Smoking in Public Places

Smoking kills. Well duh. Unfortunately the Poles are yet to fully take countries like England and Australia and ban smoking in shopping centres, bars and restaurants. It's a free country after all. So smokers can pollute others and what can the non smokers do? Not breath?

Many smoking Poles are against banning smoking in public places. It'd be like taking away an important freedom they feel entitled to. Since they hadn't had much in the past, they refuse to agree with it. But why do non smokers have to suffer in the process? Don't they have rights too?
A friend informed me the other day that a woman at her workplace asked for a lighter and when my friend replied with a 'No. Sorry I don't smoke', the women responded rudely, 'Well maybe you should start,' and stormed off to find someone else to lend her a lighter for her cigarette. The mentality of some people continue to leave me in awe.

I commute by train and bus. Last week a man blatantly lit up a cigarette on one of the lovely air conditioned trains without giving it a second thought. Of course there was no security or conductor to tell him off.

Sitting in a café between lessons, sipping a yummy Chai Turtle Latte – green tea, honey, steamed and frothed milk – and trying to write as the table across from me lights up for a second round in five minutes, while I suffer and inhale the fumes. Yes I can pick up my latte and disappear but shouldn't I have a right to enjoy my coffee without worrying about someone else's cigarette smoke damaging my health?

According to the European Environment and Health Committee, tobacco control is one of Poland's top health priorities. It mentions that the health protection authority is responsible for ;
“ - protection of non smokers rights to live in an environment free from tobacco smoke...
creation of legal and economic conditions conducive to reduction of tobacco product use...”

To my understanding, banning smoking in public cases should be the next logical step in order to fulfil these responsibilities, not just in and around educational institutions but also in shopping centres, all buildings, bus stops and other public areas. Making a ban is not enough. Someone needs to control the ban and make certain that it is adhered to.

While it's prohibited to sell tobacco products to people under the age of 18, it's clear and evident that this law is not adhered to. Only at the weekend I witnessed a women cashier in one of Warsaw's exclusive supermarkets selling two packets of Marlboros to a young buy who was clearly under the legal age. She didn't even bother to check his identification. All three parties involved, the shop, the cashier and the boy, should be charged for this minor offence. They won't be. Every day young people are damaging their health because even though there are laws in place, they are not followed nor are they controlled.

„In 2000 34% of the total population e.g. 10 million Poles, (24% of Polish women and 44% men over 15 years old) smoke cigarettes. It is alarming that an increased proportion of young teenagers start smoking. In Poland every day about 500 juvenile boys and girls start smoking, and every year about 180 000 children try smoking. 52% women are passive smokers at home, and 27% - at work. 15% of Polish smokers smoke in the presence of children. Every year 100 000 deaths in Poland are related to smoking.”
http://www.euro.who.int/eehc/implementation/20050525_1

These statistics are shocking, however in recent news announcements, smoking bans are in the works. While smoking will be banned from schools, shopping centres, bus stops and airports among others, when it comes to restaurants and bars, the owners will be free to decide when they ban smoking completely or provide smoke free zones separated by closed doors in their venues. When this will be in place, and whether it will be adhered to and controlled, is something different altogether.