Smoking ban eases damage to Irish pipes
Smoking bans save . . . accordions.
The 2004 ban on smoking in Ireland has not only improved the air in pubs, but also has improved the quality of music, Dublin physicians report today in the British Journal of Medicine.
Particulates from secondhand smoke accumulate within and damage accordions, concertinas, melodeons and Uilleann bagpipes, which are favored by musicians for their traditional pub sessions.
The deposits on reeds in the instruments can become so thick that they change the instrument’s pitch, reported Dr. John F. Garvey of St. Vincent’s University Hospital and his colleagues. One repairer they contacted said it was even possible to identify the key most commonly used by a musician from the distribution of particulates around specific reeds in his instrument.
The team contacted six of seven instrument repairers in Dublin, and all reported that damage to those instruments had declined sharply since the ban, which applies in virtually all public spaces.
The ban may have been controversial among smokers, they wrote, but it “has been music to the ears of the people of Ireland.”
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