Germany? Update
Germany’s Smoking Ban Evokes The Health Nazis
January 20, 2008
“’NAZI’ claim as Germans rebel over smoking ban,” says the Observer.
“Outrage greets change to the law – and drinkers forced to cross the border.”
Smoking in enclosed paces is now verboten in Germany. So the German smokers are on the move, journeying not to France (where a smoking ban persists) but to Poland, historically an intrepid German’s first port of call on any freewheeling European adventure.
It is all too easy to hark back to those dark days, to mention the war. But this talk of Nazis is intoxicating for the Observer. How have Germans reacted to the tobacco ban?
In Berlin’s Vienna Bar, Gerhard Gr?nberg is showing off his bruises, a victim of “bar rage”. He shares his anecdote. A man is smoking. He asks the man to step outside and partake of the air warmed by heaters, the blankets and sofa. Says Grunberg: “’But the man said I was taking away his rights, and then he threw the punch.”
Violence in Germany. And as the papers notes: “Under the supervision of the Institute for Tobacco Hazards Research, the ban was imposed in every public building and public space, including air-raid shelters, with Hitler even personally intervening in 1944 to ensure it was extended to trains and buses in order to protect young female conductors.”
And: “It was even pointed out that Hitler, Mussolini and Franco were all non-smokers, while the ‘evil enemies’ – Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin – all enjoyed a tobacco fix.”
But it is the UK that bans smoking in all enclosed public places. In Germany, smokers can indulge their habit in establishments with separate rooms. The Observer say this is a “quirk”.
It’s not. It’s a fact. Modern Germany is more tolerant than the UK…
New smoking ban in place but already not working
5 August 2007
A smoking ban came into force in three of Germany’s 16 federal states on August 1 but the measures were dismissed as inadequate by the Germany Cancer Prevention Society.
The ban applies to bars, restaurants, hospitals, schools and public buildings in Baden-Wuerttemberg and Lower Saxony, but only to hospitals, schools and public places in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, where a smoking ban in restaurants will come into force in 2008.
Cancer society Vice President Dagmar Schipanski claimed the restrictions did not go far enough because they allowed for enclosed rooms to be set aside for smokers. She also complained that a ban on tobacco advertising and cigarette vending machines was not included in the anti-smoking legislation.
But the government’s anti-drugs commissioner, Sabine Baetzing, welcomed the move and said it was not intended discriminate against smokers or to ostracise them. “It’s a question of protecting people against the dangers of passive
smoking,” she said.
The move by the three states came a month before a national ban on smoking in government buildings and public transport comes into force. Germany has been discussing a smoking ban for years, but the measures fall far short of the total bans imposed by many of its European neighbours.
Smoking will be banned from September in 450 federal government buildings except in designated smoking rooms. But there will be no exceptions in taxis, coaches and trains. Violators face fines of up to 1,000 Euro.
The remainder of German states are enacting legislation which is expected to come into force later this year or in 2008. The legislation has split the German tobacco lobby, with the biggest maker, US-based Philip Morris, accepting the move and calling for more restrictions on cigarette advertising. Smaller makers oppose the restrictions.
Smoking bans are a growing trend across the European U nion but have especially been resisted in a few countries, such as Greece, where anti-smoking laws are regularly ignored and Germany’s president of the European Parliament, Hans Gert Poettering, reversed a smoking ban in the parliament.
German states introduce smoking ban
31 July 2007
A smoking ban comes into force in three of Germany’s 16 federal states on Wednesday but the measures were dismissed as inadequate by the Germany Cancer Prevention Society.The ban applies to bars, restaurants, hospitals, schools and public buildings in Baden-Wuerttemberg and Lower Saxony, but only to hospitals, schools and public places in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, where a smoking ban in restaurants will come into force in 2008.
Cancer society vice president Dagmar Schipanski claimed the restrictions did not go far enough because they allowed for enclosed rooms to be set aside for smokers.
“Such rooms are used by cleaning staff and maintenance personnel” who “will be exposed to the risks of passive smoking,” she told the Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung.
She also complained that a ban on tobacco advertising and cigarette vending machines was not included in the anti-smoking legislation.
But the government’s anti-drugs commissioner, Sabine Baetzing, welcomed the move and said it was not intended discriminate against smokers or to ostracize them.
“It’s a question of protecting people against the dangers of passive smoking,” she said.
The move by the three states comes a month before a national ban on smoking in government buildings and public transport comes into force.
Germany has been discussing a smoking ban for years, but the measures fall far short of the total bans imposed by many of its European neighbours.
Smoking will be banned from September in 450 federal government buildings except in designated smoking rooms. But there will be no exceptions in taxis, coaches and trains. Violators face fines of up to 1,000 euros (1,370 dollars).
The remainder of German states are enacting legislation which is expected to come into force later this year or in 2008.
The legislation has split the German tobacco lobby, with the biggest maker, US-based Philip Morris, accepting the move and calling for more restrictions on cigarette advertising. Smaller makers oppose the restrictions.
German parliament approves partial ban on smoking in federal buildings, transport
May 26, 2007
?BERLIN (AP) _ German lawmakers on Friday approved a smoking ban on public transport and in federal buildings, including the parliament, although the plan allows for special rooms to be set aside for smokers.
