Doctors believe that the new law that bans smoking in all enclosed public spaces shouldn’t be changed in any way as smoking kills thousands of Romanians every year.

According to the Romanian Cardiology and Pneumology Society, diseases caused by smoking kill 42,000 Romanians annually. This represents about one fifth of all deaths in Romania (some 262,000 in 2015) and translates into an average 115 deaths per day. Moreover, 90% of all lung cancer cases are due to smoking, reports local Mediafax.

“People don’t actually realize that smoking is a bad thing. Basically, this is a legal drug, it creates addiction, it affects the health and kills. It is the only drug that is also killing those who don’t use it, who are passive smokers,” said Gabriel Tatu-Ghitoiu, president of the Romanian Cardiology Society.

“There are people who say that the tobacco industry is a major contributor to the state budget, and the smoking ban affects this contribution, and this would practically mean that the state budget relies on the sale of a drug,” he added.

Some 1.8 million Romanians were hospitalized with diseases related to smoking in 2012, and the state had spent RON 1.2 billion (some EUR 272 million) on treating such diseases, according to representatives of the Romanian Cardiology and Pneuomolgy Society.

According to Florin Mihaltan, president of the Romanian Pneumology Society, a study conducted in the last month, after the smoking ban was enforced, shows that 95% of Romanians believe that smoking is bad, 75% search for non-smoking places when they go out, and 80% don’t like to stay around to smokers.

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Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com