Thanks for publicizing this. I'm one of the many people who have severe health problems from the chemicals that make up synthetic scents. This information will help me know which pubs to avoid.

Please keep us up to date on this new trend. An asthma attack really ruins a night out.

Emma, Aberdeen,

Whatever happened to the great principles of private property you Brits gave us over here in the US? What gives non-smokers the right to use your politicians to tell a pub owner to kick out all the smokers, any more than the other way around?

Now the crazy federal politicians over here will probably try the same thing, citing the UK as a good example. I don't smoke but I manage just fine here in the States. Restaurants generally have separate areas--what's wrong with that?

You can talk all you want about how bad smoking is for your breath, or your health--but it's the pub owner's pub. If customers are driven away by someone's smoker's breath or odor, the owner can decide to kick them out. If customers really preferred artificial odors to tobacco smoke, pub owners would have made the change long ago. Incidentally, the pub I frequented in Hampshire was pretty clean.

You did this nonsense in summer. In winter you'll have a revolt of the freezing smokers.

Timothy T, Greenville, SC, USA

I realise that these "scents" will probably have been put through chemical toxicity and health'n'safety tests but what happens if just one of them causes an allergic reaction to someone?

Have these scents been tested as to how they behave as they degrade? What happens if the smell of roses (for want of an example) degrades over time to smell like old armpits? Why, you have the situation where people can happily crow on about going to the pub and not coming home smelling off cigarettes, only to find that they now smell of armpits!

Also what happens if you go on a bit of a pub crawl? In one pub, you pick up the smell of old leather, in the next the smell of freshly cut grass, in a third the smell of malted hops. Face it, at the end of the night you're still going to end up stinking.

Steve, London,

I myself run a public house and am finding that quite a few non smokers prefer to be outside with the smokers in order to enjoy the company they came to the pub for in the first place.

Prior to the ban I had sight of several biased surveys on the subject of the smoking ban and it seems evident that statistics being touted about that pubs are not effected are equally manufactured.

This decision should have been made by the British People through a vote not by Politicians who no longer appear to represent the people who elected them.

Sue, Stockport, England

"The solution is simple. Allow smoking in pubs and clubs and those who want fresh air can go outside to drink.


Brilliant. And just how are those who don't wish to fight their way through a fug of foul-smelling smoke, or go home stinking of cigarette smoke, or have an asthma attack triggered, supposed to buy their drinks in the first place?

Wether Sppon, London, UK

The only person I know with haliatosis is a great friend of mine and she is a tolerant non-smoker.
So all those asthmatics that were looking forward to going to a smokefree pub, will be dissapointed.
That is the biggest thing I noticed on my couple of nights out since the ban, for the first time in years I need to take piriton and my saltpipe out with me. Never had a problem with smoke though. Fragrances and small furry pets are my biggest nightmare.
The pubs have lost their soul, because of scare mongering and lies.

mandy, cambs, uk

Basil, "I have never smelt haliatosis on a smoker's breath."

I'll take it that you're a smoker then?! Every smoker has rank breath no matter how much gum they chew or how much they brush. Kissing a smoker is like kissing a cigarette. To the point where I know people who have taken up smoking in order to mask the odour of their partner's mouth (as theirs will be the same).

Why not try asking a non smoker before you make ridiculous statements like that.

Seb, Northants,

To Arthur who suggests cleaning - I have worked in a bar and a pool and have a news flash for you and everyone who thinks cleaning helps - it doesn't. You can make a pub or changing room sparkle, but within about an hour, people will have made enough mess to bring the smell back.. it's a thankless task

Kat, Manchester,

"I have never smelt haliatosis (sic) on a smoker's breath. "

Basil, you've clearly never met my ex-boyfriend or my father! Rank, absolutely rank halitosis. The kind so bad you can smell it from several feet away. And they are both heavy smokers. Either you're a smoker yourself, or you've completely lost your sense of smell.

Michelle Butler, London, UK

How very funny, but of course drinking and smoking has been a British tradition for the last 400 years, so no one knew what would happen if you took half the atmosphere away. Still, our overlords wished it so and here we are.

I haven't been able to go to the pub since July !st, I was fine with the smoke, but I'm horribly allergic to air freshener and fly spray!

Rose, Yorkshire,

Perhaps this will encourage landlords to keep their places a little cleaner. Who in their right mind would put carpet on the floor in a pub anyway?

