EDITORIAL: Banning smoking at work

To protect workers' health, smoking should be banned in the workplace as a general rule. This idea forms the core of a report drafted by a panel of intellectuals at the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, which is studying ways to prevent health hazards caused by second-hand smoke.

In response to the report, which will be released as early as in April, the Labor Policy Council is set to discuss how to incorporate the proposal into the industrial safety and health law.

The government should realize legislation to prevent health damage by second-hand smoke this time around. While the health promotion law calls for the prevention of passive smoking, it remains a nonbinding obligation.

It will be five years at the end of February since the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control that calls for protection from exposure to tobacco smoke came into force. Its guidelines also call for legal measures to prevent second-hand smoke.

Since the administration of Yukio Hatoyama came into being, policy measures such as raising cigarette prices have finally started moving forward.

According to a public opinion poll by the private think tank Health Policy Institute, Japan on the administration's health-care policies, the tobacco tax hike was the third most popular after the screening of wasteful government spending and increasing the number of doctors.

Further advancement of anti-smoking measures is a way to meet public expectations.

First, the draft report states that it is internationally recognized, and based on scientific evidence, that second-hand smoke affects health.

To prevent health hazards, the report proposes a total ban on smoking in offices and factories or a ban on smoking in areas other than smoking rooms that prevent smoke from escaping.

What about restaurants? To protect workers' health, general rules similar to those that apply to offices are needed. However, there is strong resistance within the food service industry, which says it would be difficult to impose a total smoking ban on customers when more than 30 percent of adult males are smokers.

In consideration of the situation, the draft report only calls for the prevention of passive smoking of workers as much as possible with such means as proper ventilation.

However, we also wish to call attention to the fact that nearly 80 percent of the adult population does not smoke and 70 to 80 percent of smokers want to break the habit.

Outside Japan, even in countries where tobacco and alcohol were thought to be inseparable, smoking bans are steadily spreading thanks to political leadership.

In Britain, the administration of Tony Blair in 1997 declared its determination to advance a smoking ban. Ten years later, with the enactment of the Health Act, smoking became prohibited in public places, including pubs.

In Taiwan, too, a law to prevent damage from tobacco smoke went into force last year, and public places immediately became smoke-free. Now, smoking is banned in all the guest rooms at hotels.

As other countries implement smoking bans, Japan, which is far from smoke-free, could end up turning off tourists from countries that ban smoking in public places.

Most importantly, second-hand smoke must be prevented to protect the lives of all people. It is time we take a step forward with the goal to impose a total ban on smoking in workplaces.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 19