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STAFF REPORTER LEISURE companies operating in the Balearics, including those providing party and banqueting facilities, are concerned that their staff are going to become unwilling law enforcers after the introduction of a total smoking ban at the start of the New Year.

Pedro Vidal, the President of the Balearic Fiesta Halls Association said yesterday that company staff will be forced into a position where they will have to make a legal complaint against clients who flout the new law. Vidal, who heads an association comprising some 200 members, said that he was very critical of the consequences that the ban will promote in the industry. He said that the anti-smoking law promotes the interests of non-smokers but breaches the rights of those who want to smoke during their leisure time.

Vidal said that prior to the end of last year, he and industry chiefs had held a meeting with the regional Public Health department in which it was agreed to set up a committee to monitor the application and consequences of the new law.

The President warned that leisure companies will be seriously affected during the tourist season when many visitors to the Balearics will make the assumption that they are allowed to smoke in pubs, bars, cafés and discotheques. It is possible that such visitors will withdraw their custom when they discover the ban, said Vidal.