Smoke-free bars in Ireland: a runaway success.

O n 29 March 2004, Ireland became the first country in the world to implement legislation creating smoke-free enclosed workplaces that included bars and restaurants. While the legislation involved all workplaces, with minor exceptions, national and international media attention focused on how the legislation would be implemented in bars. Many commentators looked on in disbelief and suggested that Irish bars, globally iconic for smokin’ and drinkin’, would be the last place on earth one would expect to see go smoke-free. If Irish bars could successfully go smoke-free, what was the problem elsewhere? Ireland is not alone in having smokefree bars. Since March 2004, Norway, New Zealand, Uganda, Bhutan, and Italy, have implemented smoke-free workplace legislation for all workers, including restaurant and bar workers. Before March 2004, considerable progress in implementing smoke-free restaurants and bars occurred in the USA (seven states) and Canada (five provinces) with further progress due in 2005. Elsewhere, Sweden is scheduled to go smoke-free in July 2005 and Australia by the end of 2007. In the UK, Scotland is leading the way in the fight to go smoke-free. All over the world, many countries are actively looking at the feasibility of bringing in some sort of smoke-free legislation to protect their citizens. While public transport, cinemas, and offices are relative policy change cakewalks, the real battle begins when governments seek to extend smoke-free legislation to the hospitality sector, especially bars. This was very much a feature of the situation in Ireland when smoke-free bars and restaurants were first mooted. Most of the opposition to the measure came from bar owner representatives and was similar in nature to that seen in the USA and Canada when smoke-free legislation for bars became a major lobbying focal point. As elsewhere, issues around threatened non-compliance with the new legislation and scare campaigns about the economic impact on bars dominated. Doom and gloom rhetoric was everywhere. The reality of what happened tells a very different story.