Pizza Hut today banned smoking in the latest victory for the increasingly vocal anti-tobacco lobby.
Mr Brian Rimmer, Pizza Hut's operations director, said the company "strongly believes that families should be able to take time to have a leisurely meal in a restaurant without exposing their children to other people's smoke".
|
Mr Rimmer, whose company has 350 restaurants around Britain, added: "It is equally important that our staff can work in a smoke-free environment."
From Dublin pubs to New York bars, the smoker is turning into an endangered species in a worldwide campaign to crack down on smoking in public places.
Last month, Britain's Chief Medical Officer Liam Donaldson recommended a total ban on smoking in public places. That move is already being considered by health officials in the southern English seaside resort of Brighton.
A landmark World Health Organization treaty has called for a ban on advertising and tobacco company sponsorship among other measures designed to cut down on a habit that kills five million people a year.
The Philippines, where cigarettes are peddled in the streets for just a few cents each, signed a tough new law prohibiting smoking in public places and banning all tobacco advertising within five years.
Greece, home to the European Union's heaviest smokers, has extended a smoking ban from public spaces to the private sector as it steps up a clean-up campaign before it hosts the 2004 Olympic Games.
A smoking ban was even passed in the unlikely city of Lexington, Kentucky, capital of a leading tobacco-growing state that has the highest percentage of adult smokers in the United States.In Ireland, publicans and hoteliers have begun a publicity campaign to reverse the new smoking ban, which they claim could result in severe job losses.
"It's the only time I enjoy a smoke - it goes hand in hand with a pint," said sales director Paul Goulding, enjoying a drink in a Dublin pub.