The legislation, which is to take effect Sept. 1, also features a ban on cigarette sales to under-18s _ raising the age limit from the current 16.
The lower house of parliament approved the plan with the votes of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ?grand coalition? and the opposition Left Party. Two other opposition parties abstained.
It still needs approval from the upper house of parliament, where the government also has a majority.
Over recent months, Germany _ traditionally one of Europe’s most nicotine-friendly countries _ has been moving tentatively toward curbs on smoking, although its rules appear set to fall well short of more draconian measures being implemented elsewhere in Europe.
The plan approved Friday will apply to buses, trains, aircraft, ferries, taxis and 500 federal facilities, such as ministries, labor offices and federal courts. Lawmakers extended the government’s planned ban to cover both houses of parliament and the German president’s offices.
Officials have said offenders could face fines ranging from ?5 to ?1,000 (US$6.70 to US$1,340). Still, the law will allow for separate smoking rooms, in which workers would be able to take smoking breaks.
Gerd Mueller, a deputy minister for consumer protection, described the legislation as a ?milestone in protecting all people against the dangers of passive smoke.?
However, the restrictions will not apply to bars, restaurants and many other public places. Those fall under the jurisdiction of Germany’s 16 states.
State officials agreed in principle earlier this year that a partial smoking ban, at least, should be introduced in bars and restaurants, and are now working on their own legislation. Still, it remains to be seen how far the rules will go.
Germans Would Pick Smoking Rooms Over Ban
March 26, 2007
Many adults in Germany believe restaurants should have a specific section for people to smoke in, according to a poll by Emnid released by N24. 52 per cent of respondents would choose to establish smoking rooms, while 43 per cent would forbid smoking in restaurants.
March 26, 2007
Many adults in Germany believe restaurants should have a specific section for people to smoke in, according to a poll by Emnid released by N24. 52 per cent of respondents would choose to establish smoking rooms, while 43 per cent would forbid smoking in restaurants.
On Nov. 30, 2006, German lawmakers agreed to implement a nationwide smoking ban, similar to the one currently in place in 13 of the 25 European U nion (EU) member nations. The government, led by chancellor Angela Merkel of the Christian Democratic U nion (CDU), proposed a federal ban on constitutional grounds, but this idea was rejected in the Federal Diet.
On Mar. 22, the local governments of Germany’s 16 federal states agreed to implement specific rules to ban smoking in public buildings, night clubs, schools, theatres, hospitals and museums. However, no consensus was reached on how to proceed with a smoking ban in restaurants.
Lower Saxony premier Christian Wulff discussed the situation, saying, “It will be up to the states to evaluate separately to what extent they may allow exception for individual premises. We want to strengthen the responsibility of owners and guests.”
In neighbouring France, a smoking ban is already in place for offices, schools, hospitals, airports, shopping malls and other public places. Smoking will also be prohibited in restaurants, bars and cafes effective Jan. 1, 2008.
Polling Data
Do you think smoking should be forbidden in restaurants, or do you think establishing a separate smoking room is good enough?
Separate smoking room? 52%
Forbid smoking? 43%
Not sure? 5%
Do you think smoking should be forbidden in restaurants, or do you think establishing a separate smoking room is good enough?
Separate smoking room? 52%
Forbid smoking? 43%
Not sure? 5%
German states OK smoking ban in bars, eateries
March 25, 2007
By Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes
By Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes
German state officials took steps last week to restrict smoking in restaurants and bars, a move met with a positive response from some U.S. personnel stationed at an Army base there.
Personnel questioned at Grafenw?hr last week unanimously supported the off-post anti-smoking measures.
Staff Sgt. Edward Perez, a nonsmoker, said he couldn’t wait for smoking restrictions to take effect.
“It will be better for me,” he said. “Smoking is a way of life over here. Everybody smokes. They think people are strange if they don’t smoke.”
The leaders of Germany’s federal states agreed last week to ban smoking in restaurants and bars, but agreed to exempt those with special rooms and authorize exemptions for other establishments entirely. Discos, schools and retirement homes will also come within the proposed ban.
Individual states, not the federal government, have jurisdiction over bars and restaurants, and each will draft its own legislation.
Critics say the agreement will cause chaos, as each individual state determines its own rules. But Lower Saxony’s governor Christian Wulff says 90 percent of the nonsmoking rules will be standardized.
“This is the largest step ever introduced in Germany toward the protection against passive smoking. Following endless and often useless debates, state parliaments are now making the decisions,” he said.
The proposed measures fall short of bans in other European nations, such as Italy and Ireland, which in 2004 barred smoking in all workplaces, including pubs and restaurants. They come just months after an attempt by the government to impose a nationwide ban collapsed on constitutional grounds.
At Grafenw?hr, John Santy, a Joint Multinational Training Command civilian technician and a nonsmoker, said he’d likely spend more time in German restaurants if smoking were banned there.
“I don’t know how many times I have not gone to restaurants because they are full of smoke,” he said.
JMTC system administrator Kris Sharon, a smoker, said he was not bothered by moves to ban smoking in public places.
“I’m not one of those people who will sit in a restaurant for a long time. The only time I would smoke is when I’m waiting for my meal so it is not a big deal for me,” he said.
