Is a full ban on smoking on public premises in Bulgaria in the offing?

published on 11/21/11 1:19 PM

Photo: BGNES

A few surveys – held by both local and international organizations - have positioned Bulgaria among EU nations with the largest number of smokers. In Bulgaria smokers are 3 million out of a 7.5-million-strong population. To make things even worse, the Bulgarian teenagers top the chart of teenage smokers across the continent. In the meantime doctors have repeatedly raised the issue of the alarming rates of brain and heart strokes in Bulgaria, and have pointed to smoking as a major cause of these lethal illnesses.

The mission of the Bulgaria Free of Tobacco Smoke Coalition is to buck this harmful trend and to defend the right of non-smokers to live without the poison of tobacco smoke around them. The coalition unites 39 NGOs. On the occasion of 17 Nov., World No Tobacco Day, they announced the start of the initiative: “Let us go back to a full ban of smoking on public premises in Bulgaria”. In fact it was voted by Bulgarian MPs and envisaged a ban on smoking on public premises starting from June 2011. Later however, some changes were introduced.

“We are currently under a partial ban of smoking”, Dr Masha Gavrailova, director of the Public Health Protection Department at the Ministry of Health, said. “The full ban remains in offices and in public transport vehicles. However in cafes, bars, pubs and restaurants various models are used that often fail to protect the rights of non-smokers. All documents of the World Health Organization and of the European Commission are unanimous that whatever partial bans are introduced they fail to protect the people who spend certain time on premises with tobacco smoke. Deadlines have been quoted too under which a full ban on smoking in public buildings should become effective in the coming four years. However we insist on the final introduction of a full ban on smoking in 2012. We are keen to follow the first 15 countries from the EU who have already introduced a full ban on smoking on public premises.”

The two-year project “Let us go back to a full ban on smoking on public premises in Bulgaria” launched by the Bulgaria Free of Tobacco Smoke Coalition is supported financially by the philanthropy Bloomberg fund from USA, and by the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. The European organization Smoke Free Partnership and the Bulgarian Ministry of Health are partners to the project. “In data from the Ministry of Health 65 percent of Bulgarians favor a full ban on smoking on public premises”, explains Masha Gavrailova. “We plan to meet with parliamentary groups and with three parliamentary committees – on health, education and the legal one. We also plan to meet with citizens. So far the opposition to the full ban comes mostly from restaurant managers. Some of their organizations have become aware that half-measures serve no one. I hope we will be able to convince them in the advantages of a full ban. We will present data from the countries where a full ban has been introduced. In the first place, there is a tangible decrease in the number of heart and brain strokes, not to mention cancer. The harm of passive smoking has also been reduced. By introducing a full ban on smoking on public premises we will create a better environment for Bulgarians. The next step will be to try and persuade people not to smoke at home as a way to protect their children and other household members from the poisonous smoke.”

Translated by Daniela Konstantinova

По публикацията работи: Diana Hristakieva

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Is a full ban on smoking on public premises in Bulgaria in the offing?

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