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Croatia dramatically amends public smoking restrictions

Published on October 19, 2009 8:39 AM

Croatian government decided to partially abolish the legislation outlawing smoking in enclosed public spaces after a constant pressure and criticism from the coalition of restaurateurs and hoteliers, who claimed that the ban had been ruining their business.

In the beginning of October, the Croatian lawmakers adopted a revised public smoking legislation that would allow lighting up in cafes and other venues, if they designate a physically separated zone for smokers only, which would cover not more than one-fifth of the premise territory. The remaining part of the venue should be smoke-free.

For the owners of diminutive establishments, with less than 50sq m the legislation allows to decide whether to be either totally for smokers of for non-smokers, in case such venues meet particular requirements.

Starting from the day when puffing in all indoor public venues across the Mediterranean country was prohibited, the owners of bars, restaurants and hotels have been protesting and pressurizing the government to make an exemption for the businesses, in order to save them from bankruptcy.

Goran Mudric, president of the Croatian Association of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers expressed his gladness with the passage of the amendment that came as the compromise between the Association, Government and Public Health Ministry.

Mudric said that the difficult economic situation already hurt the businesses significantly and the cold weather could have destroyed the great part of them, because when it had been warm and sunny there were patios to help accommodating smoking customers.

According to the Public Health Ministry, the public smoking ban was implemented in order to protect those who don’t smoke from the exposure to secondhand smokers, since non-smokers account for 70 percent of the Croatian population.

Sania Lahic, leading anti-smoking advocate in the country, admitted that although she was upset with the lawmakers amending the ban, she has understood that the revision had been triggered by economic downturn and need to save jobs in the most important sector of the economy.

Inconformity with statistics, Croatian treasury looses $600 million annually on curing illnesses caused by smoking.

In the meantime, many people and even business owners among them have split into two groups, one supporting the revised legislation and the other protesting against it.

"I am very glad, because although there is health jeopardy, we have to think about revenues, and it is an established fact that smokers spend more in cafes than non-smokers," confessed Mario Pilic, manager of café Argentina in the downtown Zagreb.

He also said the owner of the café would make it smoker-friendly, because after the smoking ban had been implemented, they have lost 30 percent of the revenues and that decrease could be doubled if they didn’t have a veranda.

But, there were several restaurateurs who were initially supporting the ban, like Mario Draganja, owner of a bar in Split, who said that many developed nations approved public smoking ban, so there have been no reasons to amend the ban. The South European Countries have the highest smoking rates across Europe, with an average of 35 percent of the population lighting up on a regular basis.

Croatia dramatically amends public smoking restrictions

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