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Smoking Bans Going Global

By Dan Schlossberg
ConsumerAffairs.com

October 10, 2006

• California Tobacco Control Program Saved Billions in Medical Costs • Report Links Tobacco Marketing and Movies With Youth Smoking •Study Finds Big Tobacco Exploiting Ad Ban Loophole • Do Tobacco Firms Cut Menthol to Hook Young Smokers? • Wegmans, DeCicco Markets Ditch Cigarettes • Secondhand Smoke Linked To Hospital Admissions • Anti-Smoking Drug Chantix Linked to Seizures, Heart Problems, Diabetes • Congress Moves To Tighten Tobacco Controls • Toddlers Affected Most By Secondhand Smoke at Home • Tobacco 'Innovations' Aimed at Younger Smokers • Heart Attacks Drop After Smoking Ban in Italy • Physician Highlights Hazards of Bartending • Anti-Smoking Suit Targets Restaurants • Smoking Linked to Sleep Disturbances • States Challenge R.J. Reynolds Cigarette Ads • Smokers Cost Taxpayers $10 Billion • Secondhand Smoke a Serious Health Risk • Would Women Rather Smoke Than Get Fat? • Kroger Agrees to Curb Tobacco Sales to Minors • No More Free Smokes in California • Second-Hand Smoke Tied to Lower Test Scores • Secondhand Smoke Bad for Pets • Researchers Link Smoking To Dementia • Smoking Turns On Genes -- Permanently • Bill Targets Online Cigarette Sellers • UK Tries Nicotine Patches on Pregnant Smokers • More Toxins Found in Smokers' Children --- • More about Smoking & Health

Though getting rid of passive tobacco smoke in public places is far from a done deal, travelers can find smoking bans on almost every continent.

In North America, many states have finally banned smoking from bars and restaurants but the vast majority have not. Nor have most European countries, though Ireland, Spain, Italy, Great Britain, Norway, and Sweden have enacted restrictions and France is trying to follow.

A French parliamentary panel has recommended that smoking be banned in cafes, offices, schools, restuarants, airports, train stations, and other enclosed public places by next fall. Now it's up the government to say yea or nay.

The Health Ministry definitely favors the ban, warning that smoking kills 66,000 Frenchmen prematurely every year. But changing the prevailing laissez-fair attitude may not be difficult in a country where dogs are routinely allowed into restaurants.

Bermuda has banned smoking in bars and restuarants too. Even South America is getting into the act, with Uruguay the first country on that continent to enact a smoking ban in enclosed public places.

In Bhutan, anti-smoking laws can only be described as draconian. It is not only illegal to smoke in public there or to sell tobacco but fines are equivalent to the average worker's salary for two months.

In the United States, 16 states have smoking bans for restaurants, with 10 extending those bans to bars and taverns. Arkansas and Oklahoma have enacted new laws to protect consumers and Puerto Rico, a would-be state, has given its law teeth: it bans smoking in private cars with children under age 13, perhaps anticipating a recent study that demonstrated the dangers of the practice!

According to the North American Travel Journalists Association, travel writers who care about public health, and particularly the health of travelers, can speed legislation by including information about smoking restrictions -- whether public or private -- in their articles. They can also help win public consent for such legislation as the pending California law that would impose fines on motorists who fling cigarette butts out of car windows.

Proposed fines are so steep that they may be more than the price of the car: $3,400 for first offenders and $20,400 for anyone cited three times or more. The Southern California sponsor means business!

Also in health-conscious California, communities are starting to consider bills that would ban smoking in outdoor public places such as parks and beaches.

That would please a Washington-based lobbying group called Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), now in its 38th year; the California-based Americans for Nonsmokers Rights (ANR); and Group Against Smoking Pollution (GASP). All have aggressively promoted enactment of anti-smoking legislation.

The latest ASH newsletter states: "Restrictions on smlking to guarantee smokefree air for nonsmokers are spreading and are proving to be very effective and well-received."

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