Carbon monoxide is a poisonous gas produced when cigarettes are burned. It is linked to heart attacks and breathing failure. Alison Healy reports.
The study will also show that carbon monoxide levels fell by 36 per cent in bar workers who were former smokers.
Details of the research conducted by the respiratory laboratory in St James's Hospital will be revealed at a Dublin seminar organised by the Office of Tobacco Control (OTC) this afternoon to mark the first anniversary of the smoking ban.
The researchers evaluated carbon monoxide levels in the breath of 81 bar workers before the introduction of the smoke-free law and again a year later.
The vast majority of smokers believe the smoking ban was a good idea, according to the latest research, which found 96 per cent of people believed the law was successful, including 89 per cent of smokers. The tns/mrbi survey found that 98 per cent of people felt workplaces were healthier since the ban started, including 94 per cent of smokers.
A four-year EU information and awareness campaign will be launched today aimed at warning children and young adults in Ireland on the harmful effects of smoking. HELP - For a Life Without Tobacco will particularly concentrate on young girls, who are the main group at risk.
The OTC has described the workplace smoking ban as an overwhelming success. OTC chairman Dr Michael Boland said the primary aim of the smoke-free legislation was to protect workers from exposure to the harmful effects of second-hand smoke.
"One year later, the evidence is clear that the vast majority of enclosed workplaces are smoke-free and that clean, healthy, smoke-free environments are part of normal work and social life," he said.
Separately, the OTC found that 94 per cent of workplaces were complying with the smoking ban in December. This figure remained unchanged since last September.
Inspectors found that pubs had slipped slightly in compliance rates. The latest figures showed that some 90 per cent of pubs were obeying the ban, compared with 91 per cent in September.
Hotels also showed a 1 per cent drop in compliance rates, to 93 per cent. Restaurants still had the same high compliance rate, with 99 per cent of establishments complying with the ban.
Environmental health officers inspected almost 35,000 hospitality premises in the nine months to December.
The Health and Safety Authority, which inspects all other workplaces, recorded a 92 per cent compliance rate.
Businesses most likely to flout the ban were in the transport, storage and communications industries, with 11 per cent of these firms breaking the law.
The most compliant workers were found in real estate, renting and business activities, with 95 per cent of these firms obeying the smoking ban.
By December, the smoke-free compliance helpline operated by the OTC had received 3,121 calls. Some 1,881 of these were complaints of workplaces breaking the law. The helpline also deals with queries about the law.
Most calls were received in the first month but this quickly declined to an average of 40-50 calls a week.
Dr Boland said there was "overwhelming support" for the smoke-free law among smokers and non-smokers alike.