Smoking is prohibited in all Department of Defense facilities. Onpost bars and restaurants within U.S. Army Garrison Grafenw?hr are already smoke-free, according to staff at the base Tower Inn restaurant.
Sharon said he expects more restrictive rules about smoking elsewhere are on the way.
“Eventually there will be nowhere you can smoke. There are already places in the States where you can’t smoke on a public street,” he said.
Merkel backs German smoking ban
March 22, 2007
BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel backed a broad ban on smoking in public places on Wednesday, amid fears that leaving individual states to decide on their own smoking policies will lead to chaos.
Germany’s 16 state premiers are not expected to agree at a meeting on Thursday about whether to ban smoking in restaurants and public houses. Experts fear this will result in a patchwork of different restrictions being introduced across the country.
A spokesman for Merkel told reporters ahead of the meeting that the chancellor believed that “the widest possible protection for non-smokers (was) desirable”.
“I have said before that we have new and very serious medical evidence which suggests that the damage caused by smoke particles is worse than thought,” spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said.
“The chancellor has on more than one occasion appealed to all those responsible in the states, but also in firms and municipalities, to do everything possible to significantly improve protection for non-smokers,” he added.
However, Wilhelm stopped short of issuing a recommendation to the states, which under Germany’s complex federal system are granted responsibility for certain areas of policy.
“A recommendation that goes any further on how the state parliaments should operate would not be appropriate,” he said.
Some states have indicated they support a widespread ban on smoking in public places, while others say that publicans should be allowed to decide whether to send smokers outside.
“I’m expecting a disaster,” said Martina Poetschke-Langer of the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg. “Many of the big German states, like Baden-Wuerttemberg, Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia look like they are not ready to take the steps necessary to protect non-smokers.”
The federal government last year dropped plans for a nationwide smoking ban, saying it would be unconstitutional. It then faced accusations that it had caved in to pressure from Germany’s tobacco lobby.
German cabinet approves smoking ban
March 1, 2007
GEIR MOULSON
GEIR MOULSON
Germany’s cabinet has approved a plan to ban smoking on public transport and in federal buildings.
The plan leaves open the possibility of special rooms being set aside for smokers.
The government also on Wednesday raised the age limit for buying cigarettes to 18, from the current limit of 16.
The legislation, which still needs parliamentary approval, is due to take effect from September 1.
Germany has moved towards curbs on smoking despite being one of Europe’s most tobacco-friendly countries, but its rules may fall short of tougher measures being implemented elsewhere in Europe.
Ulla Schmidt, Germany’s health minister, said: “I think a lot of people can, literally, breathe easier now.”
Schmidt added that “so long as a sufficient number of rooms is available, special rooms can – but don’t have to be – designated for smokers.”
Smoking rooms
The ban would apply to buses, trains, stations, aircraft, federal courts, ministries and other government buildings.
German efforts to ban smoking in all public places suffered a setback last December amid concerns over who is responsible for a possible ban – the federal government or the country’s 16 states.
Last Friday, state officials agreed in principle on a smoking ban in public buildings, including theatres and cinemas.
However, the states left open the possibility of allowing separate smoking rooms in restaurants, and at least two regional governments would like to allow exemptions for bars.
“We have done what we can at the federal level,” Schmidt said.
Germany OKs Partial Smoking Ban
February 28, 2007
GEIR MOULSON
GEIR MOULSON
Germany’s Cabinet on Wednesday approved a plan to ban smoking on public transport and in federal buildings, but left open the possibility of special rooms being set aside for smokers.
The government also approved a ban on cigarette sales to the under-18 age group – raising the age limit from the current 16. The legislation, which still needs parliamentary approval, is slated to take effect Sept. 1.
Over recent months, Germany – traditionally one of Europe’s most nicotine-friendly countries – has been moving tentatively toward curbs on smoking, although its rules appear set to fall well short of more draconian measures being implemented elsewhere in Europe.
“I think a lot of people can, literally, breathe easier now,” Health Minister Ulla Schmidt said. She added, though, that “so long as a sufficient number of rooms is available, special rooms can – but don’t have to be – designated for smokers.”
The ban would apply to buses, trains, stations, aircraft, taxis, federal courts, ministries and other government buildings. Schmidt said offenders could face a fine ranging from euro5 to euro1,000 ($6.60 to $1,320).
German efforts to ban smoking in all public places suffered a setback last December amid concerns over who is responsible for them: the federal government or the country’s 16 states.
Last Friday, state officials agreed in principle on a smoking ban in public buildings, including theaters and cinemas. Chancellor Angela Merkel hailed that agreement as “more than I expected.”
However, the states left open the possibility of allowing separate smoking rooms in restaurants, and at least two regional governments would like to allow exemptions for bars. It remains to be seen when they might implement legislation.
“We have done what we can at the federal level,” Schmidt said Wednesday. “Together with the decisions that were taken last week … I am sure that, in the course of this year, we will get comprehensive protection for smokers in Germany.”
While it will be up to individual authorities to figure out whether to set aside smoking rooms, Schmidt said smoking will be banished entirely from the rails since the chairman of state-owned railroad Deutsche Bahn said he plans to make all its trains entirely smoke-free.
