Researchers at Aberdeen University are to assess the impact Scotland’s historic new law banning smoking in all enclosed public places will have on bar staff.
The ban came into effect in the country on 26 March, and England, Wales and Northern Ireland are set to follow suit next year.
The researchers will assess the health of 360 bar staff in Aberdeenshire, Edinburgh, Glasgow and the Borders in a study costing 140,000.
The project, called the Bar Workers’ Health and Environmental Tobacco Smoke Exposure project, is part of an overall NHS strategy to evaluate the effect of the new Act.
It will aim to determine whether bar workers who smoke are encouraged to give up and whether the experience of working in a smoke-free environment has influenced their attitudes towards the ban.
Neil Budworth, president of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health, welcomed the ban in Scotland as “an enormous leap forward for workers’ health” while the British Medical Association said the move would save lives.
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