Russia is one of the most smoking countries in Europe. Therefore, the state is actively struggling with this harmful phenomenon in society. It is known that cigarette consumption harms not only the consumer of tobacco products, but also people who are next to him, who are also called passive smokers. That is why one of the directions of state policy to combat this harmful phenomenon is to limit the consumption of tobacco products in public places.
Legal Anti-Smoking Methods
In the fight against smoking, the legislator has resorted to all acceptable methods of influencing the consumption of tobacco products. It:
- Tight state control over the production and marketing of tobacco products.
- Economic stimulation of the rejection of the consumption and sale of tobacco products.
- Promotion of a healthy lifestyle.
- Ban smoking in public places.
Although the legislation in this area is aimed at reducing the volume of tobacco consumption, its effect is a very tangible income item for the state budget. The income comes from fees and other permits for the production and sale of tobacco products, as well as fines and other financial sanctions that entrepreneurs and citizens pay for budget revenues for violating anti-tobacco laws.
For these reasons, the state has fought and will continue to fight smoking, but will never dare to ban tobacco completely. At least there is no such practice in the modern world.
The constitutionality of anti-tobacco legislation
Often from the rostrum of opposition populists, one can hear unflattering reviews of Russian anti-tobacco legislation as undemocratic, which violates the rights of smoking citizens. But is it really so? The Constitution of the Russian Federation enshrines the fundamental human and civil rights, in particular, article 41 speaks of the human right to protection of health.
As already mentioned, cigarettes and other tobacco products harm not only the smoker, but also others, so their consumption in public places violates this constitutional right of citizens. At the same time, manufacturers and distributors of tobacco products violate the constitutional rights of smokers, giving them the opportunity to harm their health. Proceeding from this, the state, completely constitutionally assumed the function of regulating relations in the sphere of circulation and consumption of smoking products and pursues a policy against smoking in public places.
Russian anti-tobacco legislation
Each act regulating the circulation or consumption of tobacco products can be attributed to anti-tobacco legislation. But the most famous is the resonant Federal Law No. 15-FZ of 2013, adopted in connection with the ratification by the Russian government of the framework convention of the International Health Organization on the restriction of tobacco consumption.
After this law came into force, smoking in public places received severe territorial restrictions, and places in which it can be sold were limited. The law provides for state support to people who want to get rid of addiction.
The anti-tobacco legislation includes the legislation on the circulation of such products, the tax code, and other legislative acts that artificially, without any economic justification, increase the cost of tobacco products and complicate the organization of such a business.
Where can I smoke today?
There was a rumor in the media that since the adoption of Law 15-FZ, smoking is nowhere else. But actually it is not. As already mentioned, no state will ever agree to a complete ban on tobacco use. At the same time, the number of places where you can smoke has been significantly reduced.
Today you can smoke in your house, apartment, another private room, which is not a public place. In the open air, you can smoke wherever it is not prohibited, due to certain factors. You can smoke in your own car, unless you are engaged in passenger transportation. You can also smoke in specially designated places, which are indicated by the corresponding sign.
Prohibition of smoking in public places
The rules prohibiting smoking in public places can be divided into a ban on the use of tobacco products, and a ban on their distribution. According to its focus, the ban on use applies to all citizens located in Russia, and the ban on sale and distribution to business entities that sell such products.
No smoking hookah
Smoking a hookah is considered less harmful than cigarettes, however, harm to the body from the use of such cigarettes is caused. Therefore, smoking hookah in public places is also limited, although not so hard. It can be smoked in specialized institutions, in a specially-equipped room. Moreover, such premises can be equipped with a table and chairs, as well as served by waiters.
Where can not I smoke?
You cannot use tobacco products in any public indoor environment, except for places specially designed for this. This prohibition also applies to toilets, porches and other ancillary facilities. In the open air, tobacco use is also limited in the area of direct proximity (15 meters) to children's educational institutions, such as kindergartens and schools, medical institutions and public authorities and local governments. Smoking is also prohibited on public transport. Moreover, the ban also applies to long-distance rail and sea transport. But in such a transport, the equipment of the place for this lesson is allowed.
