Smokers, your time is coming

The war is not over, but there's good news nonetheless – the Czech Republic is one step closer to countries that are called developed: Britain, France, Sweden. At least in terms of banning smoking in restaurants.

If you've ever had a glass of wine in a New York bar or a beer in a rural British pub you know the enormous difference compared to Czech pubs. At first you don't even realise it, but then you come home and don't have to throw all your clothes in the washing machine and scrub yourself from head to toe. Not to mention the health problems, such as heart disease, which afflict people in countries with a smoking ban one-fifth less than those in places that are still like the Czech Republic.

This week brought greater hope that this will change. The parliamentary health committee approved a bill on protection against tobacco products, and among the variants discussed they chose the strictest – a complete ban of smoking in restaurants and pubs, without exception.

We'll have to wait for a verdict until the full Parliament decides on the law at the end of January (or possibly later; the measure will still have to face a Senate and president in the colours of ODS, which traditionally opposes the restrictions). But the committee's decision is worthy of attention. It's a big advancement, so big that dogged anti-smoking campaigner Boris Šťastný's jaw dropped. There had been three…