IT’S been almost 10 years since smoking was banned in pubs and clubs, and it seems many of the fears of the time have gone up in, well, smoke – at the local level, anyway.
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The Leader spoke with pub owners, the local liquor accord, the Cancer Council and a musician ahead of the anniversary on July 1, all of whom said the changes had been positive for the industry and patrons.
Australia is among the countries toughest on smoking in public – or even in what some might call private, like the family car.
But according to people around here, when laws have tightened, we’ve just sucked it up (pardon the pun) and moved on.
Manilla’s Royal Hotel licensee Thomas Cocking says the changes in 2007 didn’t exactly help his bottom line – “You don’t go picking up clientele” but everybody had plenty of warning the regulations were changing.
He even found some humour in the situation. He recounts how, before the ban, his indoor smoking and non-smoking areas were bars across from each other. Then when the ban came into place, smokers were moved to the beer garden.
“But the funny thing is, the non-smokers who like to sit and talk followed the other guys [smokers] from bar to bar and to the beer garden.”
Undoubtedly, some venues were hit hard by the cost – The Leader reported at the time that the Kootingal and District Bowling Club, for example, was putting more than $100,000 into developing an outdoor area for smokers – and we tried to contact some of the people who had to make those tough calls back in the day, to get their view.
On the other side of the scales, though, our sources this time around have told us that some of the payoffs have been fresher air, venues creating a more family-friendly vibe, and better-quality food.
But as we chased up the story yesterday – which happened to be World No Tobacco Day – perhaps the most salient testimony was of someone like Matt Scullion, who’d previously been subjected to second-hand smoke as an unfortunate by-product of making his living.
Back when the ban was pending, the president of the Australian Medical Association’s NSW branch quoted government figures on exposure to passive smoking in licensed premises causing between 73 and 97 bar staff deaths every year in NSW. So when there’s such a human cost, can we really complain about the dollars anyway?
Related story: Decade of indoor smoking ban
