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Action on Smoking and Health
A National Legal-Action Antismoking Organization Entirely Supported by Tax-Deductible Contributions
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Norway Brings National Smoking Ban on Restaurants and Bars [10/27-2]
Excerpts from: Norway gets tough on smoking
By Karen Allen BBC
[10/27/03]
Norway is to be one of the first countries in the world to bring in a national
ban on smoking in restaurants, bars and cafes.
As a campaign is launched to prepare the Norwegian public for the change, Dr
Gro Harlem Bruntland, the country's former premier and until recently, the head
of the World Health Organisation, has challenged ministers in Britain to become
more bold with their anti-smoking laws.
It will come into force next summer - some consolation for smokers who will have to take their habit outside and puff away in temperatures of minus 20 degrees during the harsh Scandinavian winters.
Other countries like Ireland and the Netherlands are on course to follow Norway's lead.
Britain, however, is unlikely to do likewise. Ministers have made it clear they favour voluntary smoking bans - fearful that they will be accused of running a "nanny state".They have signed up to the first worldwide convention on tobacco control.
But Dr Bruntland made it clear in a interview with the BBC that for Britain stronger moves are needed.
She warned ministers that unless they were prepared to face political "discomfort"
they wouldn't be going far enough - and would make little headway in getting
smoking rates down.
"Most countries will have this kind of regulation within a few years."
A spokesman for Tiedemanns, Norway's biggest tobacco firm, argues that a total ban on lighting up in product places is going too far.
"There is full information in society, and has been for 50 years that is a harmful product and everyone knows. It is a personal choice whether you use it or not."
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