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Ban in Public Buildings

Germany Slowly Starting to Combat Smoking

Germans are among the heaviest smokers in Europe, which is ironic given how health-conscious they are in other respects. Now the government is planning to outlaw smoking in public buildings, but it remains reluctant to implement a ban in pubs and restaurants like other EU countries.

The German government, which has lagged behind other European countries in clamping down on smoking, is planning to ban lighting up in public buildings but is hesitant about extending any ban to bars and restaurants.

Consumer Affairs Minister Horst Seehofer said the government was preparing draft legislation to outlaw smoking in public buildings such as hospitals, administrative buildings and old folks' homes. But he stopped short of pledging to ban smoking in bars and restaurants.

"I expect us to have a smoking ban in place in the course of 2007," Seeholfer told the Tagesspiegel am Sonntag newspaper. "Restaurants have declared they're prepared to set up more non-smoking areas. But I'm not satisfied at all with what they have undertaken so far. Restaurants are far too slow to set up smoke-free seating."

The debate about smoking has gained momentum in Germany in recent weeks following calls for anti-smoking legislation from members of parliament alarmed at statistics showing the risk to passive smokers. About one in three Germans aged over 15 smokes regularly, well above rates in Britain (26%), France (25.4%) Italy (24%) and the Scandinavian countries, according to figures from the World Health Organization.

It's an odd statistic given how health-conscious Germans are in other respects -- take their high consumption of organic food or the high density of pharmacies and doctor's offices. It has been attributed partly to the strong presence in the ruling political classes of people from the 1968 generation for whom smoking was almost a way of life and was associated with freedom and rebellion.

Some even say Hitler's aversion to smoking, and attempts by the Nazis to crack down on it, may have made Germans associate smoking with tolerance and freedom after World War Two.

Against the times

Germany is the only country in the European Union that has ignored and actively fought a bloc ban on tobacco advertising. Tobacco companies continue to advertise on billboards and in cinemas where smooth commercials whisper that cigarettes are cool and fashionable.

Almost 140,000 Germans die every year from tobacco-related illnesses. Some studies estimate that 3,000-4,000 deaths per year can be attributed to passive smoking.

The new draft legislation, expected to come into force next year, is aimed at bringing German law in line with that of other European governments which have been far more active in combating smoking. Ireland imposed the world's first nationwide public smoking ban in 2004. Italy, Sweden, Scotland, Norway and Spain have followed suit in varying degrees. Belgium, Britain, Northern Ireland and Portugal are expected to introduce tight new rules next year.

Liberal daily Süddeutsche Zeitung said Seehofer was "strangely cautious" about extending a ban to restaurants and bars. "Other countries have proved that such a ban, even though it is adhered to almost 100%, doesn't deter customers, contrary to what some bar owners have been claiming," the paper said on Monday.

"The facts are simply too unequivocal: employees in pubs are significantly more prone to get lung cancer than other workers. And other involuntary nicotine consumers too, so-called passive smokers, often sustain severe damage to their health as a result of proximity to smokers."

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