Health staff may be issued masks to stop legal claims over smoking

Staff in health facilities exempt from the smoking ban, such as psychiatric hospitals, may be issued with masks in order to prevent legal claims over exposure to harmful tobacco smoke.

Psychiatric hospitals in the Dublin area have received legal advice advising them to consider issuing masks or filters to staff who work in close proximity to patients who smoke.

The legal advice, commissioned from Arthur Cox & Co solicitors, could have implications for nurses across the country working in prisons, hospices, psychiatric hospitals and nursing homes.

They are all exempt from the ban due to safety concerns over patients or inmates being denied access to cigarettes.

Smoking levels are traditionally high in psychiatric hospitals, for example, where an estimated 3,000 patients are cared for. Smoking rates in prisons are in the region of 90 per cent. However, while these facilities are exempt from the smoking ban, the legal advice states that employers have a common law duty of care to ensure employees work in a safe environment.

Hospitals have also been advised that the exemption does not constitute a right to smoke and they should take steps to eliminate tobacco smoke as far as possible.

The advice also recommends that health boards publish revised safety statements, which are mandatory under health and safety legislation, and that smoking areas be located in places where smoke does not filter into the enclosed workplace.

These health facilities should also ensure there is sufficient fresh air in an enclosed workplace and that ventilation systems are in good working order.

Other areas exempted under the smoking ban include hotel rooms, prisons, the Central Mental Hospital and accommodation provided for by religious orders.

Meanwhile, the Psychiatric Nurses' Association (PNA) has issued a circular to members asking them to seek safety statements from their employers seeking information on what steps will be taken to reduce exposure to tobacco smoke.

The PNA has advised members that such statements should include:

A total ban on smoking in as much of the hospital or service that is possible.

A statement limiting indoor smoking to patients who, for medical reasons, cannot use outside facilities.

A statement that all employees and visitors are banned from smoking.

Last year the PNA lobbied against the smoking ban and warned that assaults would "substantially increase" if the ban went ahead.

However, the union's general secretary, Mr Des Kavanagh, said that while it respected the humanitarian need of a small number of patients addicted to tobacco, it needed to assert the "right of nurses to a safe working environment".

Many health boards are still ordering cigarettes into their canteens and shops on behalf of psychiatric patients.