禁菸10年 愛爾蘭酒吧重獲新生
On the morning of March 29, 2004, global television crews gathered outside a Dublin restaurant stocked with celebrating lawmakers to witness what few thought possible in this welcoming land of brilliant but noxious pubs.
2004年3月29日上午，來自世界各地的電視工作者聚集在都柏林的一家餐館外——餐館裏擠滿了歡慶的立法者——去見證之前幾乎沒人相信能在這個熱情的酒館之國實現的事情（那些酒館好是好，卻也臭名昭著）。“We called it Ireland’s first smoke-free breakfast,” said Dr. Fenton Howell, Ireland’s national tobacco-control adviser. “It was the first day of our ban on workplace smoking — the first of its kind in the world — and there were some doubts that our cherished pubs would obey the law.”
“我們稱它爲愛爾蘭的第一頓無煙早餐，”愛爾蘭全國菸草控制顧問芬頓·豪厄爾博士(Dr. Fenton Howell)說，“它是我們在工作場所禁菸的第一天——是世界上第一個此類禁令——當時有人懷疑爲我們所珍愛的酒吧怕是不會遵守這項法律。”But obey they did. Within a month, according to health-ministry studies, there was 97 percent compliance in all workplaces, including Ireland’s then-7,800 “public houses.” Polls even showed an 80 percent approval of the ban among Irish smokers.
但是它們做到了。據衛生部門的調查，在一個月內，97%的工作場所遵守禁令，包括愛爾蘭當時的7800個“酒吧”。民意調查甚至表明，愛爾蘭的菸民中有80%贊成這項禁令。
The ban “absolutely” increased tourism, said the Irish minister of tourism, Michael Ring, a devout smoker 25 years ago. “But as an Irish person, I thought this ban would never happen. It was just part of our culture — a drink and a smoke.”
愛爾蘭旅遊部長邁克爾·林(Michael Ring)說，這項禁令“絕對”促進了旅遊業。林25年前是個堅定的菸民。“但是作爲愛爾蘭人，我曾經認爲這項禁令永遠也不可能實現。因爲酒和煙是我們文化的一部分。”Ten years later, amid anniversary celebrations by Ireland’s health community, the ban appears to have unquestionably improved lives. It has also motivated dozens of countries to copy Ireland’s legislation and forever altered an Irish institution that some thought impervious to change.
如今，愛爾蘭的健康團體在慶祝禁菸十週年，這條禁令無疑改善了生活。它還激發幾十個國家效仿愛爾蘭的立法。它也永遠改變了愛爾蘭的習俗——有些人曾經認爲那是不可能改變的。With stunning acceptance — not unlike Sweden’s switching overnight from driving on the left to the right in 1967 — Ireland’s pubs repainted their walls, tore out nicotine-laced carpets and hosed out decades of stench. Barkeeps, waiters and a legion of musicians hailed their newly smoke-free jobs.
就像瑞典1967年一夜之間把沿左側駕駛改爲沿右側駕駛，愛爾蘭的酒吧驚人地接受了這項禁令，重新粉刷牆壁，扔掉沾滿尼古丁的地毯，沖掉幾十年的臭味。酒吧老闆、服務員和衆多音樂家們歡迎新的無煙工作環境。“I don’t know any musicians who weren’t delighted,” said Eoin Glackin, 27, a popular indie folksinger-songwriter from Dublin. “I remember my first gig in Dublin at Slattery’s pub — solo guitar — and there was like a second roof of wispy, cirrus-cloud smoke in the place. It was beautiful, actually, but horrible to be breathing that crap for six, seven hours a night. It has hurt so many good voices over the years.”
“我認識的音樂家們都很高興，”27歲的約恩·格萊金(Eoin Glackin)說。他是都柏林的一位受歡迎的獨立民謠歌手兼創作者。“我記得第一次在都柏林斯萊特里酒吧(Slattery’s)現場演唱時——吉他獨奏——那裏像是還有一層由縷縷煙霧組成的屋頂。它真的很美，但是一晚上連續六七個小時呼吸這樣糟糕的空氣太可怕了。這麼多年來它毀掉了不少的好嗓子。”Few in the pub trade doubt that the smoking ban has coaxed thousands of nonsmoking Irish music fans into pubs they had previously avoided. John Strawn, an author and a golf-course architect from Portland, Ore., who visited Ireland often in the early 2000s, said that he would longingly walk Dublin’s Temple Bar district warmed by the fiery fiddles of the inviting pubs. “I so badly wanted to be in there,” he said, “but I couldn’t stomach the smoke. Now when I’m in Dublin, I listen to more live Irish music than ever before.”
