On March 13, near the Verkhovna Rada waiters treated the MPs to coffee and cakes and asked them to support the bill prohibiting smoking in public eating places. Thus, waiters and representatives of anti-smoking NGOs held an action to support the bill No. 9474 that could completely prohibit smoking in public places.
The organizers of the action believe that if the abovementioned bill is adopted “it will terminate the discrimination of the waiters since now many of them have to be in smoke-filled premises during the whole working day.” The Day was informed in the press office of the Coalition of NGOs “For Tobacco-Free Ukraine” that over 27,000 people work now in the public catering and every year 3,000 people graduate from specialized educational institutions. These are mainly young people who have to work in unhealthy conditions. Public members refer to doctors who insist that waiters working in smoke-filled premises take ten times more risks to develop respiratory diseases such as asthma, bronchitis, and cancer. According to the information of the WHO for 2010, 65 percent of clients of cafes, bars, and restaurants complained about being enveloped with smoke. The rest of the customers often do not realize that they also inhale tobacco smoke even in non-smoking zones. The studies of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology also prove that most of the Ukrainians understand the problem: 84 percent of people support the bill that would prohibit smoking in public places including working places, houses, and offices.
