Smoking In Public Places Banned

On 20th November (the world non-smoking day), the Cabinet put forward amendments to the Public Health Act. If they're approved by the Parliament, smoking in public places and workplaces in Bulgaria will be banned from June 2010.

Considering Bulgaria's one of the countries with the highest number of smokers, abiding by the rules is not going to be easy, but the experts, worried about the influence of passive smoking, say banning smoking in public places is the only solution to the problem.

Several years ago, about 2200 high school students took part in a poll about smoking. Its results were truly appalling as almost 60% of the students smoke regularly. What's more, the majority of them started smoking being only 16!

After introducing the ban, smoking in public places is supposed to be punished with high fines, both for the individuals and the proprietors of places where the ban's broken. It might cost up to 21 000 euros to break the law.