Turks Support Smoking Ban, Doubt Its Enforcement
Ninety percent of Turks support a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants that will come into force this month, a poll showed.
More than half the respondents also said that they were concerned the July 19 ban won’t be properly enforced, according to the poll of 600 people by Istanbul-based Quirk Global Strategies published today.
About 35 percent of all adult Turks smoke, including more than half the men in the country of 72 million. Philip Morris International Inc. and British American Tobacco Plc are among the companies that make cigarettes in Turkey. This month’s ban follows legislation that in May 2008 outlawed cigarettes in workplaces, shopping malls, schools and hospitals.
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, Toker Erguder, who runs the World Health Organization’s tobacco-control project in Turkey, said at a news conference in Istanbul today.
The Turkish poll had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
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Tags: tobacco study
