EXCLUSIVE: The big smoking debate
PUB bosses are calling time on smoking BEFORE the government bans it.
Some have already stubbed it out and many more will be following in the coming weeks.
The News of the World can reveal the self-imposed ban just days after Health Secretary John Reid promised a 2008 bar on smoking in pubs that serve food.
Pub companies fear the government has now admitted, in the eyes of the law, that smoking in the workplace can damage your health.
Terrified
They are terrified they could be sued by staff and customers claiming to have contracted cancer on their premises.
And they believe anti-smoking campaign groups will now be searching for a legal test-case that could cost the industry millions of pounds.
Under the government's own plans, smoking would not be banned until the end of 2008 at the earliest, and then only in pubs serving food.
But the British Pub and Beer Association has rushed into action with its voluntary ban which covers smoking at the bar in ALL pubs as well as in dining rooms and staff-only areas.
The big five pub owners—Enterprise Inns, Punch Taverns, Scottish & Newcastle Pub Enterprises, Spirit and Mitchells & Butlers—have signed up to the voluntary ban along with 18 other pub chains including The Barracuda Group, Laurel Pub Company, Greene King, Wolverhampton & Dudley and Yates Group.
The ban—which will apply to 22,000 pubs—will mean smoking is only allowed in small segregated areas.
An industry source said: "Smoking is a public health problem but it is an issue for the tobacco industry, not pub companies.
"We welcome the government's White Paper but we are confident we can move faster with a comprehensive industry-wide approach."
Last night a source close to Dr Reid said: "One of the reasons we are taking action is because the breweries and pub owners have ignored their own research, which shows most people want smoke-free pubs.
"Now we have said we will act they have finally got their act together.
"Over the next few months you will see a rush, with pub chains trying to get themselves branded as the first smoke-free chain.
Flawed
"This will be the last Christmas where you will see a cloud of smoke over the bar."
He also revealed government plans to make pubs advertise more clearly whether they are smoke-free with large signs outside.
The British Beer and Pub Association believes the government's compulsory ban is flawed because it only applies to pubs that sell food.
They claim half of the 80 per cent of pubs now dishing up grub might stop as a way round the ban.
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