Kathleen Quinlan, Office of Tobacco Control, Ireland
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Good morning everybody. I’m delighted to be here and I’m delighted to tell you about the success story in Ireland of the Smokefree Workplace legislation. I’m going to talk about the Irish experience, briefly; just to recap on where we are. Smokefree Workplace legislation was introduced into Ireland on 29th March 2004, so we’re actually fast approaching the third anniversary of Smokefree in Ireland which is amazing for all of us who have been involved in the introduction of Smokefree because, in a sense, it still feels like a new initiative, but it’s really well bedded in, as I’m going to tell you in this presentation, and it’s been a highly successful piece of legislation.
In terms of the legislation, it’s very similar to the legislation coming into England in July, it’s an offence for a person to smoke in a specified place, and that includes a place of work, a pub and a restaurant in particular. The owner, manager, or other person in charge is guilty of an offence if there is smoking, so similar offences as in the UK. In terms of the fines, we’re talking about a €3,000 or £2,000 sterling, and in terms of defences for the owner/manager, it is a defence if a person can show that they made all reasonable efforts to ensure compliance. In terms of compliance I’m going to talk a little bit about that later on, but the first six months after the introduction of the legislation, our environmental health officers were very much on the ground working with managers and restaurants and owners to talk about what they needed to do to ensure compliance. So, the first six months was very much a compliance building phase. Now, we’re still in that compliance building phase, but at the same time we are now where breaches occur, very much pursuing breaches in terms of prosecutions. There are limited exemptions in the legislation, based on a private dwelling, largely, but also hotel rooms and places of detention, things like that, and in terms of signage, this is important for us as well, that there is mandatory signage, in premises, to show who is the person in charge, and that is the person to whom complaints can be made. So, it’s important that the public are empowered to go to the owner and to say that someone is smoking.
In terms of the public information campaign that we engaged in in Ireland, essentially the Smokefree Workplace law was the subject of an unparalleled national debate, on the radio, on television, and the debate was highly beneficial in that it was a major factor in raising awareness of the dangers of exposure to secondhand smoke. It also helped to build support for the proposed law and, ultimately, that debate contributed to the compliance that we see now in Ireland. But, for ourselves in the Office of Tobacco Control, in partnership with the unions who in partnership with ASH, with the Irish Cancer Society, essentially with the pro-health lobby group. It was hugely important that we anchored this debate in the terrain of health. So, you can see here that our public information campaign was designed to inform the public of the new law, it was designed to tell them the rationale for the new law which was anchored in the health issue, to talk about the date of implementation and for ourselves, we were delighted on the morning of 29th March to see people congregated outside pubs and restaurants having a cigarette. In a sense, there was an immediate impact, visible impact on the streets of Ireland on the morning of implementation. We also wanted to tell people about how they could address the issue if someone was smoking in the workplace. As I said, the first point of call was to go to the owner/manager, but there was also a local compliance where, if there was no action taken, people could ring up the compliance line, and in a sense that was a guidance for our environmental health officers to say, listen, there’s someone smoking in a certain pub, in a certain restaurant, in a certain workplace.
In terms of following on from the introduction of the legislation, smokefree workplaces continue to enjoy widespread public support, and there are high levels of compliance, as I’ll talk about here. In terms of the type of work we did in the Office of Tobacco Control, we wanted to assess what was the type of support for the law before it was implemented and then afterwards. So, immediately the debate began, our analysis of the support was that 67% supported the law, so that was a good indication of widespread public support. After the introduction this increased to 89% and, indeed, that was corroborated by other research carried out by the Department of Health in Children. RTE, which is the equivalent of the BBC, the national broadcaster, every year does a poll of what were the highs of the year, and in 2004 the Smokefree Workplace legislation was by far voted the number one high of 2004. In terms of one year later on, on 29th March 2005, we did some further analysis of support and, as you can see here, all support levels are in the high 90%. This was corroborated as well, of course, by research where, researchers had tested the exposure levels of workers in bars to secondhand smoke before and after the ban, and found that, of course, the exposure levels had dropped dramatically. So, 98% of the Irish public polled believed workplaces were healthier, thought the law was a success, still think it was a good idea, and also believed that publicans should comply with the law. And, indeed, you can see there quite high levels of support from smokers. This was only one year into it. I have to say, in terms of, I suppose, anecdotal evidence since then, whenever I tell anyone I work in the Office of Tobacco Control you’re immediately told, oh my God, you know, I was over in Germany and I couldn’t believe how my clothes felt and how my nose felt and how my eyes were running in the bars, because people are so unused to it now. You even get people saying, I was on holiday and Irish people were outside bars in Spain, smoking rather than smoking inside because they’re so used it and it’s now part of the culture of going outside and having a bit of a laugh. And, so, essentially, this has totally become embedded in the Irish psyche and is probably, in terms of a successful intervention, something all of us who were involved in the health end are saying, well, what were the success factors here that maybe can be applied to other areas of public health?
