(source: Sme)
A lunch menu, ashtray, and a cigarette in the customer's hand. From January next year, this sight will be a thing of the past in Košice terrace restaurants. Between 12:00 pm and 2:00 pm, smoking will be restricted in the exterior and at a distance of four metres from establishments.
Municipal councillor Zdenko Lipták had submitted the proposal for the second time this election period. According to Lipták, the reason behind the decision was that many families do not visit terrace restaurants for lunch precisely because of smoking.
"Even smokers admit that they do not eat there. I want to apologize to all smokers that I and many other people were born as non-smokers and like to eat in a non-smoking environment. So I'm asking smokers, who can smoke all day, to be tolerant of non-smokers for at least two hours so that they can have lunch in peace."
A common practice in Europe
According to councillor Miroslav Špak, a smoker, the proposal needs to be redone. Establishments are adapted to protect non-smokers, he says. In his opinion, it is much more dangerous when parents with children visit restaurants with cigarette smoke than when someone smokes with their coffee.
