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Action on Smoking and Health
A National Legal-Action Antismoking Organization Entirely Supported by Tax-Deductible Contributions
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German Politicians In Favor of Anti-Smoking Initiatives [08/04-4]
Excerpts from: German Politicians Call for Public Smoking Ban
DW
World (Deutsche Welle) [08/03/03]
Around a third of all Germans smoke daily.
Germany has long been a paradise for tobacco friends, but now some politicians
are coming out in favor of stricter, American-style anti-smoking laws to protect
people against secondhand smoke.
Depending upon what side of the cigarette you’re on, Germany can either be a nicotine nirvana, or a smoke-filled purgatory. That’s because unlike in the United States and many European countries, German smokers still have free reign in many public spaces.
But Germany’s reputation as a cigarette-friendly nation could soon change if a new anti-smoking drive takes off. Marion Caspers-Merk, deputy health minister in charge of the German government’s drug policy, on Sunday reportedly said she wanted to soon take the first steps to better protect non-smokers.
Any new anti-smoking initiative would come on the heels of the government’s recent decision to hike the price of a pack of cigarettes by a euro over the next couple of years to help pay for health care costs. Taken together, many German smokers could be forgiven for thinking the ruling center-left coalition of Social Democrats and Greens were planning a coming anti-smoking crusade in Germany.
Still, Capers-Merk call to further restrict smoking – including making hospitals, schools and government buildings completely smoke free – was positively received by some politicians from the conservative opposition. Bavarian Health Minister Eberhard Sinner told the paper smoking was a “war against good health, especially that of our children.”
Other politicians made no secret that they saw the strict no smoking policies of the United States as the example Germany needed to follow. Werner Lensing, a Christian Democrat member of the North-Rhine Westphalia state parliament, urged for legislation modelled on American laws forbidding smoking in public places.
“I’m for a total smoking ban everywhere where non-smokers can’t avoid cigarette smoke – namely pubs and also in office buildings,” Lensing told Bild.
“The Americans are pioneers in this area. The laws really need to be drastically tightened up over here too,” Schulz said.
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