In terms of enforcement, I’m just going to briefly talk about this because, from the point of view of the restaurant and the hotel trade, the enforcement element is important. In Ireland we’ve a National Inspection Programme and environmental health officers are the key players in enforcement. They are the authorised officers under the legislation, charged to investigate breaches of the act, and we have developed protocols to guide the environmental health officers around investigating breaches of the law. In terms of building compliance, the inspection programme was focused on supporting employers to ensure compliance with the law, and in this context, similar to England, we developed guidelines. Each licensee was directly mailed the guidance document, posters, smoking signs, and that was followed by a visit by the local environmental health officer to talk about the guidance document to see if there was any questions arising and to give them guidance on what they needed to do, and what their responsibilities were. Here you see... this poster was given out to pubs and it provided all the necessary information on the reasonable efforts that they should make to ensure that patrons didn’t smoke on the premises, and if they do smoke, the steps they needed to take to prevent them from doing so. So, in a sense, a very simple way of saying, if someone smokes you need to ask them to leave; the same way if someone came in to a bar and opened a sandwich that they brought in themselves where the bar was serving food, you’d probably ask them to leave. No difference.
In terms of compliance, as I mentioned compliance is very high nationally. The environmental health officers are on the ground going out to pubs, restaurants, hotels, cinemas still, you know, all the public buildings that previously were smokefree, so typically in a year, around 35,000 inspections and compliance is in the high 90s. But, even though compliance is high, vigilance is still necessary. We believe active enforcement is a highly effective and necessary tool in tobacco control, and certainly, in terms of the case statistics to date, and really year on year there’s been around 38-40 prosecutions. Where breaches of the legislation occur, in a sense, where the owner/manager indicates that they’re not really willing to make any changes to the circumstances, the environmental health officers will prosecute and there have been, as I say, around 38-40 cases every year with typically the fines depending on, I suppose, on the judgement on the day, but the fines have reached up to the limit €3,000 with costs provided as well for the defendants, or for the Health Service Executive, the environmental health officers.
In terms of success factors, just to end, the successful introduction clearly requires self-enforcement by the public as well as active support from employers and employees. In a sense, this is a law that cannot be policed into effect. It needs public support and commitment if it is to be effective. And, in Ireland we’ve found that the consistent proactive communication helped keep the public well informed about the law and its rationale. The key message was always the health of workers who didn’t have a choice to be anywhere except working behind a bar or working in a restaurant. We had to build confidence that the law was workable and enforceable, that it would be implemented, and we also prepared for, as is happening here, counter arguments.
In a sense, I’d have to say, in reflecting on what we would have done differently, all of us involved in this, and I’ve talked to people who were very centrally involved at the time, they actually were afterwards and still are, in a sense, pinching themselves as regards to how successful it was, that they, similar to yourselves, I suppose, at this point you’re wondering, will this be successful? And, in a sense, because of the national debate and because of the arguments around health it was just hugely successful at the end of the day, and we’re all still amazed at the level of high compliance and, really, the public support for this is only getting stronger in terms of other success factors, certainly in Ireland, of sustained political leadership. Our Minister for Health was driven in ensuring that this law came into reality. There was a partnership approach on the statutory side between ourselves and the Office of Tobacco Control, and then the other health bodies. As I mentioned there was essentially a pro-health lobby group and that involved the active engagement of civil society. We had the Irish Cancer Society and Heart Foundation and ASH, we had the environmental health officers who were central, of course, to the enforcement, the health and medical community consistently pushing home the message about the health concerns for secondhand smoke, and then the trade unions talking about the impact this would have on their workers.
In terms of the law, as well, it was a comprehensive law. It’s easier to enforce when it applies equally to all premises and the obligations are understood. We had to have well prepared implementation documentation, as you’re doing here in England, and that documentation going directly to owner/managers and with forums like this providing an opportunity for people to clarify issues was, again, very important.
Finally, after the legislation was brought into place, we wanted to hammer home the issue that this has been a breath of fresh air for everyone and we had a public information campaign, again, reinforcing the fact that now our pubs, our restaurants, all our public places, were smokefree, and we wanted to keep it that way. So, that’s it, thank you very much.
