Trouble brewing on the smoking front

The Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprises (GRTU) is expected to tell entertainment establishment owners to disregard the smoking regulations when these start coming into force on October 5, GRTU director general Vince Farrugia yesterday told The Times.

The GRTU was opposing the new regulations on the ground that the Malta Standards Authority technical committee did not act according to the agreement that had been reached between the GRTU and the government.

In fact, last June, just days before the Malta Standards Authority report was presented to Health Minister Louis Deguara, the GRTU called on Dr Deguara to amend the smoking regulations or face legal action. Mr Farrugia said the GRTU believed that the government was in breach of the agreement reached between the two sides. GRTU officials were attending the technical committee meetings, but left the committee just days before this finished drafting the regulations.

Mr Farrugia said that unless the regulations, which were about to come into force, were changed, or further talks between the GRTU and the government were held, the GRTU would go ahead and issue these directives. He said the government would then have to take all the owners of establishments who breached the regulations to court. He said the GRTU was expecting more discussions with the Health Ministry on the issue.

However, when contacted yesterday, Dr Deguara reiterated what he had already stressed in parliament, that the smoking regulations would come into force at the established dates, which had been agreed upon by the ministry and the GRTU.

Dr Deguara said the GRTU had not contacted the ministry to state that they were still opposing the regulations.

The technical specifications on indoor air quality, which were issued by the Malta Standards Authority technical committee on air quality in bars and restaurants earlier this summer, state that a licensed premises shall either be designed as non-smoking or have adequate ventilation systems installed and functioning for a designated smoking room. Establishments of over 60 square meters in area have until October to start abiding by the regulations, while those under 60 square meters have until next April.

The report states that clear signs need to be installed in both the non-smoking licensed premises as well as in non-smoking rooms in establishments where smoking is permitted. The permanent signs, which need to be installed in conspicuous places, should indicate whether it is possible to smoke in the area, or whether this is prohibited.

Designated smoking rooms have to be constructed to ensure that the people outside the rooms are not subjected to fumes from the smoking room. It says these should include full height walls and automatically closing doors, which should be kept closed all the time.

The report says that ventilation requisites for smoking rooms include the maintenance of a negative pressure inside the room, the provision of fresh air and the exhaust of air from inside the room without this being re-circulated inside the premises.

However, the GRTU did not agree that a wall should be put up to divide the smoking and non-smoking areas, but said an alternative way to ensure that smoke did not go from one side to the other should be found.

The GRTU is also emphasising that the size of establishments should only include the public area, and not stores and any other back rooms.

Mr Farrugia stressed that although the GRTU did not want any clashes, the government first said one thing and then did something different. He stressed that the GRTU was taking part in a social dialogue on various issues, and discussions should also be ongoing on the smoking regulations.

Mr Farrugia said the GRTU agreed that the air should be clean and that no smell of smoke should be present. However, he said, the government was aiming for air standards that were not even found in operating theatres.

Mr Farrugia said there were businessmen - also members of the GRTU - who had stocked up on air purifying equipment which cannot even be used because it did not comply with the government's technical specifications. He said that certain bars and discoteques had made major investments - sometimes up to Lm50,000 or more - to install equipment which circulated the air. But this did not purify the air, he said.

Mr Farrugia said the GRTU fully accepted that in restaurants there should be a distinction between a smoking and non-smoking area since this was what people wanted. He said many people did not want to be eating while there was somebody smoking next to them.