Surveys consistently reveal most Czechs favour ban on smoking in pubs and restaurants
Surveys have repeatedly shown that a majority in the Czech Republic would favour of a ban on smoking in the country’s pubs and restaurants. Polling agency Ipsos, together with the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University, has long mapped how people feel on the matter. Proposed anti-smoking legislation was killed in the lower house this week, causing a rift in the coalition and leaving the Czech Republic still isolated in Europe when it comes to regulating smoking.
“The number of people who are in favour of a ban on smoking in restaurants did not change greatly since 2012 and 2015 (standing at 78 percent), but what did grow was the number of people who were ‘strongly against’ smoking in restaurants. An additional study in 2014 also revealed additional significant information: that 25 percent of those under the age of 18 said they would never have started smoking in the first place if a ban had been in place earlier at restaurants and pubs.”
That kind of information must be ‘ammunition’ for the health minister, who has pushed for the legislation and backed prevention (even taking an urn to the lower house to show the gravity of early deaths related to smoking); after all, much of what is at stake has to do with prevention.
“That is the case. In fact, our findings were part of a social campaign which was strongly welcomed and supported by the former health minister Heger, who took part with us in a joint-press conference. He supported a ban on smoking in restaurants and other places where young people can be affected by second-hand smoke, potentially impacting their health.”
When you look at the Czech Republic’s place on the map of Europe now, it seems like a very lonely spot to be with respect to smoking. Are we out of step with the rest of Europe?
