However, Mr Farrugia continued, those entities or people who were not present for the meetings were now introducing specifications and terms and conditions which had not been agreed in the first place. “This amounts to a double u-turn,” he said angrily. “We cannot continue running the country like this. The government has become like a yo-yo man and businesses are stuck in the middle,” he said.

Mr Farrugia, who was contacted by The Malta Independent for a reaction to the technical specifications issued by the Malta Standards Authority (MSA) yesterday, reiterated the chamber’s stand that the regulations on smoking in public places will have a “disastrous effect on businesses”.

He said the regulations will have an effect on various sectors of society, including the importers and distributors of air-purifying equipment and the technical people who are responsible for their maintenance.

Mr Farrugia said Ireland, which recently introduced the same regulations Malta was introducing, had experienced a fall in the number of people frequenting bars, pubs and restaurants and as a result, businesses were folding.

He said that while on the one hand, one minister was introducing a regulation whereby people cannot walk in the road with a bottle of alcohol in their hand, another minister was telling people drinking in a bar to smoke outside in the road because they were not allowed to smoke inside. What will they do with their drink? We need some co-ordination, said Mr Farrugia.

The MSA sent the media a synopsis containing what they called the “salient points of the Technical Specifications”. The MSA statement continued that the synopsis is intended to introduce the public to the concepts contained in the specifications. In his reaction, Mr Farrugia said the GRTU was convinced that the regulations and the specifications, when enforced, will have a drastic effect on business.

He said that Malta should learn from the Irish, who have experienced a downward trend since these regulations were introduced.

Mr Farrugia said these things only happen in Malta and that this was not the way to run a country.

The Indoor Air Quality – Reduction of effects of smoking on non-smokers – Requirements, gives the necessary requirements for minimising the possibility of contamination of non-smoking areas by chemicals emanating from smoking carried out in smoking rooms and areas in licensed premises.

The technical specifications do not cover the ventilation requirements of buildings where no smoking activity is carried out.

The following is the full synopsis of the requirements:

The licensed premises shall: (a) be designated as non-smoking or (b) have adequate ventilation systems installed and functioning for a designated smoking room.

Clear signs shall be installed in both non-smoking licensed premises as well as in non-smoking rooms in premises permitting smoking. The signs shall be indicate both the possibility of smoking as well as its prohibition as may be the case. Signs shall be installed in conspicuous places and permanently maintained.

Designated smoking rooms shall be so constructed as to ensure that persons outside the smoking rooms are not subjected to fumes from the smoking room. These include full height walls and automatically closing doors which are to be kept in the closed position at all times.

The ventilation requisites for smoking rooms include the maintenance of a negative pressure inside the room, the provision of fresh air inside the room and the exhaust of air from inside the room without re-circulation inside the premises.

The synopsis concludes by saying that the full text of the specifications is available for purchase from the MSA.