Turks are smoking and ban is coming

Published on April 24th, 2008 03:32

Smoking and Turkey are two things that come together during many centuries, but recently government decided to join to international wave and banned smoking in almost all public places.

Though, Turks have another opinion. Ban was approved in January and gets legal force in September, but according to a recent study number of smokers has remained immutable as it was before announcement of veto.

New law acclaimed smoking outlaw in all public places, including cafés, restaurants and bars however rate of smokers continue to remain the same.

According to a statistical data in Turkey there are near 25 million smokers. This is nearly half of Turkey's population. According to the Anatolian Agency in 2007, 76 packs of cigarettes were smoked per person and around 22.5 million euros are spent on cigarettes daily.

Turks said that ban is the direct infringement on their rights and their civil liberties. They will ignore it, as they do now, but Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan is eagerly prepared to accomplish the imminent smoking ban.

Turkey is one of the greatest producer of tobacco and obviously one of the greater users. The same state of affairs can be seen in China: a lot of restrictions on lightening up but with no efficient results.