Welcome to the smokeless zone

Jul 1 2007 by Mike Chapple, Liverpool Daily Post

BUSINESSES in Merseyside and Cheshire need to learn from the examples of the Irish when it comes to making the most of the new smoking ban, introduced at 6am today, experts told the Daily Post's beer writer Mike Chapple.

When the complete ban on smoking in enclosed areas was first introduced in Ireland in early 2004, it was always, like in Liverpool, going to have the most pronounced effect on its drinkers.

A fag and a Guinness was considered to go together like fish and chips. The general question was how could a country with such a pronounced pub culture pull it off?

Just over three years on, the answer is that smokeless Irish pubs are now the norm.

Those who want to smoke are happy to put down their drink and go outside where many premises, especially in Dublin, have set up heated outdoor canvas gazebos similar to the one erected outside the Blackburne Arms, on Liverpool’s Catharine Street.

In fact, the standing joke is that the only drawback about smoke-free pubs is that other more pungent odours come to the fore.

A regular visitor to Liverpool is Irish marketing expert Cormac Austin who says the ban in Ireland has been welcomed by smokers especially when it comes to the tricky issue of meeting members of the opposite sex.

“In Dublin especially, you do get something which I think has been called smirting which is a combination of smoking and flirting,” said Mr Austin, a former smoker who gave up before the ban. “You’ll see smokers exchanging telephone numbers standing outside underneath these heated canopies that they have.

“There was a suggestion initially that the ban would lead to trouble but that hasn’t happened. I think it has actually brought smokers together in a way that wouldn’t have occurred if they had been sitting separately elsewhere inside a pub.”

Just how much of a success the ban has been was made clear by Irish health minister Sean Power who introduced the Office of Tobacco Control annual report on the third anniversary of the ban’s introduction earlier this year.

It found that last year 95% of all workplaces complied with the legislation. Only 35 prosecutions have been made, 31 of which were for licensed premises, three to taxi companies and one bus driver.

He said: “As our report shows, the smoke-free workplace legislation in now well embedded and those of us involved in tobacco control have been turning our attention to tackling the issue of children and smoking.”

This was reflected in the Irish government’s ban on sales of packs of less than 20 cigarettes last month. Those who are still unhappy about the ban are bars and pubs who claim business has fallen by up to 30% since it was introduced, leading to job losses and closures. Those especially affected have been isolated country pubs and urban bars with no outside space for smokers to go.

BUT Mr Austin said that it would be difficult to blame this all on smoking.

“It’s true that the pub trade has been falling off in the South since the ban was introduced. Landlords who may have formerly done well have been selling up to make money from their property rather than having to go to the trouble of keeping up with the trends.

“But it might be that smoking is just one of other contributory factors like the cheaper more competitive prices that can be found down at the local offie which has led to more people drinking at home.

“The bottom line, though, is the days of the pub being a main focal point for communication are gone.”

Smoking has been banned in Northern Ireland since April 30. Mr Austin said that it had been generally received with resignation and without complaint.

“I think in the North, people have already got used to the idea especially after taking short breaks in the South.”

But it’s not just pub trade that has been affected.

In Wales, the ban was introduced on April 2. In that time, research by the Rank Group showed that revenue had fallen by 5% at its three Welsh Mecca bingo clubs. Consequently, it is installing heated outdoor shelters complete with gambling and portable bingo machines to mitigate the impact when the English ban kicks in.

Wales’s smoking ban has also led to a massive increase in the number of smokers seeking help to give up.

In the weeks leading to the ban, calls to the All Wales Smoking Cessation Service surged by 30%.

It reflects the situation in Scotland, where the ban came in during March, 2006.

Evidence compiled by Action on Smoking and Health Scotland (ASH) showed that in the first nine months after the law came into force, 95% of the population complied with the ban, and 35% of smokers said the rule helped them to cut back on tobacco.

On the anniversary of the ban, the Scottish Executive also revealed that 46,000 people had tried to quit smoking as a result.

However, a report this week showing that pub beer sales in Scotland dropped by 7%, the equivalent of 36m pints, in the 12 months to March 7, is  something our region’s publicans will be desperately hoping to avoid.

The only place in Liverpool where you can light up > > >