More smoking checks at sport clubs 01/10/2007 00:00

1 October 2007

BRUSSELS – The inspection services of the ministry of public health are going to check sport club canteens and concert venues more strictly for compliance with the smoking ban. One in six visitors to these locations continues to smoke despite the ban.

Many people in sport club canteens think that they are at a café and that smoking is therefore still permitted, but a full smoking ban is in fact in place for sport canteens.

The smokers at concerts usually know that smoking there is banned, but simply ignore the regulation.

"Our priority now is to inspect canteens and concert halls," says inspector Paul Van den Meerssche. "The ban has not yielded spectacular results at those venues after all."

Compliance by restaurant patrons and in public places has been good in general. Only six percent of visitors violate the ban in these places.

"I think a change in mentality is taking place," says inspector Paul Van den Meerssche. "And moreover the public health ministry has also invested substantially in the inspections themselves."

[Copyright Expatica News 2007]

Subject: Belgian news