I'd rather have a cold pub with open windows than be forced to breathe in artificial fragrances, which make me cough.

That's it. I'm taking Hairy Dave's cue and moving abroad...

Liz, Gutersloh, Germany

Is it not quite ironic that this should happen, when Scotland new it, Ireland knew it but the lid was kept on so tightly so as not to let the smell out. The truth is that a Regulated Indoor Air Quality Standard that exists in other European Countries has meant that total smoking bans were not necessary and the air quality in all work places were considerably better than outside air at 99.97% clean. It is also true to say that a huge study on behalf of the EU published in January 2006 was shall we say, put in a cupboard at the time the smoking ban was really being debated because it actually investigated 34 of the worlds best known fresh air solutions (sprays etc) and found that most contained levels of Human Carcinogens at twice the level of ETS. So Governments have again lied to the public. They've just replaced one perceived cause of cancer with another, not to mention cooking, open fires, perfumes, human breath. If the anti smoking lobby believe their environment has improved ?????

Robert Feal-Martinez, Swindon, Wiltshire

The solution is simple. Allow smoking in pubs and clubs and those who want fresh air can go outside to drink.

Cha Winfield, Stowmarket, England

I usually dont like to respond to comments such as these below, but after reading through them, I have to say I feel somwehat compelled.
Ok so the smoking ban has introduced new and "interesting" aromas to us when at the pub, but I cannot understand these smokers who keep going on about the "oppressive, intrusive, Big-Brother-esque dictatorial law"
I think that these people have no understanding of what it means. The law was not passed to stop people from enjoying a fag every now and again, and you still can...outside. The law is there for the protection of the staff who, smokers or not, have to put up with the dangers it brings. And as for designated areas, thats a joke. Smoke by its nature expands and fills every part of the room it is in, it doesn't just stay within the defined boundaries of a smoking area.

You are acting like a bunch of spoilt kids who have been told not to put their hand into the toaster!!! You might not like it, but its for the benefit of everyone.

Chris , Belfast,

Or how about... we stop letting sociopathic NGOs like ASH dictate what a landlord can and cannot permit within his/her property and business.

Yes; air-fresheners, perfume etc. do contain carcinogenic VOCs.

And one of the seldom-reported benefits of tobacco use is that smoke has mild antiseptic properties: I have never smelt haliatosis on a smoker's breath.

If really acting in the interests of public health, the DoH would have specified an air-quality standard rather than introduce this discriminatory smoking ban.

Labour have no democratic mandate for this. Unless you voted LD, you didn't vote for a complete ban. By way of trying to justify their vindictive new law, Labour have been creative with opinion-poll data. They will quote that the ban has "over 70% support" whereas, in fact, what they are doing is adding the small number of people supporting a full ban to those favouring "further restrictions" in order to achieve a result which is an almost perfect inverse of the truth.

Basil Brown, Oxford, UK

If pubs denied entry to smelly people, a lot of them would be out of business!

Peter, Stockport, England

They could always (shock! Horror!) try cleaning the places once in a while!

Arthur, Newcastle,

The other day I read an article stating that artificial air-fresheners cause lung cancer and other respiratory and other diseases, asthma, allergies... So, we'll step backwards from the benefits gained by reduced smoking - genius!... How about we open the windows daily, shampoo the carpets and soft furnishings regularly, clean up spillages, deny entry to stinking people (who wants to stand next to them in a pub, anyway?), maintain the drainage systems, clean tables and floors daily... common sense, is it not?

Marco, Birmingham, uk - the dirty man of Europe

Why not follow the growing trend for enthusiastically banning of things and make BO or flatulence in a covered public space illegal?
Then you could hire a new army of Guardianista Enforcement officers and help reduce unemployment into the bargain!

Seriously tho' surely the obvious answer would be to reverse this illogical and oppressive total smoking ban and just have separate areas.

At least I left for somewhere more sensible.

HairyDave, Pafos, Cyprus

Maybe M&B could teach their staff how to clean properly. One of their pubs, the listed Black Friar, by Blackfriars Bridge, is so smelly that we could't stay inside. The smell is a rich amalgamation of stale mops, spilt beer, filthy carpet, and if I'm not much mistaken, rodent infestation. The latter was borne out by the mouse bait tucked inside a broken seat panel (classy!)
Our glasses stuck to the tables with dirt.
No amount of 'ozonic' fragrance is going to disguise this level of squalor.

Sarah N., London,