ENEWS:FINLAND:Finnish Law Say Second-Hand Smoke A Cancer Risk (fwd)

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

Finnish Law Say Second-Hand Smoke A Cancer Risk
by Nora Hallberg
Reuters (1583) 
Date: Wednesday, 2/17/99

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finland Wednesday became the first European country
to adopt legislation declaring that involuntary inhaling of tobacco smoke
can cause cancer. 

The declaration was approved by parliament by 131 votes to 24 as part of a
bill restricting smoking in bars and restaurants to protect employees. 

``In the law, ambient tobacco smoke was determined as cancer-causing and
this has not been done in Europe yet,'' Timo Ihamaki, a member of
parliament's health committee, told Reuters. 

Ihamaki, a doctor who sponsored the declaration, said the law would oblige
restaurants to keep one third of their premises smoke-free and gradually
increase the zone to 50 percent. 

The law, which will come into force once signed by the president, would
also oblige employers to provide for more frequent health checks for their
staff and allow pregnant employees to take maternity leave early.. 

Ihamaki dismissed protests by restaurant owners that the new legislation
would hurt business and cut jobs. 

``If customers do not like smoke they do not have to stay in restaurants,
but a restaurant worker has to work in these conditions for several
hours,'' he said. 

The damning clause about ambient tobacco smoke, also called second-hand
smoke, was a last-minute addition by the health committee, toughening the
original government draft and raising the scope for further changes in
labor laws. 

``The decision was considerably more radical than what the government had
proposed,'' Olli Simonen, a Health Ministry official, told Reuters. 

He said the decision would trigger occupational health protection
mechanisms, meaning the authorities would now have to investigate what
would need to be done in practice. 

Simonen said banning smoking in public places would be the simplest way to
deal with the problem, although this was not imminent. 

He said apart from Finland he was aware of only the United States
identifying ambient tobacco smoke as a possible cause of cancer.
------------------------------------------------------ 1:14 AM on 2/18/99