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The Week in Germany: Current Affairs October 6, 2006 Up in Smoke: German Public Opinion Shifts Towards Smoking Bans in Restaurants
Any American used to a smoke-free lifestyle traveling in Europe may recall finishing a fantastic meal in a cozy restaurant only to find stinky swirls of smoke wafting over from the next table as an elegant lady or gentleman enjoys a post-dinner cigarette. Smoking bans have been enforced to varying degrees in cities and states across the globe. As of 2005, nine smoke-free U.S. states prohibit smoking in almost all workplaces, including restaurants and bars, according to the American Lung Association. They are: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. Nearly 70 percent of the U.S. workforce benefit from a smoke-free policy. Ireland became the first country to impose a blanket ban on smoking in virtually all workplaces, closed public spaces and on public transport in March 2004. By all accounts this ban has been accepted even by Irish pub patrons. A few other EU member states have since followed suit. Italy instituted a smoking ban in January 2005 in all public places, including bars, restaurants, discotheques and offices. In Germany, smokers have long enjoyed amnesty from such crackdowns, much to the chagrin of anti-smoking activists and European health officials. But a recently released consumer survey has revealed that two-thirds of Germans are in favor of banning smoking in bars and restaurants. Conducted in September 2006 by the Nuremberg-based Society for Consumer Studies on behalf of the Heidelberg-based German Cancer Research Center, it confirms a growing trend of public opinion heading in this direction. Comparable questions were put forward in similar surveys in February 2005 and 2006. In February 2005, 52.9 of respondents came down in favor of smoke-free restaurants, a figure which increased to 59.1 percent in February 2006 and again to 63.8 percent in September 2006. Greens most in favor of smoke-free dining For the first time, respondents were asked for their political party affiliation in the latest survey. A total of 67 percent of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) voters, along with backers of the Christian Social Union (CSU), the CDU's Bavaria-based sister party, were in favor of a ban. This compares to 63 percent of supporters of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), which forms the current German federal government in a so-called "grand coalition" with the CDU. Even more Germans affiliated with the opposition Green Party are in favor of smoke-free dining, with 70 percent coming down in favor of a ban. By contrast, 64 percent of supporters of the minority market-oriented Free Democratic Party (FDP) feel the same. The German Cancer Research Center in a recent statement underscored the dangers of passive smoking for both restaurant workers and patrons. "In Germany there is a striking disparity in the treatment of employees: The vast majority of employees work at healthy workplaces, but the over one million restaurant-workers by contrast are exposed to an extremely high level of a substance that is harmful to their health," Dr. Otmar Wiestler, the center's chairman of the board, said in the statement. "Germany urgently needs a federal law that protects the entire population from passive smoking," he added. "Politicians must act on this now." Nearly one-third of Germans smoke In 2003, some 33 percent of Germans over 18 smoked, a majority (74 percent) daily, according to the German Cancer Research Center. More adult men (37 percent) than women (31 percent) are smokers, but the figure is pretty much even for adolescent smokers due to an increase in young girls smoking. In 2004, nearly 30% percent of the U.S. population 12 and older used tobacco at least once in the month prior to being interviewed, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The German Cancer Research Center receives 90 percent of its funding from the Federal Ministry for Education and Research and 10 percent from the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg. It is a member of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres. While smoking has in general been in decline in North America and Western
Europe, it has been on the increase in particular in developing countries
and emerging economies, notably China. Links:
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