Germany’s moves have contrasted with those in countries such as Ireland and Italy, where smoking is totally banned in bars and restaurants.
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German Cabinet Agrees on Watered-Down Smoking Ban
12-13-06
After abandoning plans last week for a nationwide smoking ban in public places, the German cabinet has agreed to outlaw smoking in federal government buildings and on national public transport.
Germany’s Health Minister Ulla Schmidt, announcing the restrictions at a news conference in Berlin, said that no change in law was necessary to introduce the ban in federal buildings, and it was up to the individual ministries to determine how they would implement the veto on smoking.
“Those who do not smoke should not have their health put at risk because they are forced to meet smokers in a room without wanting to do so,” Schmidt said.
Bildunterschrift: Gro?ansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Some of Germany’s train stations are smoke free, others aren’t
The minister said there could soon be a smoking ban in interstate passenger trains. Schmidt said that smokers who flew long distances also coped with not being able to light up a cigarette.
In addition, the legal age for purchasing tobacco products would increase from 16 to 18.
Plans for a national smoking ban fell through last week because it is the 16 states, not the federal government, which have power over local government facilities such as schools and hospitals, as well as places such as bars and restaurants.
State leaders aim for joint no-smoking policy.
At a joint premiers meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Wednesday, state leaders said they aimed to draft a unified no-smoking policy by March next year.
Bildunterschrift: Gro?ansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Some states, such as Hesse and Bremen, have already banned smoking in schools
The Lower Saxony State Premier Christian Wulff said states hoped to avoid a “patchwork” of varying restrictions and would form a committee to draft a national policy “by February-March.
Wulff and Merkel emphasized that the state and federal governments saw the protection of non-smokers as an urgent task.
Currently German politicians have a wide range of views, with some saying voluntary provision for non-smokers by the hospitality industry is enough. Others are campaigning for a blanket smoking ban in bars and restaurants.
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German smoking ban bid ‘in chaos’
11 December 2006
BERLIN: German plans for a uniform smoking ban in public places appear to be in chaos as Germany’s 16 states fail to agree on common restrictions following the collapse of a nationwide bid, a newspaper has said.
“Smoking ban chaos,” the Bild am Sonntag newspaper declared in a headline on Sunday and said there was discord between the states over smoking limits.
“Bavaria announces tough new rules but other states are banking on voluntary measures.”
Efforts to introduce a nationwide smoking ban collapsed last week as Germany’s justice and home affairs ministries questioned the constitutional basis for a ban in restaurants and schools, which would have brought Germany in line with the EU.
The decision followed six months of debate in the left-right grand coalition and was a blow for Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Instead, the country’s federal states will be responsible for their own rules on smoking, a habit which over a third of German adults continue to indulge despite the health risks.
Merkel will now attempt to get the states to agree to uniform regulations at a meeting on Wednesday, but opinions on a smoking ban in public places vary.
“After what happened in Berlin we will of course act in Bavaria in the interests of health,” Bavarian Premier Edmund Stoiber told the Bild am Sonntag. “That means there will be smoking bans in all public buildings and restaurants.”
Smokers visiting Munich, Bavaria’s capital, for the famous Oktoberfest would be spared, however. “There will be exceptions, such as the beer tent for example,” Stoiber said.
The states of Lower Saxony, Thuringia and Saarland are banking on voluntary solutions to the problem, wary of creating the impression of a “nanny” state. Smoking is a cherished sign of tolerance in Germany after a tobacco clampdown by the Nazis.
“The state should not get involved in every aspect of life and should not create bans where people should be taking responsibility for what they do in their free time,” said Christian Wulff, conservative premier of Lower Saxony.
Anti-smoking campaigners said the government had buckled under tobacco industry pressure by ditching a nationwide ban.
“The route chosen by the government is not suited to the uniform protection of non-smokers,” Social Democrat politician Carola Reimann told the Berliner Zeitung. Italy, France, Ireland and Britain have introduced or agreed to introduce restrictions.
Close to 140,000 Germans die each year from tobacco-related illnesses, but the government has little financial incentive to crack down as it collects billions of euros in tobacco taxes.
Germany scraps nationwide smoking ban on constitutional grounds
December 09, 2006
Joshua Pantesco
Joshua Pantesco
The federal government of Germany has scrapped a proposed nationwide ban on smoking in restaurants amidst concern that it would impermissibly intrude on police powers guaranteed to the states in the wake of landmark federalism reforms approved this summer.
The government will instead ban smoking in federal buildings. The Interior and Justice ministries were unpersuaded by arguments from advocates of the ban that it ban addresses health issues over which the federal government retains jurisdiction. Under the new constitutional reforms, Germany’s 16 states have the power to regulate restaurants and businesses.
The legislatures of England and France have approved nationwide smoking bans in public places to come into effect during 2007, and other European countries, such as Ireland, Finland, Italy, Spain, and Sweden have already implemented total or partial bans along those lines. In the US, voters approved three state-wide smoking bans [ in the November elections, while Rhode Island will amend its smoking ban after a state judge struck down several provisions of the law as irrational and therefore unconstitutional. DPA has more.
Why Germany balks at EU smoking bans
With strong backing from the industry, its politicians argue that curbing tobacco hampers personal freedom.
