The expectations of many Bulgarians that a total ban on smoking in public places will enter into force in June 2010 were not fulfilled, as some liberal amendments to the Bulgarian Health Law were accepted. People who think health is the most important thing did not like this. Thus, arguments between smokers and non-smokers in Bulgaria continue.
Although the ban on smoking in public places will enter into force on June 1, the changes in the law envisage that owners of small cafes and restaurants up to 100 sq meters should decide by themselves if their place will be for smokers or non-smokers. Bigger restaurants must have a smoking and a non-smoking zone separated by a wall, as well as a good ventilation system. Some say that this separation between smokers and non-smokers cannot be achieved in reality. The total ban on smoking at the work place, the schools, universities, kindergartens, libraries, galleries, Internet cafes, and elevators remains in force. But this little freedom for smokers does not give them many advantages. 90 percent of the lung cancer patients are smokers, experts say. The cigarettes cause lungs to act much older than they are. That is why smokers usually get lung emphysema young. Studies show there is not a single organ in the human body that is not affected by the cigarette smoke. Cigarettes also cause heart diseases and cancer.
The bad thing is that non-smokers also suffer from the second hand smoke they inhale. Doctor Sofia Angelova from the “St Sofia” lung hospital in the capital sees the pain of the patients every day. 90 percent of them are smokers, while the rest are passive smokers.
“Studies show that the risk of brain blood vessel disease for passive smokers is 82 percent higher than the risk for non-smokers. A great number of studies in the last 10 years have shown the harms of passive smoking. Passive smokers inhale the cigarette smoke and suffer from all known smoking-related diseases. In the US there are studies that show that in regions where a total ban was introduced the number of heart attack cases dropped by 10 percent.”
Often passive smokers are young people who go to clubs, where smoking is allowed. While dancing people breathe more intensively and inhale more cigarette smoke. Bartenders are victims of this smoke at their work, too.
“Bartenders are also my patients. Some of them have lung diseases and must find another job. These are people who have made a choice not to smoke but they still have to breathe in cigarette smoke. The World Health Organisation says a non smokers who works with a smoker in a closed room would inhale the smoke of 5 cigarettes by the end of an 8-hour work day.”
The “St. Sofia” lung hospital has announced alarming data. The number of lung cancer patients has grown by 3 percent for a year. The number of patients with other lung diseases in the hospital grew by 38 percent. Doctor Angelova recalled an initiative in 2007, when doctors urged passive smokers to get their lungs examined. “We examined 24 people and 15 had Chronic Obtrusive Pulmonary Disease,” the doctor says.
The St Sofia hospital continues its anti-smoking campaign under the slogan: “Smoking is a mistaken pleasure but passive smoking is mistaken tolerance.” That is why passive smokers in Bulgaria can get free lung examination on March 22.
English: Alexander Markov
