Take a deep breath and smell the clover this St. Patrick’s Day: a study of indoor air quality at Irish pubs around the world has found smoking bans work.

Researchers with the Harvard-led study tested air quality by measuring tiny particulate matter in 128 Irish pubs around the world, including two in Canada.

Even they were surprised by the difference in the quality of the air in businesses where smoking was permitted versus where it was prohibited.

“We learned, first of all, the magnitude of this,” said Geoffrey Fong, the University of Waterloo researcher who handled the Canadian portion of the study. “It’s really quite amazing how high the levels are in smoking-permitted establishments.”

Good air, as defined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, has a particulate concentration of less than 15 micrograms per cubic metre. Anything more than 250 is “hazardous.”

At one Irish pub in France, where smoking was permitted, researchers took a reading that showed a mean of more 1,000 micrograms per cubic metre.

“That’s just a huge concentration,” said Fong.

Fong said researchers chose Irish pubs because Ireland was a global leader in implementing a blanket smoke-free policy two years ago and also because Irish-themed bars are a mainstay in a wide range of communities around the world.

Source: London Free Press