Cancer Research pilot study reveals bar staff passively smoke

Cancer Research is to carry out tests on 100 hospitality operations after the results of a pilot study at a pub in Bristol revealed that bar staff were passively smoking the equivalent of 12 cigarettes a day before the ban came in.

Ross Nicol, landlord of the Cornubia pub in Bristol and his partner Karen Beesley, both non-smokers, had their breath and saliva tested for smoking chemicals two days before and four days after the ban came in on 1 July.

The results revealed that the amount of carbon monoxide in their bodies had dropped 80% while levels of cotinine, a bi-product of nicotine, had fallen from the level of a moderate smoker to that of a non-smoker.

Nicol told the Metro: "I was shocked by the results. It's so nice to not stink of tobacco smoke at the end of the night."

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By Daniel Thomas

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