Smoking Laws around the World
In 2004 the nation of Bhutan outlawed smoking altogether, and though the government is battling a black market trade in tobacco products, they still intend to make smoking a costly and ultimately doomed habit. Why so much fuss? If you consider that smoking causes the death of over five million people in the world each year, and at a cost of around five hundred billion dollars in direct medical care, lost productivity, and environmental damage, it is easy to see why any government would impose strict regulations on tobacco use.
Currently the smoking laws around the world are broken out into two very distinct categories – an age limit and smoking bans. The overall age limits will vary from nation to nation, but the most common range is from 15 to 21, with the age of 18 being the most common among them. Where smoking bans are concerned, however, there is a huge amount of variation between each government.
For example, the United States government imposes a few very limited regulations that include a ban on smoking on airplanes and in any building under federal ownership, but they allow each state to set the formal smoking age and to also decide upon any bans on cigarette smoking too. There are some nations that have a very strong national ban, such as Bhutan, and some with bans in place but also with the option for variances and exceptions. The dominating theme to the most typical bans are for the amount of smoking in public places to be as limited as possible.
Why do governments want to control the activities of their citizens? They don’t, they want to protect them from them catastrophic harms that come with smoking. They are not only seeking to limit the health threats to smokers by preventing them from smoking in all but the most restricted areas, but they are also ensuring the good health of non-smokers too.
Let’s consider a very common scenario in the world – the restaurant. Here people will gather together to eat a meal, socialize and enjoy a bit of relaxation. They might also want to smoke a cigarette, but this is going to allow the toxins in the smoke to spread to patrons at neighboring tables. This is one of the major reasons that so many governments have very clear guidelines about smoking in restaurants and bars, and why some even have full bans on such activities.
A good look at most laws will see that they are being implemented in order to reduce the amount of smoke that non-smokers must experience, and to also make cigarettes a costly habit that is soon discarded.
