Smoke ban effect

It’s unbelievable but it has already passed 12 months since someone last sat down at the bar with a cigarette and a pint.

For the last year, the pints have been left at the table while the smokers lighted up outside.

The Welsh Assembly Government passed a blanket smoking ban on all public places on April 2, 2007. People were forced to leave the bar or bus shelter behind and smoke away from public places.

But what do the smokers think about being asked to smoke in the streets?

Rebecca Locke and his husband Nicholas had quite different views on the ban. Nicholas, 44-years-old, is a smoker and answered he hardly visits the pub anymore. He said “I can get eight cans for a fiver, so I stay at home more now. I think the ban is a negative thing. there will be no pubs left here soon. I can’t see how they will survive. It’s against human rights.”

But Rebecca of 31 year, on the contrary, doesn’t mind the ban, and prefers eating out in smoke-free pubs. In spite of that she is a smoker. She said: “It’s a better environment for people to eat, especially for the little ones. But I do think it’s bad in a business sense. I work across the road from a pub and they have been dead since the ban.”

Adam James, a barman where he works at the Wyndham Arms in Merthyr Tydfil, said he hasn’t noticed much of a difference in business. He said: “The ban hasn’t really affected things here, customers do whinge when it’s cold outside and they have to go out to smoke, but they get used to it.”

Now the government is looking at banning cigarette machines in pubs and going to remove them from display in shops.