Tue, 9 February 2010
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One Hamburg resident sounds off about the petition for a referendum on Germany’s smoking ban and why it is a step in the wrong direction.These days, local bar/restaurant owners in Berlin are currently gathering signatures on petitions for a referendum to make enforcement of a smoking ban voluntary in Germany’s food-serving establishments, where smoking has been prohibited since January 1, 2008. The referendum, if successful, would allow restaurant owners themselves to decide whether patrons may smoke. Similar petitions have been circulating in my adopted city, Hamburg, where I have lived since July.
Before coming to Hamburg, I worked for two years in Bratislava where there was no such smoking ban. So it was a great relief to arrive in Germany and find that I could enjoy a restaurant meal without fear that my food might actually taste like cigarette butts.
In Hamburg, Berlin or any other city, we can easily predict what the great majority of bar/restaurant owners would decide, if given a choice, about smoking in their establishments. If they allowed smoking, they would earn more money not only from smokers frequenting their establishments but also from sales of cigarettes to those customers. The result of the vote can be predicted based on pure self-interest.
Hamburg: Quarantine!Smoking zones in the Deutsche Bahn
According to an article in the Berlin Express website, Initiativ Für Genuss (IFG), the organization behind the petition for the referendum, objects to the “ever-growing state interference in the private lives of individuals.” IFG claims on its website to appeal to smokers and non-smokers, alike, stating that its objective is “to respect non-smokers in public spaces, while allowing smokers to decide for themselves in bars.” Maybe the IFG folks think this sounds like a reasonable argument but what does it really mean—that smokers will stop smoking on the street, cease blowing their stinking poison into my face every day if I will just stay out of the cafes so they can smoke there in peace? If I thought that would really happen, I might consider signing the petition and eating and drinking at home but something tells me that my nicotine-addicted neighbors are not going to stop smoking outside to protect my rights in public.
What a waste of time with this referendum. Many restaurant owners themselves already have been deciding whether patrons may smoke since the law was passed. What a joke. I've walked in establishments where folks are puffing away
In response to: "What we really need is ... a petition to ban all public smoking. "
I'm currently working on just that - a petition for a stricter smoking ban - together with the ÖDP down here in Bavaria. Check us out on Facebook and spread the word! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Volksbegehren-Fur-echten-Nichtraucherschutz/77572014149
Richard, you're doing a great thing! Why should non-smokers be subjected to the myriad of ill effects of smoking?! I live in Berlin but in Chicago, where I'm from, the smoking ban has worked wonderfully and has not had a negative financial effect on restaurants or bars!
It is ridiculous how these addicts frame this in terms of personal freedom. Everyone ELSE wants to be free of the nasty effects of your obnoxious toxic addiction. Every time I go out to a club, I cough for two days after. Would you smoke at a gym? Then why would you smoke where I want to dance? Keep your pathetic relationship with that horrible parasite at home, and let the rest of us have OUR freedom.
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