Sir, - May I, as a pub-loving reformed smoker (a yellowed sepulchre perhaps), suggest that an efficient air-conditioning system, to be certified by an engineer, be a prerequisite for the issue or renewal of a pub licence under the proposed new regime.
While we, the patrons, volunteer for duty, the staff have little choice but to inhale second-hand smoke for all of their working hours. Will the publicans' trade associations and the State, as licensing authority, claim they didn't know of the dangers of second-hand smoke when faced with a raft of litigation from infirm bar workers, or worse, their next of kin? - Yours, etc., Terry Griffin,