Mon 21 December 2009 | 08:41 GMT Text size:

Faik Bagirov

The issue of prohibition of smoking in public places has been discussed in Azerbaijan for more than one year.

We shall learn what tolerance is from smokers. You could have never seen any smoker blaming that a non smoker does not smoke.
Sandro Pertini (Italian President from 1978 to 1985)

The issue of prohibition of smoking in public places has been discussed in Azerbaijan for more than one year. The issue has been discussed in the Parliament and in the media. Various people have brought out various positions. But there are no real results…

By writing this article we would like to make a comprehensive survey of the issue of prohibition of smoking in public places and help our citizens clearly understand the following: the right of a person to inhale air being free from smoke pollution is preferential to any likely right of smokers to pollute the air being inhaled by other people.

History of the issue in Azerbaijan

The issue began in April 2007 when at the meeting of the Parliamentary Deputy Executive Secretary of “New Azerbaijan” Party, Mubariz Gurbanli submitted a proposal to issue a decree prohibiting smoking in public places.

In November 2008 Member of Parliament, Ganira Pashayeva, prepared a draft law on “Prohibition of smoking in public places” and presented it to the social policy committee of Parliament. The draft presented by Ganira Pashayeva prescribed prohibition of smoking in all public places including entertainment centers, cafes, restaurants, stadiums, all social and trade buildings and their halls and all means of transport including taxis, buses and trains.

In July 2009 the Deputy Chairman of the Social Policy Committee of the Parliament, Musa Guliyev, issued a project of law on prohibition of smoking in public places.

In October 2009 Chairman of the Social Policy Committee of Parliament, Hadi Rajabli, stated that implementation of the law in the realities of Azerbaijan is very difficult and a problematic issue. “Therefore we have not included this issue on the agenda. Even if we approve the project in parliament envisaging this ban, it will be impossible to realize it,” Chairman of the Committee on Social Policy of the Milli Majlis, Hadi Rajabli, said. He went on to say that public condemnation of this fact is the best way to prevent smoking in Azerbaijani public places.

1 December 2009 – this article is being written. Result? Please read it to the end…

November 2010 – term of office of the current Parliament will be over.

Why do we need this law?

We have to clearly understand that our main goal at this stage is not to fight with smoking. Our main goal is to achieve an atmosphere without smoke pollution for the non smoking majority of the country’s population. Because simple fight will not help! According to statistics, 90% of smokers wish to quit. Many of them have tried quitting many times – but they failed and returned back to this habit. Most smokers do not smoke for choice, they simply became addicted to smoking due to nicotine contained in all cigarettes.

By passing this law, we will protect all non smoking people and our children from harmful consequences of cigarettes smoked by other people. We will not only protect their health – but we would also be protecting their right not to badly smell of smoke after visiting various public places. What harm does passive smoking do? First of all let us describe the term “passive smoking”: Passive smoking, also known as environmental tobacco smoke, is a combination of the smoke coming from the lit end of a cigarette plus the smoke exhaled by a person smoking. Interestingly this description was taken from the internet site of the world’s tobacco giant Philip Morris International. Please pay special attention to the second part of this term: “plus the smoke exhaled by a person smoking”.  Why should non smokers be forced to saturate their lungs, their skin, their hair and their clothes with the smoke coming from cigarettes and lungs of other people?

They SHALL NOT, they WOULD NOT LIKE and they WILL NOT!

Let’s move to the harm done by staying in premises that permit smoking. Hundreds thousand people who have never smoked in their lives die every year due to the diseases caused by inhaling secondhand tobacco smoke.
Secondhand tobacco smoke — is a huge threat for health. It is the cause of death for at least 200 000 people every year in places of work alone (14% of all work related deaths and 2,8% of all lung cancer cases). Most of these people work in restaurants and customer service industries but this problem may exist in any business. 5% of all diseases in the world relate to passive smoking. Passive smoking is also known as “forced smoking”. So, it is now obvious to medical authorities that passive smoking leads non smokers to development of diseases inherent to smokers.
Environmental pollution caused by smokers is considerably huge. During its short life a lit cigarette is the source of two smoke streams: main stream being inhaled by a smoker and side stream affecting all the people around forced to inhale harmful substances. I think it would be interesting to have a look at the levels of various substances inhaled during active and passive smoking:

                                                  Inhaled dose, mg
Substance                             Active smoker       Passive smoke
                                                 (1 cigarette)            (1 hour)

Carbon monoxide                     18,4                       9,2
Azote oxide                                  0,3                        0,2
Aldehydes                                   0,8                        0,2
Cyanide                                       0,2                        0,005
Acrolein                                       0,1                         0,01
Firm and liquid substances    25,3                      2,3
Nicotine                                       2,1                        0,04 

ecialists have calculated that harm caused by passive smoking within 5 hours is equal to smoking 1 cigarette. Staying in a closed place full of tobacco smoke for 8 hours is equal to smoking more than 5 cigarettes. It has now been proved that passive smoking is an important factor of lung cancer development.  So, passive smoking causes serious harm to the health of people leading to almost the same pathological consequences as active smoking.

Will the law work?

There is some doubt in the minds of our Members of Parliament that this law will work in realities of Azerbaijan.
Herewith I would like to eliminate these doubts:
Firstly, in what way do the “realities” of Azerbaijan differ from the realities of other countries, like Turkey or Kazakhstan (they have successfully implemented the law)?

Secondly, we have an example of the perfect realization of a smoking ban on all airplanes of the national carrier – AZAL. They simply fined every person who smoked on their planes. After 2 – 3 months the problem was completely solved.
Thirdly, we have a great example of a successful smoking ban in all restaurants of McDonald’s in Azerbaijan. How did they achieve this? They simply organized their security services very well.

To achieve success in implementation of the ban, we have to apply the fines not only to smokers breaking the ban, but also to the owners of places allowing such a violation. In this context fines for the owners of restaurants shall be at least 10 – 20 times higher than for smokers. If the fine is 4 times higher than an average salary of a security guard, then the owner will make the choice whether to break the law and pay fines or save money and maintain a healthy atmosphere in their restaurant.

Let’s have a look why people normally smoke at public places?

I think, there are 5 main reasons why people think that lighting a cigarette in a public place is normal practice:
1)    All the people around have smoked and they are smoking right now – what is wrong with that?
2)    There are no bans – and I wish to smoke.
3)    Influence of alcohol.
4)    I am used to smoking even at home in front of my children – so what is wrong with smoking in front of people unfamiliar to me?
5)    I do not care about anything.
How will adoption of a new law on prohibition of smoking affect the people smoking due to these 5 reasons?
The first and second groups of people will clearly understand that smoking in public places is not now normal for society and it is prohibited by law. So, most of them will voluntarily desist from smoking in public places. Groups three to five will be affected by fines which have been mentioned above. In general, I am absolutely sure that if the law will be passed in a proper way it will work with the highest effectiveness.

Appeal

In November 2010 the term of office of the current Parliament will be over. On behalf of a huge army of Azerbaijani citizens suffering from the consequences of smoking in public places I herewith appeal to our deputies: please, try to pass the law on prohibition of smoking in public places before your term of office is over. Each of our citizens will benefit from this law. And by doing this we will stand in line with the leading countries of the world.

In conclusion I would like to repeat the main message:

The right of a person to inhale air being free from smoke pollution is preferential to any likely right of smokers to pollute the air being inhaled by other people.

So let’s achieve this now!

Faik Bagirov

Entrepreneur, Establisher of “Successful Strategies” Project and “Creativity and Innovations” Business Group. Participant of Sydney Olympic Games (middle distance run)