WATCH ABOVE: Over the years, smoking has slowly been banned just about everywhere. You can’t smoke on planes or trains, restaurants or clubs, and even in some parks. Now in Quebec, there’s an appeal to ban smoking in some other public outdoor areas. As Global’s Rachel Lau found out, this comes as no surprise for most.
MONTREAL – It’s a motion that has been in the works for years, a ban on smoking on terraces across the province.
“This is not done against the smokers,” said David Lefebvre, spokesperson for the Quebec Council on Tobacco and Health.
“It is done for the public health of the hospitality workers, which are more than 230,000 in Quebec, and it’s also done for them to have the same right to work in a smoke free environment.”
Quebec Anti-smoking advocates recently conducted a study on smoke levels on terraces. They concluded there isn’t much worse for a person’s health than second hand smoke. The advocates want the province to follow in the footsteps of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Alberta.
“In the forest fire in Kelowna the level was 80, about the same for a big smog day in Los Angeles,” said Lefebvre.
“On a terraces we could have some readings that were up to 300 and even under the umbrellas when there were a lot of smokers we almost touched the thousands.”
Universel Déjeuner & Grillades restaurant on Peel street already has a smoke-free terrace – but it wasn’t by choice. They were given a health warning a few months ago.
“We have curtains, which are able to close,” explained Universel owner Steve Manousakis.
“They told us that nobody could smoke on the terrace, even though they remained open they were not allowed to smoke.”
Restaurateurs say the ban won’t affect business.
In fact, they’ve been preparing for this for quite some time.
“We’ve heard rumours about the impending ban on smoking on terraces,” said Wienstein and Gavino’s manager Roger Costa.
“There are some people who don’t appreciate it very much, and it just seems to be a natural evolution of where things are going vis-à-vis smoking in general.”
It may be an extra annoyance for smokers, who are being pushed onto the sidewalks,
But the Quebec Coalition for Tobacco Control and the Quebec Council on Tobacco and Health say they have to consider the health risks.
They plan to appeal to the National Assembly at the end of August.
POLL: How do you feel about smoking on outdoor patios?
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