A campaign contesting the imminent smoking ban is gaining momentum in Warsaw.
Posters protesting against turning restaurants, pubs and clubs into smoke free areas can be seen in a growing number of venues.
Following in the footsteps of countries such as Ireland, Poland intends to ban smoking in all public places, a plan which has caused an outcry from restaurant owners and groans from the country’s 9 million smokers.
Owners are scared that the non-smoking law will harm their business and want to decide themselves whether their venues will be declared smoke free or not.
“Smoking boosts sales, people drink bear and smoke, there are many smokers here,” bar tenders Kamil and Tomek tell the daily Gazeta Wyborcza. They say the campaign against the smoking ban is a grass roots initiative, but the daily’s reporters have discovered that in other pubs it was encouraged by representatives of tobacco firms.
Last Friday, the restrictive smoking regulations were discussed by the lower house of Parliament. The draft will have a first reading shortly. About 70,000 people in Poland die from smoking related diseases annually. (kk/jb)