Edinburgh's Smoking Ban

Long before Edinburgh Fringe 06 started, one debate was warming up ... then shivering as it went outside for a crafty fag ...

by Gill Smith

Most gigs, theatres, pubs, clubs, restaurants (even railway stations) in Scotland are now smoke-free. The main bars smell much better. And people who don't smoke can make good use of their newly-improved lung capacity. They need it every time they leave a venue - to get through the fug outside from shivering smokers.

Edinburgh has developed a café society - there are tables and chairs outside pubs and even tiny eateries. Smokers get the chance to take a pint outside and sit down. But in practical terms, non-smokers can't: when people smoking are forced into groups, the smoke doesn't rise and vanish.

There are places where the ban doesn't seem fully thought-through: children left outside pubs by their parents inside have to keep smokers company (with unsubtle coughs and evil looks).

Pros and cons? Pubs say revenues are down. Non-smokers like the better breathing and not smelling of smoke. Theatre companies complain that they can't truly portray smoking figures, such as Churchill. Smokers gather together without non-smokers boring them by going on about health risks. Perhaps social smokers will give up with the inconvenience. There's not much point scabbing a fag off a smoking friend just because you can. And in winter it's bloody cold.

The smoking debate - to ban or not - looks like lasting well beyond Edinburgh. And beyond when England joins Scotland and Ireland. Perhaps it'll go on till the world's last smoker is dead. And that'll probably be from pneumonia.

END

(c) Gill Smith - 2 September 2006

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