Back
Good morning everybody. I’m delighted to be here and I’m delighted to tell you about the success story in Ireland of the Smokefree Workplace legislation. I’m going to talk about the Irish experience, briefly; just to recap on where we are. Smokefree Workplace legislation was introduced into Ireland on 29th March 2004, so we’re actually fast approaching the third anniversary of Smokefree in Ireland which is amazing for all of us who have been involved in the introduction of Smokefree because, in a sense, it still feels like a new initiative, but it’s really well bedded in, as I’m going to tell you in this presentation, and it’s been a highly successful piece of legislation.
In terms of the legislation, it’s very similar to the legislation coming into England in July, it’s an offence for a person to smoke in a specified place, and that includes a place of work, a pub and a restaurant in particular. The owner, manager, or other person in charge is guilty of an offence if there is smoking, so similar offences as in the UK. In terms of the fines, we’re talking about a €3,000 or £2,000 sterling, and in terms of defences for the owner/manager, it is a defence if a person can show that they made all reasonable efforts to ensure compliance. In terms of compliance I’m going to talk a little bit about that later on, but the first six months after the introduction of the legislation, our environmental health officers were very much on the ground working with managers and restaurants and owners to talk about what they needed to do to ensure compliance. So, the first six months was very much a compliance building phase. Now, we’re still in that compliance building phase, but at the same time we are now where breaches occur, very much pursuing breaches in terms of prosecutions. There are limited exemptions in the legislation, based on a private dwelling, largely, but also hotel rooms and places of detention, things like that, and in terms of signage, this is important for us as well, that there is mandatory signage, in premises, to show who is the person in charge, and that is the person to whom complaints can be made. So, it’s important that the public are empowered to go to the owner and to say that someone is smoking.
In terms of the public information campaign that we engaged in in Ireland, essentially the Smokefree Workplace law was the subject of an unparalleled national debate, on the radio, on television, and the debate was highly beneficial in that it was a major factor in raising awareness of the dangers of exposure to secondhand smoke. It also helped to build support for the proposed law and, ultimately, that debate contributed to the compliance that we see now in Ireland. But, for ourselves in the Office of Tobacco Control, in partnership with the unions who in partnership with ASH, with the Irish Cancer Society, essentially with the pro-health lobby group. It was hugely important that we anchored this debate in the terrain of health. So, you can see here that our public information campaign was designed to inform the public of the new law, it was designed to tell them the rationale for the new law which was anchored in the health issue, to talk about the date of implementation and for ourselves, we were delighted on the morning of 29th March to see people congregated outside pubs and restaurants having a cigarette. In a sense, there was an immediate impact, visible impact on the streets of Ireland on the morning of implementation. We also wanted to tell people about how they could address the issue if someone was smoking in the workplace. As I said, the first point of call was to go to the owner/manager, but there was also a local compliance where, if there was no action taken, people could ring up the compliance line, and in a sense that was a guidance for our environmental health officers to say, listen, there’s someone smoking in a certain pub, in a certain restaurant, in a certain workplace.
In terms of following on from the introduction of the legislation, smokefree workplaces continue to enjoy widespread public support, and there are high levels of compliance, as I’ll talk about here. In terms of the type of work we did in the Office of Tobacco Control, we wanted to assess what was the type of support for the law before it was implemented and then afterwards. So, immediately the debate began, our analysis of the support was that 67% supported the law, so that was a good indication of widespread public support. After the introduction this increased to 89% and, indeed, that was corroborated by other research carried out by the Department of Health in Children. RTE, which is the equivalent of the BBC, the national broadcaster, every year does a poll of what were the highs of the year, and in 2004 the Smokefree Workplace legislation was by far voted the number one high of 2004. In terms of one year later on, on 29th March 2005, we did some further analysis of support and, as you can see here, all support levels are in the high 90%. This was corroborated as well, of course, by research where, researchers had tested the exposure levels of workers in bars to secondhand smoke before and after the ban, and found that, of course, the exposure levels had dropped dramatically. So, 98% of the Irish public polled believed workplaces were healthier, thought the law was a success, still think it was a good idea, and also believed that publicans should comply with the law. And, indeed, you can see there quite high levels of support from smokers. This was only one year into it. I have to say, in terms of, I suppose, anecdotal evidence since then, whenever I tell anyone I work in the Office of Tobacco Control you’re immediately told, oh my God, you know, I was over in Germany and I couldn’t believe how my clothes felt and how my nose felt and how my eyes were running in the bars, because people are so unused to it now. You even get people saying, I was on holiday and Irish people were outside bars in Spain, smoking rather than smoking inside because they’re so used it and it’s now part of the culture of going outside and having a bit of a laugh. And, so, essentially, this has totally become embedded in the Irish psyche and is probably, in terms of a successful intervention, something all of us who were involved in the health end are saying, well, what were the success factors here that maybe can be applied to other areas of public health?
