ISTANBUL, Turkey, Jun 28, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Turkey will successfully
adjust to a smoking ban in its restaurants and bars if it follows the same path
as France, an international health expert says.
Speaking last week in Istanbul as a July 19 deadline approaches banning tobacco
from public spaces, Sylviane Ratte, a tobacco control expert with the
International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, said Turkey will
eventually become smoke-free if, like France, leaders follow a set and certain
path, Today's Zaman reported Sunday.
"Turkey will be the best example for the world with its two-year journey to
enact and implement the law," she said, stating that skepticism abounded in 1991
when France took its first steps to ban smoking in closed areas. But, she said,
advocates overcame opposition from the tobacco industry to become smoke-free in
public areas.
"The tobacco industry tried to stop the process by arguing that this was
legislation against the right to smoke, turning the ban into a human rights
issue. This is a habit that kills and has nothing to do with human rights,"
Ratte said.
"There is a great political will to impose the ban (in Turkey)," Stephen Hamill
of the World Lung Foundation told the newspaper.
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