House Health Committee working on smoking ban proposal
DEPUTIES yesterday pledged to bring an anti-smoking bill to the vote next week before parliament closes for the summer recess.
The House Health Committee is putting the final touches to the legislative proposal for a total ban on smoking from public places and nightspots.
The committee agreed to produce a final draft when it next convenes on Monday, and the bill should go to the plenum on Thursday.
Yesterday’s commitment effectively put paid to fears among anti-smoking campaigners that some MPs might resort to ploys to postpone a decision until autumn.
As deputies deliberated inside, outside the parliament building activists from the Non-Smokers League of the Cyprus Anti-Cancer Society staged a demo.
The activists gathered around a ‘No smoking’ circle on the ground, in the middle of which they placed a massive paper dummy cigarette.
Endorsing the demo, Child Commissioner Leda Koursoumba said smoking is first and foremost a public health issue that supercedes the rights of smokers.
“We have reached the 11th hour…a ban is a supreme necessity,” Koursoumba said in a short statement to newsmen.
Citing statistics from international organisations, Koursoumba said that during the 20th century an estimated 100 million people died from the effects of smoking.
“But the situation is reversible…that is why we must act now,” she added.
Giorgos Penintaex, of the ‘Make a Wish’ group for children with cancer, said that in private, smokers themselves admit that a ban “is the right thing to do.”
“We’re here to make sure that our parliamentarians stay on the right track,” he told the Mail.
Opposed are restaurateurs and owners of entertainment establishments who protest that a total ban will drive smokers away and result in empty tables.
But anti-smoking activists have done their own research, and say the evidence from other countries suggests that business has not been adversely affected at all. In some cases, they say, business has actually gone up.
As the bill stands, it does not provide for designated smoking areas in restaurants and bars.
“And it should stay that way, because otherwise we would be taking half-measures, trying to look for loopholes, when there is only one sensible course of action,” said Andri Olympiou, an activist on passive smoking.
However that could all change, and it’s anyone’s guess how the draft bill will end up looking. Yet another idea on the table is extending the ban to outdoor spaces where bars and restaurants are concerned. That’s going to be a major talking point when the House committee convenes on Monday.
Some deputies are outright hostile to the ban.
DISY MP Andreas Themistocleous, whose party initially submitted the legislative proposal, said things had gone too far.
“Day by day, this bill is becoming more and more extreme, it reeks of paternalism, and personally I refuse to allow the state the right to decide what is good for me and what is not.
“The biggest crimes against humanity were perpetrated…by people invoking the best intentions,” he added.
Themistocleous said the proposed law was both unreasonable and unfeasible, and predicted that, if passed, violations of it would soar through the roof.
“My esteemed colleagues will then come back and call for amendments,” he remarked.
Meanwhile, the European Commission has approved a proposal by Health Commissioner Androula Vassiliou to adopt a recommendation calling all member-states to legislate on smoking restrictions by 2012.
The recommendation will ask member-states to fully protect citizens from exposure to smoke, and ban smoking in public spaces, workplaces and public transport areas.
