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PATRICK ALLARD/REA
TARGETING TEENS:
Activists deplore it, but children from Denmark to Serbia are lighting up in alarming numbers
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| Smoky Hospitals, Smoky Schools |
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Through the haze in Europe's last hold-outs for the smoker
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By DEJAN ANASTASIJEVIC/Belgrade |
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Posted Sunday, Jan. 5, 2003; 2.02 p.m. GMT
The No Smoking sign in the waiting room of Vracar Municipality Health Center in downtown Belgrade is covered with a thin yellowish crust — a residue of the thousands of cigarettes smoked right under it. Out of some 20 people waiting to see a doctor on a winter's afternoon, almost half hold cigarettes in their hands, creating a heavy bluish cloud that hangs below the ceiling. People light up with impunity in the cardiopulmonary clinic, and even doctors and nurses can often be seen dragging on butts as they walk by. "In Serbia, everybody smokes," says Milan Stojanovic, 35, puffing away as he waits for a flu injection. "My grandfather smoked, and both of my parents. It's in our blood."
Too many Serbs share his view; this country is one of the European smoker's strongest holdouts. Serbia has laws restricting smoking in schools, hospitals, offices and at public events. They are rarely, if ever, enforced. And as in Denmark, France and Belgium, selling cigarettes to minors is perfectly legal. In Belgrade alone, 20 million cigarettes are smoked daily — half a pack for each man, woman and child in the city. Cigarettes are cheap ($5 per carton for domestic, and $10 for Western brands), and smoking is tolerated everywhere, including government buildings, university lecture rooms and clinics. "It's too affordable," says Dr. Petar Borovic, who studies Serbian smoking habits for the government's Health Protection Institute. He traces the burgeoning habit to prolonged war. "People tend to smoke more in times of crisis, and we had one hell of a crisis," Borovic says.
In some societies, smoking is considered unbecoming for women; not so in Serbia, where 45% of all smokers are female. Ivana Markovic, a 17-year-old high school senior, says she feels smoking is cool; she started less than a year ago. "With a cigarette pack in front of me on a café table, I feel like I'm someone," she says. "Besides, all my friends smoke." Dr. Melita Vujnovic, who is helping the Serbian government prepare an antismoking campaign, blames tobacco companies for propagating smoking among teenagers. "They use younger and younger models on advertising posters," Vujnovic says. "Most teenage girls I interviewed for my survey tell me they lit up their first cigarette in front of a mirror."
Meanwhile, under pressure from the European Union and the World Health Organization, the government is working on a plan to reduce smoking and enforce widely disrespected smoking bans. The Ministry of Health intends to launch a video and signage campaign early this year. "There's no use in charging huge fines; we have to start gently, by educating people," says Snezana Simic, Serbian Assistant Minister of Health. "We don't want to look like bullies."
Little chance of that. The modest goal: stop people from smoking in clinics and hospitals. "Smoking will only be allowed in one or two rooms in medical buildings," she says. That, in hazy Belgrade, would be considered a breakthrough.
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