In terms of enforcement, I’m just going to briefly talk about this because, from the point of view of the restaurant and the hotel trade, the enforcement element is important. In Ireland we’ve a National Inspection Programme and environmental health officers are the key players in enforcement. They are the authorised officers under the legislation, charged to investigate breaches of the act, and we have developed protocols to guide the environmental health officers around investigating breaches of the law. In terms of building compliance, the inspection programme was focused on supporting employers to ensure compliance with the law, and in this context, similar to England, we developed guidelines. Each licensee was directly mailed the guidance document, posters, smoking signs, and that was followed by a visit by the local environmental health officer to talk about the guidance document to see if there was any questions arising and to give them guidance on what they needed to do, and what their responsibilities were. Here you see... this poster was given out to pubs and it provided all the necessary information on the reasonable efforts that they should make to ensure that patrons didn’t smoke on the premises, and if they do smoke, the steps they needed to take to prevent them from doing so. So, in a sense, a very simple way of saying, if someone smokes you need to ask them to leave; the same way if someone came in to a bar and opened a sandwich that they brought in themselves where the bar was serving food, you’d probably ask them to leave. No difference.
In terms of compliance, as I mentioned compliance is very high nationally. The environmental health officers are on the ground going out to pubs, restaurants, hotels, cinemas still, you know, all the public buildings that previously were smokefree, so typically in a year, around 35,000 inspections and compliance is in the high 90s. But, even though compliance is high, vigilance is still necessary. We believe active enforcement is a highly effective and necessary tool in tobacco control, and certainly, in terms of the case statistics to date, and really year on year there’s been around 38-40 prosecutions. Where breaches of the legislation occur, in a sense, where the owner/manager indicates that they’re not really willing to make any changes to the circumstances, the environmental health officers will prosecute and there have been, as I say, around 38-40 cases every year with typically the fines depending on, I suppose, on the judgement on the day, but the fines have reached up to the limit €3,000 with costs provided as well for the defendants, or for the Health Service Executive, the environmental health officers.
In terms of success factors, just to end, the successful introduction clearly requires self-enforcement by the public as well as active support from employers and employees. In a sense, this is a law that cannot be policed into effect. It needs public support and commitment if it is to be effective. And, in Ireland we’ve found that the consistent proactive communication helped keep the public well informed about the law and its rationale. The key message was always the health of workers who didn’t have a choice to be anywhere except working behind a bar or working in a restaurant. We had to build confidence that the law was workable and enforceable, that it would be implemented, and we also prepared for, as is happening here, counter arguments.
In a sense, I’d have to say, in reflecting on what we would have done differently, all of us involved in this, and I’ve talked to people who were very centrally involved at the time, they actually were afterwards and still are, in a sense, pinching themselves as regards to how successful it was, that they, similar to yourselves, I suppose, at this point you’re wondering, will this be successful? And, in a sense, because of the national debate and because of the arguments around health it was just hugely successful at the end of the day, and we’re all still amazed at the level of high compliance and, really, the public support for this is only getting stronger in terms of other success factors, certainly in Ireland, of sustained political leadership. Our Minister for Health was driven in ensuring that this law came into reality. There was a partnership approach on the statutory side between ourselves and the Office of Tobacco Control, and then the other health bodies. As I mentioned there was essentially a pro-health lobby group and that involved the active engagement of civil society. We had the Irish Cancer Society and Heart Foundation and ASH, we had the environmental health officers who were central, of course, to the enforcement, the health and medical community consistently pushing home the message about the health concerns for secondhand smoke, and then the trade unions talking about the impact this would have on their workers.
In terms of the law, as well, it was a comprehensive law. It’s easier to enforce when it applies equally to all premises and the obligations are understood. We had to have well prepared implementation documentation, as you’re doing here in England, and that documentation going directly to owner/managers and with forums like this providing an opportunity for people to clarify issues was, again, very important.
Finally, after the legislation was brought into place, we wanted to hammer home the issue that this has been a breath of fresh air for everyone and we had a public information campaign, again, reinforcing the fact that now our pubs, our restaurants, all our public places, were smokefree, and we wanted to keep it that way. So, that’s it, thank you very much.
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