, 22% of people aged 15 and over regularly smoke cigarettes in the Republic of Ireland.

The plan makes 60 recommendations to significantly reduce smoking over the next 12 years. Tobacco would still be available, but at an increased cost.

The recommendations also include the introduction of a ban on smoking in cars where children are present and new on-the-spot fines for breaches of smoking laws.

'De-normalisation'

The plan calls for greater restrictions on the types of outlets from which tobacco products can be sold, advocating a ban on all self-service cigarette vending machines and greater regulation of tobacco retailers.

It also sets out several recommendations for what it called the "de-normalisation" of tobacco use in Irish society.

The health minister said: "Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in Ireland.

"Each year at least 5,200 people die from diseases caused by tobacco use. This represents almost one in five of all deaths," Dr Reilly added.

The tobacco-free plan has been published almost a decade on from the Irish smoking ban.

In March 2004, the Republic of Ireland became the first state to introduce a total ban on smoking in the workplace, controversially including pubs and clubs in the legislation.

The ban has been largely hailed as a success, with a 97% compliance rate.

'Morally wrong'

Earlier this year, a study of the effects of the ban estimated that up to 3,726 smoking-related deaths were prevented since 2004.

Reacting to the latest initiative to eradicate tobacco use, a spokesman for smokers' group Forest Éireann told Irish broadcaster RTÉ it was "morally wrong to de-normalise smoking"

He said that would result in "stigmatising consumers of a legal product enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of adults throughout the country".

"Smokers contribute a huge amount of money to the government through tobacco taxation," he added.

"De-normalising tobacco will drive more and more people to the black market and the fringes of society."

The Tobacco Free Ireland report was compiled by the Tobacco Policy Review Group.

The group consists of 12 staff from the Irish Department of Health, the Irish Health Service Executive (HSE)and the National Tobacco Control Office.

[Coito ergo sum]

As HL Mencken said, "the urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule it."

[mistermack]

What they don't tell you, is that Ireland will be pub-free and tourist-free, at about the same date.
It's right on schedule.

[klr]

Smoking in Irish pubs (and many other places) has been banned for nearly 10 years now. I still see plenty of tourists.

As for the pubs: Their decline is mostly down to absurdly high prices (especially compared to supermarket prices), and changing social norms. The latter is in turn partly down to an influx of foreigners who are much more used to drinking at home.

[samphony]

The smoking ban ruined Irish pubs. I was a smoker and I quickly got fed up freezing my balls off every 10 minutes for a smoke. It was much nicer to sit at home. Also, the real smell of an Irish pub when the smoke was removed was shocking. Guinness farts, mothballs and farmer BO.

[klr]

The smoking ban ruined Irish pubs. I was a smoker and I quickly got fed up freezing my balls off every 10 minutes for a smoke. It was much nicer to sit at home. Also, the real smell of an Irish pub when the smoke was removed was shocking. Guinness farts, mothballs and farmer BO.

There are a great many more Irish drinkers than there are smokers.

Of course, I don't partake in either, so I'll just take the high moral ground.

[Svartalf]

Bah, humbug. No lower moral ground in enjoying a pint of Guinness.

[Seth]

The smoking ban ruined Irish pubs. I was a smoker and I quickly got fed up freezing my balls off every 10 minutes for a smoke. It was much nicer to sit at home. Also, the real smell of an Irish pub when the smoke was removed was shocking. Guinness farts, mothballs and farmer BO.

I went on a pub-crawl in Dublin for the music back in the late 80s when a friend of mine won a free trip to Ireland by singing "Danny Boy" over the telephone during a radio station St. Patrick's day contest. He was about to lose the prize so he planned the trip, and his girlfriend dumped him right before he was supposed to leave, so he invited me.

I remember going to one pub in particular (can't remember the name right now) where the smoke was so thick that I literally could not see from one end of the bar to the other. I ended up sitting next to a crack in a door to the back of the pub where clean air was blowing in, with my nose about two inches away from the crack so I could breathe. But I did so and didn't bitch about the smokers, after all it's their pub not mine.

The reason I think public no smoking rules are okay is not because it harms the smoker, but because smoking creates exported harm to others nearby through air pollution, so on public property one should be obliged to control one's emissions so as not to harm others. However, on private property, it should always be entirely up to the owner to allow or disallow smoking.

[Coito ergo sum]

It's interesting. Up until about 1994 or 1995, every "bar" or "pub" allowed smoking, or nearly every. The idea of legislating them smokeless was very controversial and met with lots of resistance. However, now, nearly 20 years later, going into bars or restaurants that allow smoking would feel bizarre. When I was in my early 20s, one would go to a bar, belly-up to it, plop the pack of smokes down and order a drink. Then half the bar would be smoking simultaneously and nobody was bothered much. However, now, if I'm in a room of a few smokers for just a few minutes, I can smell the smoke on my clothes, I feel like I have to clean the car after I get home because the smoke smell from my clothes gets on the seats, and I have to toss the clothes I'm wearing right in the wash because they stink.

