Experts optimistic Turkey can ban smoking

ISTANBUL, Turkey, June 28 (UPI) -- Turkey will successfully adjust to a smoking ban in its restaurants and bars if it follows the same path as France, an international health expert says.

Speaking last week in Istanbul as a July 19 deadline approaches banning tobacco from public spaces, Sylviane Ratte, a tobacco control expert with the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, said Turkey will eventually become smoke-free if, like France, leaders follow a set and certain path, Today's Zaman reported Sunday.

"Turkey will be the best example for the world with its two-year journey to enact and implement the law," she said, stating that skepticism abounded in 1991 when France took its first steps to ban smoking in closed areas. But, she said, advocates overcame opposition from the tobacco industry to become smoke-free in public areas.

"The tobacco industry tried to stop the process by arguing that this was legislation against the right to smoke, turning the ban into a human rights issue. This is a habit that kills and has nothing to do with human rights," Ratte said.

"There is a great political will to impose the ban (in Turkey)," Stephen Hamill of the World Lung Foundation told the newspaper.