Health benefits justify smoking ban

The risk of widespread job losses if there is a ban on smoking in public places is justified by the health benefits, according to an MP pushing a ban in Wales.

Julie Morgan, MP for Cardiff North, has introduced a private members bill into parliament which would give the National Assembly for Wales powers to end smoking in all workplaces and enclosed public places.

The move follows a similar ban in Ireland, where businesses have expressed concerns that it was damaging businesses -- a claim strongly denied by trade unions.

"We don't know what the true picture is," Morgan told Personnel Today. "To be quite honest, the public health argument is so great, that it outweighs those arguments."

The British Beer and Pub Association said trade in Ireland has dropped 16 per cent in the year since the ban was introduced in March last year. It warned that 75,000 jobs could be lost if smoking was banned across the UK.

But the British Medical Association is fully supportive of a ban, estimating that bar staff breath six times the amount of smoke of other workers.

Morgan hopes a new law in Wales would force the government to extend it across the UK sooner than 2008 -- the date suggested in last year's Health White Paper.