12/8/06
Last Friday seemed destined to be a watershed. After months of intense negotiations, Germany – Europe’s largest tobacco market – announced plans to ban smoking in restaurants, dance clubs, schools, and other public buildings.
Then, two days later, leaders of Germany’s grand coalition government, which crafted the ban, warned they might not have the authority to actually enact it, and that smoking regulation might fall to state governments instead. The plan is now on hold indefinitely.
With strong backing from the industry, its politicians argue that curbing tobacco hampers personal freedom.
12/8/06
Last Friday seemed destined to be a watershed. After months of intense negotiations, Germany – Europe’s largest tobacco market – announced plans to ban smoking in restaurants, dance clubs, schools, and other public buildings.
Then, two days later, leaders of Germany’s grand coalition government, which crafted the ban, warned they might not have the authority to actually enact it, and that smoking regulation might fall to state governments instead. The plan is now on hold indefinitely.
Germany Rejects Smoking Ban in Restaurants, Handelsblatt Says
Bloomberg – USA
By Nadja Brandt. Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) — Germany’s Federal Cabinet rejected a proposed plan to ban smoking in restaurants and schools …
ROUNDUP: Germany Shelves Plans For Uniform Smoking Ban
Playfuls.com – Targu Mures,Romania
… Guinness all night long and sing cheerful songs even though you are not allowed to smoke there,” Kunast said in reference to the smoking ban introduced by …
Playfuls.com – Targu Mures,Romania
… Guinness all night long and sing cheerful songs even though you are not allowed to smoke there,” Kunast said in reference to the smoking ban introduced by …
Germany Rejects Federal Smoking Ban on Constitutional Grounds
Deutsche Welle – Germany
… A nation-wide smoking ban might not survive a challenge from tobacco users in the courts, so the decision to ban smoking will now be up to Germany’s 16 federal …
Deutsche Welle – Germany
… A nation-wide smoking ban might not survive a challenge from tobacco users in the courts, so the decision to ban smoking will now be up to Germany’s 16 federal …
Germany
BERLIN (AFX) – 2006-12-07
The German government has blocked plans to introduce a nationwide ban on smoking in public places, Handelsblatt said in an advance excerpt from tomorrow’s edition.
A proposal by a government working group which would have made smoking illegal in all public service buildings, hospitals, restaurants and on public transport will be greatly scaled back, it said.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet will propose next week that only ministries and administration buildings of the federal government should be covered by a smoking ban.
Under the reduced proposal, the regional authorities of Germany’s 16 states will be asked to implement bans state by state covering other public places, although the federal government will only make recommendations, which are not binding.
The report said that the interior and justice ministries feared a nationwide ban would contravene the constitution.
The proposal by the working group composed of members of the left-right coalition government was made just last week.
It would have made bars and pubs exempt from a ban, leading some observers to question whether bars which serve food, and could therefore qualify as restaurants, would have been classified.
The government made no immediate comment on the report.
Officials fear German government lacks power to ban smoking
3 Dec 2006
Berlin- Two days after Germany’s ruling parties agreed to ban smoking in trains, public buildings and discotheques, but not in bars, officials cautioned Sunday that the federal government may lack the legal power to impose such a ban. The 16 states of Germany have extensive rights that cannot be overridden by Berlin.
The Berlin newspaper Tagesspiegel am Sonntag said senior Christian Democrat and Social Democrat officials who agreed Friday to the ban were asking the government to study whether a nationwide smoking ban would survive challenge in the courts from tobacco users.
Rupert Scholz, a Berlin constitutional lawyer and former minister, warned that the federal government could not for example regulate how people behaved in the offices of state or local governments.
On Friday, the federal government’s spokesman, Thomas Steg, stressed the federal government also had no authority over schools.
The two coalition parties said Friday they would recommend parliament vote on a compromise ban, applying to public transport and public buildings including schools, hospitals and government offices.
Smoking would be banned in nightclubs, but not in bars and pubs. Restaurants would have to provide no-smoking areas.
In Italy, Ireland and Scotland, smoking has been banned in pubs and bars. France and England are planning similar bans soon.
German Government Agrees on Smoking Ban Details
Dec 2, 2006
Germany is to ban smoking in public buildings and most restaurants, after a compromise was reached Friday between the country’s two ruling parties.
The ban, to be voted on in parliament some time next year, does not affect bars and pubs, while restaurants can still provide separate, enclosed smoking rooms.
Smoking in smoking in theatres, cinemas, hospitals and schools will be banned in a drive to toughen some of the most lax smoking rules in western Europe. It will also be banned in all forms of public transport.
The compromise agreement between the Christian Democrats (CDU) and Social Democrats (SPD) was met with hope and criticism from anti-smoking and opposition groups as going both too far and not far enough.
An enormous step for the protection of non-smokers
Health Minister Ulla Schmidt called the compromise a step in the right direction. “This is an enormous advance for the protection of non-smokers and for health protection in Germany,” she said, adding that she hoped the coalition parties’ broader parliamentary groups would accept the deal.
Bildunterschrift: Gro?ansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Germans have long defended their right to smoke
Nearly a third of all German adults smoke regularly and close to 140,000 die every year from tobacco-related illnesses — far more than from traffic accidents, alcohol, drugs and AIDS combined.