Ban tobacco advertising
It is forbidden to advertise cigarettes and other tobacco products, advertising means not only colorful brochures in magazines, posters and billboards, but also the holding of various promotions and prize drawings among tobacco users. Under the new law, the placement of cigarettes on display windows, as well as when exiting supermarkets in public, also applies to advertising.
It is known that the area near the cash desk of the supermarket, the place of stimulation of the buyer to purchase poorly bought goods. Therefore, placing cigarettes there will contribute to more smoking. Also, tobacco manufacturers and trading houses have limited branding opportunities for their products. On most cigarette packs, an unpleasant warning about the dangers of smoking for the human body should be distributed.
Some countries have gone further, and are obliged to print the death agonies of smokers on packs of harmful products. Also, the ban on advertising applies to the film industry. If a movie or scientific program portrays people with a cigarette, before demonstrating the session, it is necessary to inform the audience that the displayed products may contain smoking scenes that adversely affect human health.
Therefore, no one else in Russia will say “Welcome to the country of Marlboro”.
Limit tobacco sales
Cigarettes and other tobacco products are prohibited from selling to minors. sellers are permitted to require a passport or other age-proof document from particularly young consumers.It is also forbidden to sell tobacco products in the territory of government bodies, educational institutions, both private and state, including higher and secondary special educational institutions.
You can not sell cigarettes in catering establishments that position themselves as children’s, public canteens, and cafeterias. On the territory of hospitals and clinics, the sale of cigarettes is also prohibited. Also, smoking is not allowed in all vehicles, public transport stops, and transport stations, as well as at a distance of 15 meters from them.
Smoking area equipment
Restaurants and other catering establishments may have designated smoking areas. This is the only place in a closed public space where you can do this. At the same time, the smoking area is not a restaurant table, but a special room with forced ventilation. This place should be constantly ventilated, and the door to such a room should always be open.
A smoking area can also be determined outdoors, but such a place should be isolated from non-smoking visitors. It should be noted that the owner of any restaurant, which is an ardent opponent of this pernicious hairstyle, or simply does not want to spend too much money, has the right not to equip such places. In this case, visitors to such an institution will have to endure home.
Responsibility of public place owners to equip smoking areas
As already mentioned, the owner may not provide a smoking area. But there are some nuances. For example, if a restaurateur forbids everyone to use tobacco products in the territory of his restaurant, this rule should apply not only to visitors, but also to staff. If as a result of the check on the territory of the restaurant smokers are found, the owner of the restaurant will be fined, including for the lack of places for smoking.
The same rule applies to employers. If the employer has employees with bad habits, he is obliged to equip a smoking area at work, or he must dismiss everyone from work, and again hire only leading a healthy lifestyle. Thus, the legislator also took care of the rights of tobacco consumers, obliging them to equip special places for long-stay public places. As for the long-distance vessels, the equipment of smoking places there is made exclusively at the request of its owner. Since the work of a sailor is associated with certain restrictions. On cruise ships, of course, such places are mandatory.
Smoking Prohibition Signs
Owners of public places are required to equip their establishments with appropriate signs on the ban on smoking. This sign should consist of a graphic designation of the crossed out cigarette in a red circle, and the inscription under it is “no smoking”. Signs are placed in a conspicuous place at the entrance and in the main rooms. Smoking areas should also be equipped with the appropriate sign, which is a plate with a picture of a cigarette, and the corresponding inscription “smoking area”.
Responsibility for smoking in public places
Any citizen engaged in this harmful business in an unspecified place can be held responsible for smoking. Code of administrative misconduct establishes liability for smoking in public places. The fine can be from five hundred to one and a half thousand rubles. According to the Code of Administrative Offenses, smoking in public places is suppressed by the police, and it also charges fines.
Wherein Ignorance of the law is not an excuse, therefore, a citizen will pay a fine regardless of whether there are corresponding prohibition signs at the place of his unauthorized activity.For smoking in public places, an article of the code will overtake a citizen who throws cigarette butts outside the area allotted for this place.
