Health authorities getting ready to enforce smoke ban

The Health Department is determined to choke out smoking from most public places starting in April, when new regulations come into effect, despite objections from the tobacco industry.

Health promotion department director Mario Spiteri acknowledges it will be tough to enforce the new regulations but, combined with the regular hike in the price of cigarettes, they could turn out to be a bad dream for the tobacco industry.

A legal notice issued in September lays down that as from April, smoking will be banned from "any establishments where services are provided to the public, whether for a charge or free of charge, including the sale of goods".

This effectively means that smoking will even be prohibited in bars and restaurants unless they provide an area reserved for smokers. In the event of conflict between smokers and non-smokers in any area other than those reserved for smokers, a smoker shall desist from smoking in that area, the law states.

Other places where smoking will be banned include hospitals, exhibition places, ports, airports and schools.

Furthermore, LN 244 provides that an employer will designate special areas for smoking that will be totally separate from areas normally occupied by non-smokers. It also stipulates that harsh warnings should be printed on cigarette packets.

A non-print media advertising ban, with the exclusion of billboards, has been in place for some time. Now print-media advertising has also been banned. Malta is among the countries that has ratified the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which binds signatories to a number of conditions and restrictions. The latest statistics show that 24 per cent of men and 18 per cent of women smoke, a reduction from the early 1990s, though the figure is up in the 15- to 22-year segment.

Figures to be released shortly show that some 358 people died this year from smoking, more than one person a day.

Speaking to The Times about the smoking ban yesterday, Dr Spiteri said he believed the new regulations were a step in the right direction and very much in line with actions being taken in the developed world.

He is under no illusion, though, about the difficulty of enforcing the new rules. Enforcement will be the responsibility of the police and public health inspectors. He believes that with goodwill from everybody, exposure to cigarette smoke in public places can be reduced drastically. "Sometimes it takes one single court case to start a domino effect," Dr Spiteri remarked.

Smokers protested loudly when airlines decided to ban smoking on board flights but everyone had now accepted this measure, he pointed out.

"We have to take the bull by the horns. Even countries like Ireland and Italy, renowned for their high smoking rates, are slowly enforcing these laws, so there should be no reason why we can't do likewise."

Dr Spiteri reiterated that passive smokers were equally at risk. Suffice to say, he explained, that studies carried out among non-smoking barmen showed they possessed a level of nicotine equivalent to a smoker of 10 - 15 cigarettes a day.

Places like bars may opt for what is known as an air curtain, which could divide the establishment into two to cater for smokers and non-puffers. Those that cannot provide this facility have no choice but to ban smoking.

The Tobacco Industry Advisory Council had accused the authorities of preparing and bringing into effect, with scant consultation, a set of regulations that impose new rules on an "already well-regulated sector".

This haste, the council claimed, led to a number of significant errors being made, including that the EU directive relating to health warnings has not been given effect in the way in which the government is obliged to.

Andrew Borg Cardona, the council's chief executive officer, said the industry had discussed the new tobacco regulations with the health authorities and was now waiting for the "revised regulations" to be issued. He said it would therefore be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.

But he pointed out that increasing the scope of smoking bans does not necessarily lead to a reduction in demand and might, instead, lead to an increase in intolerance.

Asked what he thought of the fact that most developed countries seemed to be moving towards a total ban of smoking in public places, Dr Borg Cardona replied: "I don't believe that creating further sources of irritation and intolerance by creating no-go zones is a good way of diminishing the annoyance caused by tobacco smoke in enclosed spaces."

He said he did not believe the advertising ban would make much of an impact on the industry, which has known that the ban will be coming into effect for some time now.

Directly, the tobacco industry employs about 130 people, but if one included the distribution, wholesale and retail trades, the number of people with an income from the industry would rise quite significantly, he said.

If one added to this the government, which raised considerable tax and excise revenue from the sale of tobacco, the contribution to the economy became very important.

"Quick fixes like slapping new taxes on cigarettes have a limited and, sometimes, only cosmetic effect because the initial reduction in demand for non-contraband cigarettes tends to creep back up," Dr Borg Cardona said.