The follow up aspects of the smoking ban restrictions.

A year ago Scotland won a smoke free battle. On Sunday, March 26, 2006 Scotland became the first part of the UK to ban smoking in enclosed public places. England has been watching carefully the impact of a smoking ban in Scotland as well as other countries where the ban has been introduced.

Pub owners’ main concern is that as a result of smoking ban they will lose regulars who will be put off by the ban and will not be happy to smoke in a specially designed shelter. On the other hand, non-smoker visits should go up because more people will be attracted to eat in pubs. In fact, pubs make more money from serving food than selling drinks.

A medical study, made by Dundee University has found that the health of Scotland’s bar staff has improved significantly since the introduction of the smoking ban. From my perspective as a person who works in a pub it is high time to protect all non-smoking staff’s health in their workplaces.

The experiences of New York where the smoking ban was implemented in 2002 have shown that businesses are generally not hurt, and that many actually show increased revenues. It is worth mentioning that anti-smoking actions in California are much more powerful than the ones which operate in the UK because they also apply to certain outdoor public places. Smoking has been also banned on the streets of Tokyo in October 2002.

The Times reports that: “A poll, made by Cancer Research UK, found one in five GPs has already seen an increased number of patients asking about quitting smoking since the ban was approved.”

Simon Clark, a director of the Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco (FOREST) said: "After the ban was introduced in Scotland and Ireland, initial reports suggested many people were giving up, but now the figures for smokers are almost exactly what they were before the bans. People do not like being told what to do.” Smoking ban will certainly affect tobacco industry most but it is all for our own good.