Restaurant owners wait impatiently for guidelines on smoking booths
Smoking take effect in June - restaurateurs suspect deliberate foot-dragging
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Finnish restaurant owners are criticising the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health for not issuing officials guidelines for the construction of smoking booths. A new law takes effect June this year restricting smoking in restaurants to isolated booths that prevent smoke from escaping into the main dining areas.
With just four months to go before the law takes effect, the precise guidelines promised by the ministry have yet to be drawn up.
"The new tobacco law was approved in July last year, and the decree on the tobacco law came out in November. Far too much time was wasted", says Aki Raudas, a lawyer for the Finnish Hotel and Restaurant Association (SHR).
As of June, restaurants have three options: a total ban on smoking, the construction of a sealed smoking area, or applying for a two-year transition period.
A transition period can be granted to a restaurant with structures that meet the requirements of the present law, which requires a separate smoking section built in such a way that smoke will not drift into the smoke-free area.
It is not clear to restaurant owners how the decree on the construction of smoking booths is to be interpreted. Many have been waiting for more precise construction standards by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.
Helsingin Sanomat has acquired a draft set of guidelines, dated January the 12th. It is being circulated among interested parties for comment until the end of this month. There could be more delays, because building inspection authorities in Helsinki plan to ask for further clarifications.
Building a smoking booth requires permission from building inspection authorities. In Helsinki, only ten preliminary inquiries have been made on the matter, and no authorisations have been given.
The process has not moved any further in restaurants applying for the two-year transition period.
To get a transition period, a restaurant needs permission from a municipal health inspector. In Helsinki there have been about ten applications, all of which have been seen as inadequate. The restaurants have not provided all of the information needed to get a licence.
Suspicions have been voiced by restaurateurs that the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health has been deliberately dragging its feet. The suspicion is that the ministry is trying, for reasons of health policy, to discourage the construction of smoking booths and the approval of transition periods.
Liisa Katajamäki of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health denies this, saying that the matter "...has moved ahead at a completely normal pace".
Large restaurant chains are taking a cautious view of setting aside space for smoking booths, which can cost between EUR 2,000 and EUR 40,000, depending on the location.
The Restel chain plans to build about ten smoking booths in its restaurants in Helsinki. "It has been a problem that no information has been made available. The ministry was supposed to have given instructions on construction, but nothing of the kind have come yet", says Matti Kangas of Restel.
HOK-Elanto has 115 restaurants; smoking booths are planned for fewer than ten of them. "The problem is that there are no precise construction guidelines", says Jouko Heinonen, head of the company's restaurant business.
The Palace-Kämp chain has 16 restaurants, and it is applying for transition periods for half of them. Smoking booths are under consideration for a few of them.
Mikko Paukonen, the head of the company's restaurant business, says that the smoking booths might not be built, if customers grow used to smoke-free restaurants.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 29.1.2007 - TODAY |
 Restaurant owners wait impatiently for guidelines on smoking booths |
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