John Dalli to push full smoking ban across European Union

Euobserver.com reports that European Commissioner for health and consumer policy John Dalli is about to push for a complete ban on smoking in public spaces, transport and the workplace, he told German daily Die Welt.

Brussels is currently preparing a bill to be brought forward next year, Dalli said.

The commissioner added that exceptions would no longer be tolerated: “the matter is not only about the health of visitors, but also the employees.”

The Maltese government is already on its way to a full smoking ban. By 2013 it will ban smoking inside ‘designated smoking rooms’, which previously allowed smokers to get their fix inside public places.

Designated rooms are enclosed spaces inside restaurants and bars, which according to law must be totally separate from non-smoking areas, have walls from floor to ceiling and be situated in such a manner that they do not require non-smokers to pass through them.

Even the e-cigarette – a tobacco-free device that replicates the sensation of a traditional cigarette by means of an electronic simulation – is headed for the full ban.

Dalli said the new EU law would attempt to reduce the amount of nicotine and other toxic substances contained in the product, and make packaging as unattractive as possible.

“The more uniform and bland packaging the cigarettes are, the better,” Dalli said, who added smoking was killing 650,000 Europeans every year.

Malta has also passed a law to remove tobaccco adverts displayed at close proximity. It also bans the use of lotteries and other gift schemes for the promotion and advertising of any cigarettes, tobacco and tobacco products.

The smoking ban had different levels of success in the different EU member states. In Belgium, people are still allowed to smoke in establishments that do not serve food.

The Greek Health Minister, Andreas Loverdos, has admitted a failure of the 2009 smoking ban, saying that eight out of ten bars openly violated the law.

In Bulgaria, after being in force just for three days, the full smoking ban was officially abolished as of June 4 with the reason that the relaxation of the ban would avoid hurting the tourist industry during tough economic times.

Bulgaria ranks second after Greece in the EU in terms of number of regular smokers as a percentage of the population, according to a Eurobarometer survey.