酒吧業幾乎沒人懷疑禁菸令吸引了成千上萬不吸菸的愛爾蘭音樂迷們來到他們之前不去的酒吧。來自俄勒岡州波特蘭市的作家、高爾夫球場設計師約翰·斯特朗(John Strawn)在本世紀初經常訪問愛爾蘭。他說自己渴望在都柏林的聖殿酒吧區漫步，被那裏誘人的酒吧裏傳來的熱情的小提琴聲溫暖着。“我特別想進去，”他說，“但是我受不了煙味。如今我去都柏林時，會比過去聽到更多現場演奏的愛爾蘭音樂。”While the tourism industry has been pleased, Ireland’s medical establishment has been ecstatic.
愛爾蘭的旅遊業感到欣慰，醫療機構更是欣喜若狂。The TobaccoFree Research Institute Ireland, a Dublin-based health-advocacy group, released studies in 2013 showing a 26 percent post-ban reduction in heart disease throughout Ireland and a 32 percent decline in strokes, suggesting that over a decade the smoking ban may have saved more than 3,700 lives.
都柏林的健康宣傳組織愛爾蘭無煙研究所(TobaccoFree Research Institute Ireland)2013年發佈的研究表明，禁菸後愛爾蘭的心臟病發病率降低了26%，中風發病率降低了32%，10年禁菸挽救了3700多條性命。The Vintners’ Federation of Ireland famously deemed the law “unnecessary, unworkable and unjustified” and predicted dire problems with enforcement, few of which have occurred. Pubs throughout Ireland and the United Kingdom did experience a well-publicized decline in the last decade — about 1,300 Irish pubs shut down — but researchers say that it is largely because of supermarket liquor sales, stricter drunk-driving laws and the changing entertainment habits of patrons younger than 40, not the smoking ban. The tobacco industry’s prediction of financial ruin for bars, restaurants and hotels, with a potential loss of 65,000 jobs, never came to pass.
愛爾蘭酒商聯盟(Vintners’ Federation of Ireland)曾宣稱這項法律“沒有必要，不可行，沒道理”而出名，並預測了執法會帶來的嚴重問題，而這些問題幾乎都沒發生。在過去10年裏，愛爾蘭和英國的酒吧的確經歷了被廣泛宣傳的衰落——愛爾蘭約有1300個酒吧關門——但研究者說這主要是因爲超市銷售酒類、酒駕法律更嚴格、40歲以下的顧客們改變了娛樂方式，而不是因爲禁菸。菸草業預測酒吧、餐館和酒店會遭受經濟損失，會失去6.5萬個工作崗位——它的預測從未成爲現實。“The tobacco interests do their best to make people think no one will obey the law and it will be total chaos,” said Dr. Stanton A. Glantz, a University of California at San Francisco medical professor and prolific anti-tobacco researcher.
“菸草利益相關者竭力讓人們相信沒人會遵守這項法律，它會導致徹底的混亂，”加州大學舊金山分校的醫學教授、寫過好幾本書的反煙草研究者斯坦頓·A·格蘭斯博士(Dr. Stanton A. Glantz)說。“Ireland just did everything right,” he said. “Because of Ireland almost all of Europe is smoke-free today. They all figured, if Ireland can do it, any country can.”
“愛爾蘭把每件事都做對了，”他說。“因爲愛爾蘭，現在幾乎整個歐洲都禁菸了。他們都意識到，如果愛爾蘭能禁菸，其他國家也能。”Indeed, an array of countries from around the world have followed suit: Norway and New Zealand in 2004, Italy and Britain by 2007, India in 2008, Greece (with Europe’s heaviest smokers) in 2010 and Brazil in 2011. In July, Russia will join the crowd. A handful of states in the United States preceded Ireland — California, in 1995, was the first — as well as various cities, like Pueblo, Colo., and El Paso, Tex. Ireland’s next health target? Passive smoking at home and in cars, especially where children are present.
