Accordion news: smoking ban benefits bands - September 28, 2007
Smoking bans have an unintended consequence, according to research in this week’s BMJ. John Garvey, a medic in Ireland, found that accordions played at traditional music sessions in previously smoke filled pubs were cleaner and possibly sound better as a result of the ban in that country (AFP, LA Times). “One repairer commented that the deposition of dirt could be substantial enough to affect the pitch of the reed,” his letter in the BMJ states.
“It’s a remarkable analogy in that you’ve got an instrument that’s basically performing much the same way as the lung and responding much the same way as the lung,” said Kirby Donnelly, head of environmental and occupational health at Texas A&M’s School of Rural Public Health (Health Day).
