14 April 2008 | Despite the complete smoking ban that is supposed to come into force in September, Turkey is immersed in cigarette smoke, national media reported.

A new law that prohibits smoking in all public places, including cafés, restaurants and bars, was voted and approved in January. It is expected to come into force in September.

Despite the impending ban, however, Turkey shows no sign of cutting down or giving up on cigarettes. A recent publication of the Anatolian Agency contained some facts indicative of the trend: in 2007, 76 packs of cigarettes were smoked per person and around 22.5 million euros are spent on cigarettes daily.

Other data shows that nearly half of Turkey’s population – about 25 million people, smoke. Beside being a major consumer, the country is also a major tobacco producer.

As BalkanTravellers.com reported, reactions to the imminent smoking ban were largely negative. Many smokers reportedly see the new law as an infringement of their civil liberties and say they will ignore it, as they largely do with existing partial bans on smoking in hospitals, schools and other public premises.

On the other hand, a powerful anti-smoking lobby, strongly supported by Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan, uses the large costs to the state of treating smoking-related illnesses. According to the Anatolian Agency publication, the country’s daily expenditures for treating such illnesses exceed 9 million euros.

The anti-smoking law in Turkey follows a wave of similar campaigns across Europe. Most recently, a cigarette ban was introduced in France and Germany on the first day of 2008. Ireland was the first European country to prohibit smoking in public places in 2004. It was shortly followed by Norway in the same year and Italy in 2005. England introduced a ban in 2007.

Though most of the remaining countries in Balkans have partial smoking bans, which prohibit cigarettes in places such as hospitals, schools and administrative buildings, for the most part they are largely ignored and rarely enforced, as are requirements to have separate smoking and non-smoking sections in bars, cafés and restaurants.

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