America prior to 1995 was, apparently, steeped in smoke. Everyone smoked in offices, restaurants and bars, and in the 1980s, even on airplanes. Nowhere was smoke free. I bet if we went back in time to the 1970s, the place would reek of smoke as much as London of the 19th century reeked of sewage.

[Faithfree]

What are people going to die of they take away smoking?

[klr]

I did my time on smoke-filled Irish pubs, even as a young child. Irish kids weren't always left outside the door with a packet of crisps and a bottle of Coke. You couldn't get the smell of smoke out of your clothes or your hair afterwards.

What are people going to die of they take away smoking?

Wine, women and song.

[MrJonno]

It's where smoking is heading, its not going to be banned but its going to regulated to the level of lighting a fag will be the social equivalent of shooting up heroin

[Coito ergo sum]

My high school had a "senior smoking lounge" area until 1981. LOL.

[klr]

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/u ... -1.1549128

UCD students vote for smoke-free campus

Result means union will support proposal made by university health committee

Cigarette breaks by the Belfield lake are one step closer to ending at University College Dublin where students have voted in favour of a smoke-free campus.

The vote result means that the UCD Students’ Union (UCDSU) will support a proposal by the university’s health promotion committee to make the campus smoke free.

The result means that UCD’s health committee will now begin consulting with both academic and administrative staff representatives on the proposal, a university spokesman said.

However the result does not necessarily mean that the 320-acre south Dublin campus will become smoke-free .

UCDSU president Mícheál Gallagher said when the proposal was put to the university’s health promotion committee in March last they felt it “would be necessary to have a referendum on this issue to gauge the levels of support for the issue”. Mr Gallagher is a member of the health committee.

“The result today shows students’ engagement with the democratic process. They have endorsed the proposal for a smoke free campus. UCD students have a proud tradition of being on the cutting edge of health promotion initiatives,” Mr Gallagher said .

Students taking part in the referendum voted 55 per cent in favour of a smoke-free campus. Over 2,500 votes were cast in the poll held by UCD Students’ Union out of some 30,000 students.

The voting took place on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week on the following proposal: “This union supports the smoke free campus initiative, as proposed by the UCD Health Promotion Committee.”

Anti-smoking lobby group Ash Ireland has been campaiging to encourage third-level institutions to ban smoking on college campuses across the State. Such on-campus tobacco bans have been introduced at many universities in the United States.

The Health Service Executive has introduced a smoke-free campus policy at many hospitals and has said all HSE campuses will become tobacco-free by 2015.

Last year independent senator John Crown failed in his bid to make Leinster House grounds the first smoke-free parliament in the world.

[klr]

Meanwhile, in wider Europe:

MEPs tighten anti-tobacco laws aimed at young smokers:

Euro MPs have voted to tighten tobacco regulations aimed at putting young people off smoking, but some measures do not go as far as originally planned.

They rejected a European Commission proposal to treat electronic cigarettes as medicinal products - a move that would have restricted sales.

They backed a ban on cigarette flavourings - but with a five-year delay in the case of menthol.

Slim cigarettes will not be banned. EU ministers must now consider the plans.

Among other measures, MEPs voted on Tuesday to put health warnings on 65% of each cigarette pack, as opposed to the proposed 75%.

Linda McAvan, the Labour MEP steering the legislation, said 65% was still "a long way towards plain packaging".

The current requirement for health warnings is for 30% minimum coverage on one side and 40% on the other.

Packs of 10 cigarettes, considered popular among younger smokers, will also be banned.

Fourteen EU states already have 20 as the minimum, four stipulate a minimum of 19, and in the UK and Italy the minimum is 10.

Smaller than normal packs of roll-your-own tobacco will still be allowed under the new rules.

It was the European Parliament's first reading of a draft tobacco directive which could become law in 2014. It would then take two more years to become law in each of the 28 EU member states.

There has been intense lobbying of MEPs by the tobacco industry and health campaigners.

The Commission says almost 700,000 Europeans die from smoking-related illnesses each year - equal to the population of Frankfurt or Palermo. The costs for healthcare in the EU are estimated to be at least 25.3bn euros (£20.6bn; $33.4bn) annually.

Mixed reactions

Conservative and Liberal MEPs welcomed the amendments made to the original proposal from Labour's Linda McAvan.

Speaking to the BBC, Ms McAvan said she was disappointed that slim cigarettes were not banned.

But cigarette packaging made to look like lipstick or perfume containers - attractive to girls - will disappear, she noted.

...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24439474