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BERLIN - German Chancellor Angela Merkel backed a broad ban on smoking in public places today, amid fears that leaving individual states to decide on their own smoking policies will lead to chaos.
Germany's 16 state premiers are not expected to agree at a meeting tomorrow about whether to ban smoking in restaurants and public houses. Experts fear this will result in a patchwork of different restrictions being introduced across the country.
A spokesman for Merkel told reporters ahead of the meeting that the chancellor believed that "the widest possible protection for non-smokers (was) desirable".
"I have said before that we have new and very serious medical evidence which suggests that the damage caused by smoke particles is worse than thought," spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said.
"The chancellor has on more than one occasion appealed to all those responsible in the states, but also in firms and municipalities, to do everything possible to significantly improve protection for non-smokers," he added.
However, Wilhelm stopped short of issuing a recommendation to the states, which under Germany's complex federal system are granted responsibility for certain areas of policy.
"A recommendation that goes any further on how the state parliaments should operate would not be appropriate," he said.
Some states have indicated they support a widespread ban on smoking in public places, while others say that publicans should be allowed to decide whether to send smokers outside.
"I'm expecting a disaster," said Martina Poetschke-Langer of the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg. "Many of the big German states, like Baden-Wuerttemberg, Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia look like they are not ready to take the steps necessary to protect non-smokers."
The federal government last year dropped plans for a nationwide smoking ban, saying it would be unconstitutional. It then faced accusations that it had caved in to pressure from Germany's tobacco lobby.
- REUTERS
