The Scottish Licensed Trade Association has invited licensees from countries where the smoking rules are more relaxed – the Netherlands, Croatia and Hungary – to a meeting with Scottish licensees in order to explore possibilities of relaxing the ban.
At a time when the world awaits an avalanche of outdoor smoking bans (following New York) and apartment bans (following Australia), perhaps the last thing anyone expected was for the Scottish licensed trade to announce that smoking bans in pubs are not needed! This is not in fact what the SLTA is saying to the press – they are looking for 'some accommodation', not a return to the old days.
Good luck to them. Bringing Scottish licensees face-to-face with their counterparts who have fought successfully against restrictions in other countries is an inspired move, and we hope it will restore some confidence to our licensed trade.
In the mean time, the Scottish licensed trade and all hospital managers should know that there is a European Air Quality Standard, EN 13779, that deals with non-residential human occupancy and discusses tobacco smoke as just one of a range of conditions in buildings that must be dealt with. This documented is dated 2007, so it has been known for some time that tobacco smoke is reckoned to be a problem capable of resolution. There never has been a need for a smoking ban, and the whole of Europe should know it by now.
1 comment:
Interesting times .. and no doubt they will decide on a policy of seperate smoking rooms.
Why not opt for an open plan policy with appropriate signs at the venue entrance/s
This study shows the way ahead
http://www.cibse.org/pdfs/6cskistad.pdf
but I fear that the hospitality sector will yet again bury their head in the sands instead of embracing 21st century tehnology.
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