Ireland Takes Butt-Out Lead

Date: March 30, 2004

Ireland became the first country in the world to ban smoking in restaurants and bars yesterday, in a move angering some publicans but hailed by a senior medic as “the health initiative of the century”.

It is now illegal to smoke in virtually all Irish workplaces and closed public spaces – including the country’s famous pubs. Those who light up face fines of up to 3,000 euros ($4, 775).

Ireland is the first country to impose a nationwide ban.

“It’s a clear public health instrument we can use to reduce the levels of heart disease and cancer in our country,” said Health Minister Michael Martin. “ That’s why we’re doing it in Ireland.”

Faced with the highest rate of heart disease in Europe, the Irish have launched an all-out attack on tobacco.

Anti-smoking lobby group ASH says tobacco kills six times as many people in Ireland as road accidents, work accidents, drugs, murder, suicide and AIDS combined.

But not everyone is so willing to adapt to the new law. Some publicans have complained that they will have to police the ban, trying to persuade belligerent smokers, many of them emboldened by alcohol, to stub out their cigarettes.

Some 7,000 people die from smoking-related diseases in Ireland each year out of a population of less than four million. A quarter of all adults in the country are regular smokers.

The impact of the smoking crackdown will be closely watched across Europe.

Norway is set to impose a similar ban in June.