Madam, - Publicans and representatives of the Vintners' Federation protest that they foresee difficulties with implementing and enforcing a law designed to ensure public health and safety by banning smoking in their pubs.
Yet publicans have no difficulty implementing and enforcing a rule designed by them to protect their profits. I refer to their ban on consuming food or alcohol not purchased on the premises.
All bar managers and owners know how to enforce this rule. If a customer is believed to be in breach of the publicans' regulations he or she is requested to comply. If this request is ignored, the customer is asked to leave the premises. If the culprit refuses to leave, some of the bar staff may bodily eject the offender. If the offender resists ejection, a call is made to the local Garda station for assistance.
Is it unreasonable to expect publicans to follow the same procedures to protect the health of their customers and staff as they do to protect their profits? - Is mise,
FERGUS RUSSELL, Larkhill Road, Dublin 9.
Madam, - Not for the first time, Dr Fenton Howell of ASH (February 24th) has his facts wrong. Any suggestion that ventilation systems installed in VFI-member pubs are paid for by the tobacco industry is categorically untrue. Since long before the smoking ban was even mooted, our members have been investing their own hard-earned money in installing ventilation and air purification systems, along with many other improvements designed to enhance customer service and comfort.
It seems to me that Dr Howell throws out all sorts of misleading information in his zealous anti-smoking efforts. Time after time he speaks about 150 bar staff dying every year from passive smoking. That is untrue.
It's a pity Dr Howell couldn't be a little gracious sometimes rather than being anti-everything, never mind anti-smoking. - Yours, etc.,
TADG O'SULLIVAN, Vintners' Federation of Ireland, Rathfarnham,
Dublin 14.
Madam, - Are the vintners really as thick as their leaders make them out to be? Here are some recent quotes.
"The ban will ruin the atmosphere in a pub." Excuse me while I cough myself to death laughing (or is it the smoke?).
"We haven't had enough time to prepare." They've only had about nine months.
"The lack of information has led to confusion." They are the only ones who are confused about that. The rest of us are confused by the three-month delay.
"We can install air-handling systems that will take the smoke out." Anybody who sits beside a smoker will tell you they don't work.
"We can have separate smoking rooms". Who is going to serve drink in them? Bar staff with a death wish?
I look forward to a smoke-free drink from the end of March. I look forward to going home from the pub and not having to hang my clothes out for fumigation.
I look forward to sitting at the bar not shivering from the cold air being blown in to protect the bar staff from smoke.
I look forward to not watching groups of young people ruining their health.
The ban will benefit smokers because they will smoke less. It will benefit non-smokers. And hopefully it will prevent a lot of young people from starting. - Yours, etc.,
TOM DIGNAM, Stoney Lane, Rathcoole, Co Dublin.
Madam, - Until a few years ago, tobacco used to be sold in Canada by drug stores - usually from a prominent display behind the counter, two to three metres long to well above eye level. When it was proposed this should stop, the trade association, led by a dominant chain, howled and predicted wholesale closures, with dispensing chemists taking to the streets with begging bowls.
The ban came in, and not a single store was bankrupted; nary a one closed. Vintners please note. - Yours, etc.,
EDWARD BARBER, Markham, Ontario, Canada.