Outlets to be prosecuted over smoking rules violations

Legal action will be taken against 12 entertainment establishments for allowing people to smoke inside their premises since the smoking regulations came into force last October, John Attard Kingswell, health inspector at the Department of Public Health, said.

The department was monitoring the observance or otherwise of the regulations through routine food safety inspections in food businesses, that include bars and restaurants.

Smoking regulations came into force last year. Smoking was banned in entertainment establishments measuring over 60 square metres last October while smaller establishments have until April to come into line.

The regulations lay down that establishments have to be non-smoking but can have a smoking room that complies with certain technical specifications.

Contacted yesterday Mr Attard Kinswell said inspectors were carrying out ad hoc visits to establishments when they received complaints.

He said that although establishments were not obliged to inform the department whether they had installed the ventilation equipment necessary in smoking rooms, they were in duty bound to show inspectors the compliance certificate issued by a certified engineer.

"However, it is evident that only a few establishments have smoking rooms and hence only few have installed the purifying equipment recommended by the Malta Standards Authority," he explained. A study published in the UK journal Tobacco Control has found that concentration of nicotine was found even in areas where tobacco was barred. This, the researchers said, suggested that policies of having smoking and non-smoking areas were not completely effective. The same report said a person dancing in a nightclub for four hours was exposed to as much second-hand smoke as a person living with a smoker for a month.