BIG TOBACCO FINDS BREATHING ROOM ACROSS THE ATLANTIC

Feb 22nd, 1998 • Posted in: News

BONN, GERMANY
After losing several recent legal battles on U.S. soil and being caught in lies about company executives’ plans to market cigarettes to children, Big Tobacco won a victory last week in Germany, where lawmakers rejected a bill that would have banned smoking in public facilities and provided specific legal protections to non-smokers.

Germany’s federal parliament rejected the bill last week after a year-long battle which saw the measure’s opponents — including German Health Minister Horst Seehofer — rally against the proposal for apparently pragmatic reasons.

Opponents argued that many of Germany’s 17 million smokers already ignore existing voluntary bans on public smoking, and further legal restrictions would clog the courts without clearing the air. In addition, opponents cited the failure of a public smoking ban in France.

German non-smokers must now look for tougher enforcement of existing laws, which include a Civil Code provision requiring workplaces to be free of health and safety risks. Similarly, the Labor Protection Law and Ordinance on Workplaces require workplace air to be “beneficial to good health.”

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1. Ethics Newsline® » Letters from Readers » A Matter of Human Nature on December 20th, 2007 at 9:09 am:

   [...] had several responses to Rushworth Kidder’s column last week about the teen’s suicide apparently linked to postings on a social networking site. [...]

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