Half-Hearted Plans?

Germany has a lot of catching up to do in non-smoker protection. There is no doubting the health effects. Every year, over 140,000 people die in Germany as a result of tobacco consumption. The follow-up costs of illnesses caused by smoking are enormous.

It's difficult to help someone who wants to harm themselves -- even if an addiction like smoking makes it necessary to offer therapy possibilities, of course. But smokers are insisting on their right to individual self-determination. That's fine, but individual freedom ends where it begins to restrict others -- and massively.

In Germany, over 3,000 people die every year as a result of passive smoking -- without having ever taken a drag of a cigarette. It includes children, as well as waiters and other staff in the restaurant business, many of whom have not chosen their workplace voluntarily.

The right to health is a precept of state care and the right to a healthy workplace should also apply to restaurant staff. In Germany's restaurants, people still smoke like mad. It's particularly noticeable when you return after spending a longer period abroad. Yet in terms of numbers, smokers have long since become a minority in Germany, making up only 25 percent of the population. But due to wrongly perceived tolerance, no one is showing them the door.

Totalitarian solutions are not the answer

Lawmakers' attempts to ban smoking in public places have led to smoke-free train stations and airports. But when it comes to restaurants, they appear to be caving in to the tobacco industry's strong lobby. It is convincing restaurant owners that they will suffer enormous losses if they ban smoking in their establishments. Yet non-smoking rooms meanwhile enjoy great popularity even in traditional breweries.

Nobody wants a total ban on smoking. Totalitarian solutions don't suit an open and liberal society. If possible, smoking zones should be separated from non-smoking areas. A declaration obligation whether a restaurant is smoke-free or not would help patrons to choose where to eat better. It would also give parents with children the option of a healthy restaurant visit.

In Germany, the devil is often in the legal detail when it comes to banning regulations. But the planned difference between smoke-free restaurants and pubs with smoking authorization outright doesn't make sense. Practically every pub offers food, too. But nicotine should be taboo anywhere you can eat.

Germany has a lot of catching up to do

Other countries are way ahead of Germany in protecting non-smokers. In Italy and even in Scotland and Ireland, where the visit to the pub is a tradition, there is a general smoking ban in the meantime. Not to mention the United States, even if the stigmatization of smokers has partially become absurd.

Ultimately, commonsense speaks in favor of non-smoking establishments. Why should I let cigarette smoke from the table next to mine ruin my appetite? My neighbor can, after all, go outside with his cigarette -- but I can't with my plate. We should also think of the children. If someone acts as if smoking is normal, it contributes to the socialization of the next generation of addiction. Just as I don't cross the street on red in front of a child, we should also be role models for non-smoking.

In Germany, we don't find it difficult otherwise to deal with bans -- whether it's playing ball in the courtyard, walking on the grass or parking. Only the speedsters on the highway and the smokers vehemently defend their bastion of freedom with the help of a powerful lobby. All due respect for the freedom to the drug, but health and quality of life of our fellow human beings should be the higher asset.

Daniel Scheschkewitz is an editor for DW-RADIO and Deutsche Welle's former Washington, DC correspondent.