Business Responsibility for Non-Smoking Prohibition
Legal entities may be fined between 40 and 80 thousand rubles for violating existing anti-tobacco legislation. for evading the requirements of the law. The responsibility also applies to businessmen who allow smoking in public places. A fine of 30 to 70 thousand will be paid by individual entrepreneurs for the same offenses.
If several entrepreneurs work in one institution, both entrepreneurs are held accountable. Unless it is established that one of them was responsible for complying with the requirements of the anti-tobacco legislation. If inspectors record smoking in public in a businessman, the Code of Administrative Offenses Code can be applied on two grounds.
First of all, for the lack of signs on the corresponding prohibition, and secondly for the lack of specially equipped places for smoking. Business representatives can also be held accountable for selling tobacco to minors. A special unit of the Federal Tax Service, as well as prosecution authorities, can be held responsible for such offenses. In addition to administrative responsibility, business representatives can also apply administrative and economic sanctions for violations of the rules of trade in tobacco products. Namely, putting them on display windows, or holding promotions, or other popularizing tobacco products.
For smoking in public places, the punishment can be criminal if it causes a fire or explosion of flammable substances, causing severe damage to property and health of citizens. In this case, we are talking about smoking on airplanes, and near gas stations. Also, criminal liability can fall on the shoulders of a businessman who lets minors smoke in public places, and popularizes this harmful culture among them.
Other anti-smoking measures in public placesx
Law 15-FZ can be called the second stage of a large-scale war of the state with smokers.
But enough time has passed since its adoption, and now a new bill is being prepared that will significantly increase the cost of tobacco products.
As experts have established, the prices of such products in the domestic market are very low, so they should be raised to reduce the number of smokers.
The state also allocates funds for mass promotion of a healthy lifestyle and smoking cessation. As part of this project, cultural events, festivals and competitions are planned throughout the country.
Since July 2015, volunteer units of vigilantes begin to operate throughout the country, which will also be entrusted with the function of controlling public order, including drinking alcohol and smoking in public places. It is planned to delegate the vigilantes and the authority to recover fines from offenders.
Summing up all of the above, we can conclude that smoking is prohibited in public places. But this ban is not discrimination against tobacco users, but a stimulating measure of the state to combat this harmful and unhealthy phenomenon, and with its popularization among young people. You can use tobacco in public places, but only in specially designated areas.
At the same time, the rights of the smoker are not limited, since the law obliges the employer to provide his subordinates with bad habits an appropriate place. And those who want to taste the taste of tobacco in a restaurant can use a hookah. Smoking hookah in public places is allowed in special facilities.
The main purpose of the ban is not to force smokers to quit smoking, so that non-smokers do not become addicted to this bad habit.If you ask the average person dependent on nicotine, how did he start smoking. He will tell that it all started with the fact that all his friends smoked, and when they talked, he simply stood idle during frequent breaks on the porch or in the cafe.
Now, in order to lure a potential smoker to another cigarette break, tobacco lovers will have to overcome certain difficulties to find a suitable place. The smoker will find him, because he has an addiction. But whether his healthy friend wants to spend the time of his short break for a minute conversation in puffs of smoke is a big question. The first ban on smoking was introduced in Ireland in 2004, but subsequently other European countries, including Russia, adopted the Irish experience.
You can often hear from skeptics that the prohibition of smoking in public places at first reduced the number of smokers, but subsequently their number increased again. In fact, this is true, but this is not surprising. People suffering from nicotine addiction have been looking for a forbidden place for a long time to smoke.
It is entirely possible that business leaders were not in a hurry to equip smoking rooms after the adoption of the law. And therefore smokers were forced to smoke only at home, and this reduced the number of cigarettes consumed. But in consequence, each smoker found for himself a convenient way to smoke at work breaks. As already mentioned, this ban is not for smokers who want to quit, but for non-smokers who do not want to start. At the same time, the domestic lawmaker took care of tobacco consumers as well, planning to create centers for combating smoking and popularizing it among smokers.
Thus, according to the current Federal Law, smoking in public places is available, but in limited quantities, so people with nicotine addiction have somewhere to smoke. Only non-smokers will no longer be uncomfortable because of this.