Nearly a third of all German adults smoke regularly and close to 140,000 die every year from tobacco-related illnesses — far more than from traffic accidents, alcohol, drugs and AIDS combined.
Germans have fiercely defended their right to smoke in a country where the anti-smoking lobby has been tainted by the legacy of Nazi hostility to smoking and where lighting up became a cherished mark of tolerance after World War Two.
Many other European countries have already passed bans on smoking in public buildings. France and England recently passed laws – yet to come into effect — banning smoking in bars and pubs as well, while a similar full ban in Italy is already in force.
Germany to Ban Smoking in Restaurants; Bars Exempt
Dec 04, 2006
Claudia Rach
Claudia Rach
Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) — German lawmakers agreed to implement a nationwide ban on smoking in restaurants, discos and other public places though exempted bars and pubs, falling short of the outright ban urged by some politicians and anti-smoking groups.
Members of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling coalition and officials from the Consumer Protection Ministry and Health Ministry meeting late yesterday decided on a smoking ban in all public buildings, restaurants, discos, schools, kindergardens, hospitals and on public transport. Smoking will only be allowed in rooms that are separated by a door, with the exception of schools and kindergardens, where there is to be a complete ban.
“We have reached an agreement,” for effective protection of non-smokers, Deputy Agriculture and Consumer Protection Minister Gerd Mueller said in an interview today. Lawmakers aim to have anti-smoking legislation in place by the middle of 2007, though it will not cover bars, pubs or beer tents.
The smoking ban will bring Germany, Europe’s biggest tobacco market, closer into line with the 13 of 25 European U nion states to have introduced legislation to outlaw smoking in public places. Malta, Ireland and Norway introduced bans in 2004, followed a year later by countries including Italy and Sweden, according to Germany’s lower house of parliament Web site.
Country Bans
A ban on smoking in public places in England and Wales including all pubs and private clubs comes into force in mid- 2007, while France, Finland and Belgium all plan to tighten existing anti-smoking legislation next year.
“I think this is a very sustainable compromise,” Consumer Protection Minister Horst Seehofer told journalists in Berlin today. “Everything that can be reached by consensus has the best chance of finding acceptance among the broad population and the wider the acceptance, the more will change.”
Germans have had the right to a smoke-free workplace since 2002, though there are as yet no nationwide laws regulating smoking in public buildings or restaurants after earlier attempts to implement a ban failed.
“I’m very optimistic that we’ll reach a majority this time as the proposal comes from the parliamentary groups of the coalition,” Lothar Binding, a Social Democrat lawmaker and one of those who drew up yesterday’s agreement, said in an interview today.
Blanket Ban
Binding helped introduce a motion to parliament this summer that asked for an outright smoking ban. Some 114 of 614 lawmakers from all parties have signed the motion, yet it’s been put on hold because many of Merkel’s Christian Democrats didn’t want a total ban.
“Perhaps we can later take up” the issue of a total smoking ban again, Binding said. “It will be easier if we already have a bill in place.”
Some 27 percent of Germany’s entire population, or about 22 million people, smoked as of 2005, a figure little changed from 10 years ago, according to the Federal Statistics Office. Smoking, along with nutrition and being overweight, is the No. 1 risk factor in deaths from cancer, according to the Heidelberg- based German Cancer Research Center.
Germany says it will seek ban on smoking in public buildings
December 1, 2006
Mark Landler
Mark Landler
FRANKFURT: Yielding grudgingly to the growing European move against smoking in public places, Germany announced Friday it would seek to ban smoking in restaurants, discoth?ques, schools and other public buildings – but not in bars, pubs or under beer tents.
The compromise, worked out by Germany’s coalition government, would bring this country, Europe’s biggest tobacco market, closer to its neighbors in curtailing public smoking. But it would fall short of recent laws passed by Britain and France, which also stamp out cigarettes in pubs and bars.
Anti-smoking groups said the proposal was a milestone, given Germany’s long resistance to any restrictions. They called on the Parliament to broaden the ban when it votes on it, probably next year.
“Germany has been lagging on this issue for 20 years,” said Friedrich Wiebel, president of the German Medical Action Group on Smoking and Health, an anti-smoking organization. “There is no reason why one group of customers should be protected and others should not.”
German officials defended the loopholes, saying the ban had a better chance of passing that way. “This is a very sustainable compromise,” Horst Seehofer, the consumer protection minister, said to reporters in Berlin.
For a people fixated on the virtues of fresh air, Germans are curiously tolerant of smoking in public places. Restaurants here are typically hazy with smoke.
Customers who ask for a non- smoking table are sometimes treated brusquely, while those who fire up cigars are given a roomier ashtray.
Roughly a third of Germans smoke regularly, comparable to other major countries in Western Europe. But Germany has more young smokers than many of its neighbors. While the percentage of male smokers has declined modestly since 1984, smoking has become more popular among women.
One woman who quit years ago is Chancellor Angela Merkel. That makes her the first non-smoking German leader in decades: Gerhard Schr?der puffs on cigars, Helmut Kohl smoked a pipe, and Helmut Schmidt still appears on television talk shows wreathed in cigarette smoke.
Merkel’s support for a smoking ban – though carefully modulated – helped turned the tide, according to anti-smoking groups.
