Hungary passes non-smokers' rights bill (fwd)

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

Hungary passes non-smokers' rights bill
BMJ --  Kovac 318 (7196): 1438b
by Carl Kovac, Budapest
HUNGARY;
Date: Saturday, 5/29/99

BMJ 1999;318:1438 ( 29 May )

After almost a two year passage through the Hungarian parliament,
and many revisions, a non-smokers' rights bill will become law on 1 December.

The law will require restaurants, pubs, and cafes where food is served to
provide continuous ventilation and separate areas for non-smokers. Smoking
will be allowed in places of public entertainment where takeaway snacks
are served, but it will be banned at indoor sports and other public
events. It will also be prohibited in schools in rooms used by students;
in rooms visited by patients in medical facilities providing primary care
or outpatient services; and in pharmacies. Lighting up in enclosed rooms
will be banned in most public institutions, on city mass transport, and on
suburban trains and buses. Smoking will be allowed in designated
compartments on trains, but such compartments will not be required on
trains travelling less than 100 km.

Children aged under 16 years will be prohibited from buying tobacco
products, and the law will permit shopkeepers to ask for proof of age if
they are in doubt. A proposal to prohibit smoking in rooms occupied by
more than one worker was deleted from the bill.

About 38%of Hungary's 10 million population smokes, and more than 30000
die every year from smoking related causes. The cost of combating
illnesses related to smoking has been estimated at more than 10bn
Hungarian forints (£26.4m; $42m).

Calling the law "a good start," Tabor Demjén, of the National Health
Protection Institute said: "We still need well funded prevention
programmes for young people."