Government wants to ban smoking at open-air concerts and sports events
Cordoned-off smoking areas to be set up at outdoor arenas
Smoking could soon be banned among spectators at open-air sport and cultural events, such as rock festivals and football matches, if the government’s proposal for a new tobacco law is passed.
The ban would extend to all areas where spectators gather to watch the events, says Ismo Tuominen of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.
The organisers should mark off the spectator areas as non-smoking areas, and to enforce the no-smoking policy.
The bans would not apply to events with no organisers, such as the regular urban street revelry during New Year’s or the First of May.
Organisers of festivals believe that the proposed legislation would lead to the establishment of special smoking areas at summer events.
“In practice, it [the audience area] would have to be fenced off somehow. Otherwise it would not be possible to enforce anything like that”, says Juhani Merimaa, the promoter behind the Ankkarock and Ruisrock festivals.
Ismo Tuominen notes that there is no special mention of designated smoking areas in the proposed legislation.
“The practical application would probably be easier for organisers who arrange smoking areas than for those who do not”, he explains.
Tuominen says that the goal of the proposed law is to protect members of the audience from having to breathe tobacco smoke.
“The working group has taken as its starting point that if there are 25 people in an area of ten square metres, and one of them wants to smoke, the other 24 should not have to take a walk.”
Tuominen says that there is a health aspect that justifies the ban.
He says that the ministry is often contacted by asthmatics for whom smoke at an outdoor public event can be dangerous.
Sharply opposed to the idea is the Finnish Hospitality Association MaRa.
Veli-Matti Aittoniemi, the deputy managing director of the association, says that the ministry is trying to give too broad an interpretation to the stipulation in the bill.
The text refers to a ban in places where “participants remain in one place”.
As Ismo Tuominen sees this, such a location would include a picnic blanket at a summer festival.
Aittoniemi feels that the law should be interpreted in such a manner that the ban would only apply to events in which the spectator has a designated seat.
Tuominen says that the formulation is aimed specifically at extending the ban on smoking to events where there are no reserved seats.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 5.10.2009 - TODAY |
 Government wants to ban smoking at open-air concerts and sports events
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