The air is clear, but how did it happen?

The main scientist, publicist, trade unionist and politician involved in developing the smoking ban in Ireland met with an audience at the Harbour Master’s pub as part of the Science in the City programme.

It is thanks to these men’s passion and persistence that on 29 March 2009 all workplaces in Ireland, including pubs and restaurants, became smoke-free zones. It was with enormous pride that each of the panellists gave a personal account of their involvement with this process.

Wally Young, the main communications officer of the ban campaign, likened the process to a cup final. ‘We had to win the ban or we had lost everything,’ he said.

There was a simple central message: the World Health Organisation said that environmental smoke (or passive smoking) can kill you.

Young described the horror when you realise that your best friend sitting beside you can kill you. He reported how, while researching this project, he avoided going to the pub.

The discussion was lead by Professor Luke Clancy, the Director of the Research Institute for a Tobacco Free Society and a researcher into respiratory disease. He had spent 15 years attempting to get a ban, but for 10 years he was told, ‘Nice idea, but the public won’t like it.’

A key turning point was the involvement of the trade unions. Bernard Harbor from IMPACT, Ireland’s largest trade union, explained how smoking in the workplace went from a non issue to the number one health and safety issue in Ireland.

Two men approached Harbor, making him realise how important the issue was. One was a senior civil servant from the Office for Tobacco Control, Tom Powers. The other was a bin man called Mark Wynne. Like thousands of others, Wynne spent all day in a smokey cab, breathing the smoke of his workmates.

The unions formed the ‘Health Alliance’ consisting of over a quarter of the population of Ireland. It turned out the public did like the idea of a ban.

Government environmental health officer Dave Malloy explained that the scientific evidence was too strong to ignore. They had no choice but to support the ban, but they were worried about how it could ever be enforced.

The Irish Minister for Health visited New York, a city where a smoking ban has been successfully enforced.

The Minister asked the mayor what he would do differently if he were developing the ban again, to which he replied, ‘I wouldn’t worry so much.’

Indeed it was a success. On the day of the ban, a journalist lit up in a pub to test it, and was thrown out by the customers.

Many members of the audience were from the UK and felt strongly that such an extensive ban should be put in place there.

If one lesson can be learnt from the Irish experience, it is that the public need to make it clear that they want the ban.