Smoking Ban Bill Approved In Czech Republic

Czech Republic has approved a bill that supports smoking ban in public venues. If the president signs the bill, the ban will be enforced in January 2016, Ceskenoviny reports.

The bill will ban the sale of alcohol and cigarettes in vending machines, establish new rules for the sales online and further restrict the use of alcohol and tobacco. The draft bill still needs to undergo parliament approval before President Milos Zeman, who is a regular smoker according to reports, can sign it into law.

"With this law, the Czech Republic will embark on a path where the majority of advanced western European countries have gone a long time ago," the country’s health minister Svatopluk Nemecek said in a Reuters report.

The bill will also require bars and pubs to at least offer one non-alcoholic drink that is cheaper than beer. Establishments violating the bill would also face strict punishments. Sources also say that the bill will immediately shut down the establishment for two days if drunken children are seen inside the pub.

Many Czechs are in favour of the smoking ban. According to the report from Ceskenoviny, a May opinion poll showed that majority of the citizens are against smoking indoors.

Nemecek said that alcohol and tobacco use cost the society more than 56 billion Czech crowns a year. If tobacco consumption will see a decrease of 5 percent, the state revenues could fall by 2.1 billion a year, but savings will grow for the social and health care systems, according to the health minister.

The European Union estimates that more than 79,000 adults, including 19,000 of them who are non-smokers, died in EU in 2002 from tobacco smoke exposure. An estimatd 72,000 died from the exposure inside their homes, while 7,300 died from the exposure in offices.

To date, there are 17 countries in the EU that enforce comprehensive smoke-free laws. They include the U.K., Greece, Ireland, Malta, Bulgaria, Hungary and Spain, according to EU’s official site. These countries have the most stringent smoke-free laws enforcing complete ban on indoor and public smoking.

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