An Irish engineering firm has come up with a new ventilation system that it claims would allow smoking rooms in pubs.
However, the proposal has already been ruled out by the Government, which will introduce its smoking ban on January 26th no matter what, according to the Department of Health and Children.
Ventilation and air-conditioning specialist, DionX Ltd, yesterday announced what it said was a new computerised ventilation system capable of cleaning up the environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) produced by smokers.
The company had designed the system using requirements laid down by the Health and Safety Authority, according to company's managing director, Mr Ciaran Taggart.
The company had spent 2½ years developing the project, he said yesterday.
A system had been installed in a Wexford pub, and a research group at the University of Wales, Glamorgan, had conducted independent tests on air quality while the pub was in full use to confirm the system worked, he said.
The system displaces all indoor air with fresh outdoor air up to 15 to 20 times per hour, and reduced carbon monoxide and smoke particulates to near-zero according to the Welsh researchers, who conducted the tests in a number of pubs on behalf of the Vintners' Federation of Ireland.
Dedicated smoking rooms could be created in pubs using the system, Mr Taggart added.
The new ventilation system did not produce a draught despite the high number of air changes, he said, because the air was introduced at floor level through a large number of vents.
The new system would have no effect on the new no-smoking regulations, however, according to a spokesman at the Department of Health and Children. The Minister had rejected ventilation as an option.
Ventilation would not protect those working around smokers from breathing in ETS from their cigarettes, the spokesman said.