In an interview with the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag in July, she said, “With bans like these, I always favor a sense of proportion, but I think the demand for a general smoking ban in public buildings is legitimate.”
Surveys show that, despite their tolerance of second-hand smoke, a majority of Germans now favor banning it in restaurants. The hurdle, Wiebel said, is the German tobacco industry, which has historically had close ties to the government and has stymied previous efforts to curtail smoking.
Germany’s resistance has put it out of step with its European neighbors. Just this year, Spain, Portugal, France, Scotland and England have proposed or passed bans on smoking in public places. On Friday, Britain said that its ban would take effect on July 1, 2007.
The German hospitality industry reacted warily to the agreement. It was relieved it was not across-the- board ban but unhappy with some of the details, including a ban on smoking in discoth?ques. This is supposed to protect young people, though many clubs do not let in people under the age of 18.
“There are a lot of open questions,” said Ingrid Hartges, managing director of the German Hotel and Restaurant Association. “We need to have a full national debate before any rules come into effect.”
Among the other cumbersome details, she said, was a requirement that restaurants that permit smoking have a separate, enclosed room for smokers. That is not practical in many hole-in-the-wall restaurants, she said.
German coalition agrees on far-reaching smoking ban
01 Dec 2006
Germany’s ruling coalition parties agreed on Friday on a plan to ban smoking in theatres, cinemas, hospitals and schools in a drive to toughen some of the most lax smoking rules in western Europe.
The agreement was reached among experts from the Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Social Democrats (SPD). The coalition must now draw up a draft law for parliament to vote on before the deal can become law.
The party members also agreed smoking should be banned in sport clubs and on public transport. Pubs, discos, bars and nightclubs would be exempt.
“This is an enormous advance for the protection of non-smokers and for health protection in Germany,” said Health Minister Ulla Schmidt, adding that she hoped the coalition parties’ broader parliamentary groups would accept the deal.
Nearly one in three German adults smokes regularly and close to 140,000 Germans die every year from tobacco-related illnesses — far more than from traffic accidents, alcohol, drugs and AIDS combined.
Resistance to tougher smoking restrictions is high in a country where the anti-smoking movement has been tainted by the the legacy of Nazi hostility to smoking and where lighting up became a cherished mark of tolerance after World War Two.
The debate in Germany came as Britain’s health secretary announced smoking will be banned in all workplaces and enclosed public spaces in England from July 1 next year.
Germany, Smokers’ Stronghold, Edges Toward Ban in Public Spaces
November 22, 2006
By Claudia Rach
By Claudia Rach
Nov. 22 (Bloomberg) — German lawmakers meet in Berlin today to discuss bringing in a nationwide smoking ban in restaurants, bars and other public places, a move that threatens to extinguish one of the last bastions of smoking in Europe.
Members of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition are holding talks with officials from the Consumer Protection Ministry after a motion was introduced in parliament calling on the government to give people greater protection from secondary smoke and seeking an even wider ban.
“We don’t want to and can’t prohibit smoking,” Deputy Agriculture and Consumer Protection Minister Gerd Mueller said in a Nov. 9 statement on his ministry’s Web site. “But smokers’ voluntary decision to smoke should no longer lead to involuntary risks to non-smokers.”
A ban in Germany, Europe’s biggest tobacco market, where a non-smoking bar or restaurant is still a rarity, would bring the country into line with the 13 out of 25 European U nion states to have introduced legislation to outlaw smoking in public places. Until then, as France, Finland and Belgium plan more smoking restrictions in 2007, Germany’s lack of a ban is increasingly out of step with the rest of Europe.
`Smoke Stink’
“I loathe going out in Berlin because my eyes turn bright red, my hair stinks of smoke and all of my clothes, even my hand bag has to be hung out on the balcony for days to get rid of the smell,” Dorothy Stein, a masseuse who splits her time between New York and Berlin, said in an e-mailed statement. “People may say that it’s a matter of freedom to be able to smoke everywhere but it’s also an issue of freedom to be able to breath fresh air.”
Some 27 percent of Germany’s entire population, or about 22 million people, smoked as of 2005, a figure little changed from 10 years ago, according to the Federal Statistics Office. Smoking, along with nutrition and being overweight, is the No. 1 risk factor in deaths from cancer, according to the Heidelberg- based German Cancer Research Center.
“There are too many families for whom heartbreak has arrived in the form of cancer, heart disease and sudden infant death syndrome,” Lothar Binding, a Social Democrat lawmaker who helped introduce the motion to parliament, said in an interview on Nov. 1. Health awareness is “much more strongly rooted in society than it used to be,” he said.
Ireland, France
Similar concerns led to a wave of smoking bans being introduced across Europe. Malta, Ireland and Norway introduced bans in 2004, followed a year later by countries including Italy and Sweden, according to the lower house of parliament Web site. A ban on smoking in public places in England and Wales including all pubs and private clubs comes into force in mid-2007.
France is to introduce the strictest ban within the EU on Feb. 1 next year, the Web site states, with a complete ban on smoking in all public places.
In Germany, some 114 of 614 lawmakers from all parties have signed the smoking motion, yet it’s been put on hold because many of Merkel’s Christian Democrats don’t want a total smoking ban. They favor allowing smoking in certain restaurants as long as smoking rooms are separated from non-smoking areas, Binding said.
