The North has moved a step closer to prohibiting smoking in public places after Northern Ireland Office (NIO) Minister, Mr Ian Spellar, yesterday announced a smoking ban in all government departments.
All departments as well as the NIO will be smoke-free from January 1st next year. Prisons however are excluded. No such ban exists in Britain except in the Department of Health.
Mr Spellar's announcement came as doctors put pressure on the British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair to impose a smoking bar similar to the ban operating in the Republic.
For the past 10 years the North's 30,000 civil servants were prohibited from smoking at their workplaces. However, 144 designated smoking rooms were opened. These will close on next new year's day and will be used as offices or for storage, according to the NIO.
Mr Spellar said the decision was taken to try to ensure a healthy and safe working environment for all civil servants. "The decision to move to a complete ban on smoking from January 2005 has taken into account mounting medical evidence on the risks associated with environmental tobacco smoke in the workplace and the dangers of passive smoking," he added.
The NIO hopes that employers generally in Northern Ireland will follow suit by imposing a similar total prohibition on smoking.
NIO Health Minister Ms Angela Smith said: "This is a very important employer-driven initiative, which is in line with the Tobacco Action Plan, published in June 2003, and will hopefully encourage other employers in Northern Ireland to follow."
"It may also help those smokers who wish to quit. The dangers of passive smoking are now well known and any decision which may contribute to a healthier workplace is to be encouraged," she added.
Mr Spellar's announcement came as the British Medical Association urged the British government to impose a general ban on smoking in public places. Dr Peter Maguire from Northern Ireland, on behalf of the BMA, handed in letters from 4,500 doctors to Downing Street yesterday calling for a workplace prohibition on smoking.
Dr Maguire, who is a consultant anaesthetist at Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry and deputy chairman of the BMA's board of science, said the North's health minister Ms Smith should ban smoking in public places.
Public service union NIPSA gave a cautious welcome to the ban but said there must be a balance between the rights of non-smokers and those who "suffer from the smoking addiction".
Sinn Fein's health spokesman, Mr John O'Dowd MLA, said the move opened the way for a general workplace smoking ban.
