New law takes effect on January 1… but smokers can still find relief out of doors
CYPRUS yesterday joined a long list of EU countries that have banned smoking in public places, after parliament passed a bill following a lively debate that dragged long into the night.
The smoking ban goes into effect on January 1, 2010. Penalties for violators are up to €2,000, with managers and owners of establishments and venues facing fines of up to €1,000 for failing to place “highly visible” non-smoking signs where applicable.
Entitled ‘Legislation for the Protection of Health (Control of Smoking)’, the bill passed with 27 votes for, 3 against and one abstention.
Given the unanimous stance of the House Health Committee, which had drafted the bill, yesterday’s outcome was all but a foregone conclusion. The new law includes a long list of buildings and venues where lighting up will be prohibited.
These include: cinemas; theatres; hospitals – including rural sanitary centres – open-air infirmaries and old peoples’ homes; pharmacies, clinics, doctors’ and dentists’ surgeries; museums; galleries, concert halls and cultural centres; public libraries; factories; training and educational centres such as universities, colleges, schools; lifts, stairwells and ‘common areas’ of public buildings; covered athletic centres; governmental or semi-governmental service buildings; banks; ports and airports; event areas for adults; shopping centres, kiosks; reception rooms; recreational areas including hotels, restaurants, cafeterias, bars, coffee shops, clubhouses, cafés, internet cafés, pool halls, gaming arcades, betting shops, cabarets, discos, nightclubs and dance centres.
Smokers will still be allowed to light up in all external, open areas (except for school yards and medical areas), and in the internal courtyards or gardens of buildings.
It will also remain legal in internal courtyards and external areas that are covered by a canopy, such as the outside of cafés, courtyards of restaurants and the central cafeteria area of the Parliament.
Employers are also obliged to provide a “closed smoking area for employees with an appropriate ventilation system, in which exclusive access will be granted to employees who are smokers and who have submitted a written request to be permitted to smoke in that area.” This clause leaves out schools, which will become strictly smoke-free zones.
A late call by DIKO deputy Zacharias Koulias (opposed to the bill) to postpone voting until parliament reconvened after the summer recess was met with boos and groans, as it became evident that smoker deputies were outmatched by their non-smoker colleagues.
Given the voices of dissent, parliament pledged to revisit the law at a later date to take another look at some of the more contentious provisions – such as a clause that explicitly prohibits the establishment of smokers’ clubs.
Another detail is the exact starting date for the ban. Deputies had toyed with the idea of delaying implementation until January 15, having realised that the ban would wreck many a New Year party.
Despite realizing they were fighting a lost cause – or perhaps because of it – adversaries argued passionately that the law was too extreme, calling it harsh, paternalistic and even outright fascist.
European Party MP Rikos Erotokritou said that while the philosophy behind it was to protect non-smokers and respect their rights – which was perfectly valid – it took no account of the rights of smokers.
DISY’s Andreas Themistocleous, a vociferous opponent, said the ban would create “social racism” and make smokers feel like second-rate citizens.
“Since when does the majority decide the way of life of the minority?” he added.
“What about meat products? Alcohol? Fatty foods? These are all bad for you. Should we ban these as well?” he asked.
But the zealous deputy from Limassol shot himself in the foot by suggesting that a ban on smoking was “no less an authoritarian measure by the state than forcing people to wear seatbelts or undergo alcohol breathalisers.”
He closed his remarks with a warning: the law, he said, invited “civic disobedience.” Once smokers and establishments started flouting the law en masse, parliamentarians would be scrambling to amend it yet again.
Defending the law, DIKO deputy Angelos Votsis stressed that it was all about protecting people from the effects of passive smoking:
“When a 17-year-old goes to a disco for the first time, and sees everyone puffing away, what do you think he or she will do next? They will start smoking too.”