“I don’t welcome a total ban even as a non-smoker,” Economy Minister Michael Glos, a member of the CDU’s Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social U nion, told reporters in Berlin yesterday. It “restricts people’s personal freedom,” he said, adding that he would prefer to see smoking and non-smoking locations with the decision left to the owners.
Consumer Protection
The group of CDU and SPD lawmakers meeting today with a deputy health minister and representatives of the Agriculture and Consumer Protection Ministry aim to present the main points of a bill before Christmas. They may propose a ban on smoking in all public buildings and transport as well as in those establishments which serve food, Mueller said Nov. 9.
The VDC Cigarette Industry Association, which aims to block a total smoking ban, is lobbying for legislation that permits smoking in separate rooms in restaurants if they are 75 square meters (90 square yards) or larger.
The rules “should be practicable and not a smoking ban introduced through the back door,” Wolfgang Hainer, the cdv’s managing director, said in an interview. “People wouldn’t smoke less” because of a ban, “only somewhere else.”
Germans have had the right to a smoke-free workplace since 2002, though there are no nationwide laws regulating smoking in public buildings or restaurants. The government and the country’s Hotel and Catering Association agreed in 2005 to expand the space set aside for non-smokers in almost all restaurants and cafes to prevent legislation to enforce a smoking ban.
By 2008, 90 percent of all businesses will need to make half of their space non-smoking. The agreement doesn’t apply to businesses that only offer snacks like sausages, meatballs or sandwiches, or that have no tables and chairs.
“Even if this agreement is 100 percent met, it would miss its aim,” Binding said in an interview on Nov. 20. While non- smoking areas stops people from smoking in designated spaces, smoke wafting in from elsewhere means “you’re still forced to smoke passively.”
German minister rejects restaurant smoking ban
11 October 2006
Berlin (dpa) – Germany’s justice minister, who admits she enjoys puffing an occasional cigarette, on Wednesday rejected calls for a ban on all smoking in restaurants.
“I think that restaurants have to be given the chance to decide if they want to be smoking restaurants,” said Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries in an N24 TV interview.
The German government is currently debating legislation to tighten up the country’s smoking laws in public buildings. Its smoking laws are among the most relaxed in western Europe.
Smoking is common in restaurants, bars and cafes throughout the country, and ashtrays are even set up throughout the federal chancellery in Berlin for smokers.
In contrast to Germany, a number of other European countries including Ireland, Italy and Scotland have banned smoking in public places and France and England are set to follow.
Germany appears unlikely to follow, says the influential news magazine Der Spiegel in a report on its website which dubbed the country “a smoker’s paradise.”
The powerful tobacco lobby has managed to win over politicians from both the left and the right to support watered-down anti-smoking regulations, said Der Spiegel.
Indeed, given the love many German politicians have for lighting up, this may not have been that difficult.
“(I don’t smoke) in front of children, on TV or in the office but rather only sometimes in the evening when I’m having an alcoholic drink,” admitted Zypries.
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German Chancellor Voices Support for Public Smoking Ban
31.07.2006
The growing campaign to ban smoking in public places across Germany received a boost Sunday when Chancellor Angela Merkel was quoted in a newspaper interview giving her support to calls for such a ban.
It is the news that smokers across Germany were dreading. Not only is the German government considering banning smoking in public places but now the chancellor has thrown her weight behind the ban that would end Germany’s status as a haven for smokers and bring it into line with several other European countries.
In an interview published in the weekend tabloid Bild am Sonntag, Angela Merkel said that she supported the recent calls for a ban on smoking in public buildings led by Consumer Affairs Minister Horst Seehofer.
Bildunterschrift: Gro?ansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Ex-smoker Merkel wants to protect non-smokers
“I always argue for a sense of proportion with such bans, but I find the demand for a general smoking ban in public buildings legitimate,” Merkel said in the interview published on Sunday, adding that she expected a decision on “better protection for non-smokers” to be taken some time this year with an implementation penciled in for 2007.
“I see in neighboring countries that freedom does not go under when tough rules are drawn up to protect non-smokers,” Merkel, who said she used to smoke a pack of cigarettes a day before quitting, was quoted as saying.
Earlier this month, Seehofer said he hoped that a ban would be in place in Germany by 2007 and that the issue would be put on parliament’s agenda when it reconvenes after the summer recess.
Seehofer added that he thought it unacceptable that people could just light up in nursing homes, hospitals and other municipal buildings, calling a smoking ban “common sense, and necessary.”
Germany smokes alone — almost
Bildunterschrift: Gro?ansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Most EU countries have made it clear where they stand.
Public smoking bans are in place in Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands among others and Germany finds itself one of the dwindling number of EU countries that does not have a nationwide smoking ban in either public spaces or bars and restaurants.
The power to enforce bans in Germany currently lies in the hands of the individual state governments who can decide whether schools, universities, hospitals or city offices should be smoke-free.
The decision to ban smoking in restaurants, bars and clubs is left up to the owners of such establishments.
According to the German Hotel and Restaurant Association, so far only about 30 percent of German restaurants offer non-smoking zones.
