Clean Air--- Into the Mystic

Stripped off all my clothes and put them straight into the hamper last night. I smelled like a firefighter. You guessed it, another evening in a smoky bar. Yuck, I hate smelling like that when I come home. It's enough to make a lot of people actually STAY home. This wouldn't have happened in Ireland, where a smoking ban has been in effect for four years now. I can't understand all the fuss over here. Pennsylvania is years behind, fighting over legislation with outcries of so called "civil liberties" taken away, fears about lost revenues, enforcement, etc. The whole debate rages on and on.

A group of doctors at a hospital in Belfast determined not only has air quality improved in the pubs, but musicians are getting better sound out of their instruments. (No doubt to me their singing has improved as well.)

From AFP

. . . they wanted to check the impact of the smoking ban on the quality of traditional Irish music played in the smoke-free pubs. They managed to contact six of the seven Irish experts who work with the instruments. All said there was a strong smell of cigarette smoke from accordions played in a smoke-filled environment when they are opened. Soot-like dirt was deposited throughout the instrument.

"One repairer commented that the deposition of dirt could be substantial enough to affect the pitch of the reed."Two others claimed that if a musician tended to play in a particular key, that this could be determined from the distribution of dirt around particular reeds."

All the repairers were categorical that these signs had definitely improved in accordions they had worked on since the introduction of the smoking ban in Ireland. The doctors concluded the smoking ban has been "music to the ears of the people of Ireland."

In March 2004, Ireland outlawed smoking in every workplace including pubs and restaurants and even on fishing boats and in company cars. Anyone found breaching it faces a fine of up to 3,000 euros (4,254 dollars) and pubs run the risk of ultimately losing their licence.

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Van Morrison somewhere is blowing into a nice clean saxophone reed... Into the Mystic. Ahhh. Clean Air.