A Change in the Air: Smoking Bans Gain Momentum Worldwide

Abstract

On 29 March 2004, Ireland became the first country in the world to ban smoking in all indoor workplaces, including in restaurants and bars. That landmark event followed a ten-year period during which it was shown that voluntary bans and partial bans allowing workplace smoking in certain designated areas didn’t protect Irish workers from secondhand smoke, a known cause of cancer and other lethal diseases. So in a move to protect its workers, Ireland took the extraordinary step of banning indoor workplace smoking completely. In so doing, it launched a wave of similar national-level policies now spreading across the globe.