Publicans are to present new research to the Minister for Health in support of their case against a ban on smoking in pubs and restaurants from next year.
The publicans, members of the Licensed Vintners' Association (LVA), have been encouraged by a new Californian study published in the British Medical Journal which suggests the effects of passive smoking are not as harmful as had been thought.
The lead author of the study, Mr James Enstrom, of the University of California said: "The association between exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and coronary heart disease and lung cancer may be considerably weaker than generally believed."
His assertion flies in the face of conventional wisdom - including the opinion of the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a division of the World Health Organisation, which has consistently maintained that such smoke causes lung and other cancers. Mr Enstrom and Mr Geoffrey Kabat, of the State University of New York, analysed data from a cancer prevention study of 118,094 California adults from 1959 to 1998 which was funded by the tobacco industry.
They focused on more than 35,500 people who had never smoked but who had spouses who did. The researchers found that exposure to passive smoking was not associated with deaths from heart disease or lung cancer.
Other scientists and the American Cancer Society disputed the findings, saying the research is flawed and inadequate to measure the impact of passive smoking. Dr Vivienne Nathanson of the British Medical Association said there was "overwhelming evidence, built up over decades, that passive smoking causes lung cancer and heart disease, as well as triggering asthma attacks".
The American Cancer Society's rebuttal was even stronger. "We are appalled that the tobacco industry has succeeded in giving visibility to a study with so many problems it literally failed to get a government grant," said Dr Michael Thun, the society's national vice president of epidemiology.
But commenting after the Californian research was made public yesterday, the chief executive of the Licensed Vintners' Association, Mr Donal O'Keeffe, said the association was "obviously hoping the Minister will change his mind" on the ban.
