Day: 16 April 2007

Irish Smoking Ban Helps Lungs

In Ireland they implemented a smoking ban in March 2004 and researchers have noted a marked increase in air quality as a result. The research reports that an all out smoking ban in the workplace is wonderfully successful in reducing exposure to harmful particles, and, or course carcinogens. This Irish study supports previous research.

The workers were all given lung function tests before the ban came in and a year later….The bar-workers said they were exposed to around 40 hours per week before the ban came in, falling to 25 minutes afterwards – a 99% decrease in exposure.

And lung function tests improved dramatically in non-smoking barmen post-ban.

Billboards Banned in São Paulo

no adsThe Brazilain city of Ṣo Paulo has been praised by many with their recent law that dictates that limits of outdoor advertising Рa billboard ban. To get an idea of what a city looks like without ugly advertising check out these images.

City planners, architects and environmental advocates have argued enthusiastically that the prohibition, through a new “clean city” law, brings São Paulo a welcome step closer to an imagined urban ideal.

The law is “a rare victory of the public interest over private, of order over disorder, aesthetics over ugliness, of cleanliness over trash,” Roberto Pompeu de Toledo, a columnist and author of a history of São Paulo, wrote in the weekly newsmagazine Veja. “For once in life, all that is accustomed to coming out on top in Brazil has lost.”