的確，世界上很多國家紛紛開始效仿愛爾蘭：挪威和新西蘭（2004年），意大利和英國（2007年），印度（2008年），希臘（它是歐洲吸菸最嚴重的國家，2010年）和巴西（2011年）。今年7月，俄羅斯將加入這個行列。美國有幾個州（加利福尼亞州[1995年]是第一個）和幾個城市，比如科羅拉多州普韋布洛市、得克薩斯州厄爾巴索市，先於愛爾蘭禁菸。愛爾蘭的下一個健康目標是什麼？避免在家裏和車裏被動吸菸，特別是有兒童在場時。The Irish smoking ban not only transformed pubs, but also breathed new life into hotels.
愛爾蘭的禁菸令不僅改變了酒吧，而且給酒店帶來了新生命。“The ban has been a spectacular success,” said Stephen McNally, the president of the Irish Hotels Federation, which represents some 900 hotels and guesthouses. “We used to come home at night, and your clothes would have this horrible stench. Now our restaurants, hallways and bedrooms smell fresh.”
“這項禁令取得了驚人的成功，”愛爾蘭酒店聯盟(Irish Hotels Federation)主席斯蒂芬·麥克納利(Stephen McNally)說。該聯盟代表約900家酒店和旅館。“以前我們晚上回到家，衣服上有那種討厭的臭味。現在我們的餐廳、走廊和客房都空氣清新。”But not all Irish hotels are entirely smoke-free. The law allows hotels to permit smoking in certain rooms or designated floors. Mr. McNally estimated that about half of Ireland’s hotels are “100 percent smoke-free” but that this number is growing out of concern for maids’ health.
但不是所有的愛爾蘭酒店都完全禁菸。法律允許酒店有吸菸房或吸菸樓層。麥克納利估計約有一半的愛爾蘭酒店“100%禁菸”，不過，出於對客房服務員的健康考慮，這個比例還在增加中。In far northwest Ireland, in rural County Mayo along the cold Atlantic, Terry McSweeney, who with his wife, Frances Kelly, owns Stella Maris Country House Hotel, said that their American guests heartily approve of the ban, but that he believes it may have hurt the rural food and pub trade.
在愛爾蘭西北角、寒冷的大西洋沿岸的梅奧縣，特里·麥克斯威尼(Terry McSweeney)和妻子弗朗西絲·凱利(Frances Kelly)開設了斯特拉·馬里斯鄉村家庭旅館(Stella Maris Country House Hotel)。他說美國客人們衷心贊成這項禁令，但是他認爲它可能已經損害了農村的食品和酒吧產業。“As a result of the ban,” said Mr. McSweeney, a former Bostonian, “people started going to the take-aways to bring their hooch home, where they could watch soccer on the telly, and have their drink and smoke. As a result, tax revenue dwindled in rural Ireland, and some small villages started going down the tubes.”
“因爲禁令，”曾經是波士頓人的麥克斯威尼說，“人們開始去外賣店把烈酒帶回家，他們可以一邊看足球比賽，一邊喝酒、抽菸。結果，愛爾蘭農村地區的稅收減少了，有些小村莊開始衰敗了。”In bustling Ballina (population, 11,000), the former owner of the largest bar-restaurant in town said that one of the ban’s controversial elements — pubs being allowed to build separate smoking rooms with ventilation — actually increased his business and enlivened the town’s dating scene.
在熱鬧的巴利納鎮（人口1.1萬人），該鎮最大的酒吧—餐館的前老闆說，禁菸令的其中一項爭議——酒吧可以建單獨的帶有通風設施的吸菸室——實際上有利於他的生意，活躍了該鎮的約會景象。“After we built the ‘smoking shed,’ ” said Paul Murphy, who owned Crockets on the Quay for a decade, the smokers “really bonded.”
保羅·墨菲(Paul Murphy)開設碼頭浮雕(Crockets on the Quay)餐吧已有十年。他說，“在我們建了‘吸菸室’之後”，吸菸者“真的密切聯繫在一起了”。“Suddenly that unapproachable girl you had always seen from across the room was standing beside you in the smoking shed asking you for a light,” Mr. Murphy added, with a smile. “At least one marriage came out of that.”
“突然之間，你之前一直偷瞄的、房間另一端不可接近的那個女孩，現在就在吸菸室裏站你的旁邊，跟你借火，”墨菲面帶微笑說，“這至少促成了一對夫妻。”
