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Moonsail Limited
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Thoughts re the Smoking Ban
As an ex-smoker of some 3 years, what do I think about the recent smoking ban? Questions are being asked about the impact it might have on the pub/restaurant trade, but hasn’t smoking been gradually tailing off in popularity anyway in recent years?
Back in the early 90s I worked in an office where almost everyone smoked. Strange to think of it now in today’s smoke-free world, but back then smoking was an acceptable habit – despite the health warnings. I remember having 2 or 3 cigarettes in the morning during the drive to work. Then perhaps 10-15 throughout the day (at my desk), a couple more on the way home then perhaps 3 or 4 in the evening after work.
Eventually the minority ex-smokers complained about the foggy atmosphere and the fact that their clothes always smelt of smoke when they got home from the office. So a small area at the back of our open-plan office was set aside for this strange and fussy group – the ‘non-smokers’. But of course the smoke still drifted across to their space.
The office next door to mine was even stranger. It was subdivided into ‘departments’ by screens that were about 7 feet high. Some departments were deemed non-smoking whilst others weren’t. When I transferred into a non-smoking department, all I had to do was walk round the corner of my screen into a smoking area and light up – just inches away from my non-smoking colleague on the other side of the screen!
As smoking became less and less fashionable, the next step was the introduction of the smoking room – a disgustingly foggy and smoky box room in which it was impossible to see the opposite wall clearly until the smokers were driven outside as offices became completely smoke free. During one long afternoon meeting, I remember staring through the window and observing a work colleague going for a ‘smoke break’ an incredible 11 times in the space of 3 hours…
It’s hard to think of a single argument in favour of smoking. However, some restaurants are complaining that the ban has affected trade: apparently non-smoking customers are already venturing into pubs for value-for-money tasty ‘pub grub’ - now without the accompanying smoke. That said, the only thing I’ll miss about smoking is that ‘fags and beer’ smell of a good old English pub - not necessarily pleasant, but nonetheless another thing that will pass into the mists of memory as we move forward in our brave new world…
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