- Title: SCOTLAND: Scotland divided on Sunday's smoking ban
- Date: 25th March 2006
- Summary: SCOTTISH SALTIRE FLAG
- Embargoed: 9th April 2006 13:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: Health,Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA5Q08F8TCA1IQ00IJF5WTSUA6V
- Story Text: Scotland on Sunday (March 26) becomes the first part of Britain to ban smoking in pubs, restaurants and workplaces, aiming to tackle the poor public health record that has earned it the nickname "sick man of Europe".
Officials say the blanket ban on lighting up in enclosed public spaces, inspired by similar measures in Ireland and other countries in the past few years, will eventually stop some 1,000 deaths a year from passive smoking.
"Scotland has a higher rate of heart disease, of cancer and of strokes than most other European countries," said First Minister Jack McConnell, head of the Scottish government.
"It is time for drastic action to change that situation for future generations," he told Reuters on Friday (March 24).
Surveys show more than 60 percent of people in Scotland support the plan. But around 30 percent of the population are smokers and only a quarter of them favour the measure, which comes into force at dawn on Sunday.
"I really just enjoy a smoke when I'm having a pint, so I really think I will stop no bother after the weekend," said John, enjoying a pint and a cigarette at Edinburgh's traditional pub The Royal Oak, where a blues band were singing songs about smoking.
Joanne, a non-smoker, said she didn't mind smoke in a pub.
"I don't personally smoke tobacco but I do think that responsible smoking isn't such a bad thing in the right context. Sometimes I don't personally mind it," she said.
The ban is on smoking in enclosed workplaces, and is designed to protect bartenders and other workers from second-hand smoke.
Ivor, a bartender at the Royal Oak, said he didn't need protecting. Having to work all day without a cigarette, he said, was not fair.
"I'm here ten hours a day and I'm being asked not to have a cigarette and I think that's my right taken away from me," he said.
Legislators in England, Britain's dominant nation, voted last month to follow Scotland's lead and introduce a similar smoking ban next year.
Health experts in Scotland are determined to change the lifestyle of heavy smoking and drinking, eating fatty foods and lack of exercise which takes many Scots to an early grave.
While they hope many smokers will take the opportunity to quit, they also say the ban is to protect people from passive smoking which can cause lung cancer, heart disease and strokes.
Brian Monteith, a member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) who opposed the ban, said the dangers of passive smoking were unproven.
"I think this smoking ban is draconian, it goes too far. Yes, we needed to introduce some sort of legislation, but I don't think passive smoking kills people, I think better ventilation in pubs would have allowed more choice and I think it shows Scotland's an intolerant society," he said.
Other critics of the ban see it as an attack on the traditional lifestyle of the working class who formed the backbone of Scottish society. Publicans are unhappy too, fearing their customers will opt to stay at home once they are banned from smoking in bars.
But in the Lauriston Farm pub, which has been non-smoking for more than two years and claims to be Scotland's first all non-smoking pub, manager Adam Bolton said takings have not suffered.
"The impact on general sales since the ban in this place started two years ago has been very positive on the food side. Suffered slightly on the liquor side but we seem to be pulling that back fairly confidently," he said.
People smoke more and die earlier in Scotland than elsewhere in Britain. Scottish life expectancy is lower than the European Union average, even though Britain is one of the EU's richest members and the world's fourth largest economy.
Experts offer various reasons for these problems, from the hard-living culture of the heavy industries which once thrived in Scotland to the poverty afflicting deprived areas today.
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