Health Ministry vows to enforce smoking rules

Spot checks to ensure that entertainment establishments abide by the smoking regulations, which start coming into force next month, would be held if necessary, according to a Health Ministry spokesman.

The spokesman said it was impossible to monitor each and every establishment. However, he said, action would be taken against those breaching the law.

"The government is banking on the public's cooperation to enforce the law," he said, adding that this was what had happened in Ireland when the country introduced a total smoking ban earlier this year.

The spokesman said it was hoped that, backed by the new law, the Maltese would follow suit.

Entertainment establishments measuring over 60 square metres have to abide by the regulations as from next month while those measuring less than 60 square metres have until next April to comply.

Specifications with regard to the regulations were drawn up by a technical committee of the Malta Standards Authority. These lay down that non-smoking rooms have to be "clearly identified". The smoking areas have to "be separated from the non-smoking area by means of full height impermeable partitions all around the room". These also have to be clearly identified "with adequate notices, fixed permanently in prominent positions at the entrances, warning persons accessing the room that they are entering a designated smoking room".

The MSA report says the smoking rooms cannot form part of a corridor or another passageway which is essential for non-smokers to gain access to non-smoking areas.

The smoking rooms also need to be equipped with forced ventilation to minimise the possibility of contamination of the non-smoking area by tobacco smoke, the specifications state.

The spokesman said establishments could not be declared as wholly smoking because this would defeat the purpose of the law, which, he said, was there to safeguard the health of non-smokers and employees.

The spokesman said that if a person was smoking in a non-smoking area the licensee or the person in charge of the establishment should alert him to that fact. If the smoker refused to stop smoking in the non-smoking area, the licensee should report him to the authorities.