Turkey Extends Smoking Ban to Bars and Restaurants
Turkey banned smoking in bars, restaurants and other closed spaces today, following the example of European Union countries including Italy, Ireland and the U.K.
The ban, which came into effect at midnight, extends legislation that outlawed smoking in workplaces, shopping malls, schools and hospitals in May 2008.
About 35 percent of adult Turks smoke, including more than half the men in the country of 72 million, according to figures from the Health Ministry in Ankara. That compares with about 26 percent of EU citizens who smoke regularly, according to a European Commission study published in March.
Turkey’s government collects about $8.5 billion a year in taxes on tobacco products, and spends about half that amount treating smoking-related illnesses, according to Toker Erguder, who runs the World Health Organization’s tobacco-control project in Turkey.
The perception that Turks are inseparable from their tobacco is enshrined in several European languages in which the phrase “to smoke like a Turk” denotes heavy consumption.
“Smoking is one of the most pressing needs of a Turk,” the French novelist Theophile Gautier wrote after a visit to Istanbul in 1852.
The Turkish cigarette market may shrink about 5 percent as a result of the ban, Hurriyet newspaper reported today, citing an executive at British American Tobacco Plc’s unit in the country. BAT and Philip Morris International Inc., the world’s largest publicly traded cigarette maker, are among companies that make cigarettes in Turkey.
Nine-tenths of Turks support the smoking ban, according to a survey of 600 people by Istanbul-based Quirk Global Strategies published this month. More than half of respondents also said they were concerned that the ban won’t be properly enforced, according to the survey.
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