For 15 years: ÖDP initiative ensures smoke-free restaurants and pubs

The ÖDP nature conservation party initiated a referendum to protect health in restaurants for everyone.

Bavaria's publicans were not at all enthusiastic at first and there were emotional debates. Nevertheless, the Ecological Democratic Party and its supporters triumphed on the evening of July 4, 2010: in the referendum in Bavaria, the citizens had helped the party's proposal to a major victory with an overwhelming majority - exactly 15 years ago today, they voted for real non-smoker protection. The ÖDP initiative made history.

From then on, cigarettes and thick smoke were taboo in restaurants. Since then, people have been able to breathe healthier air when eating in restaurants thanks to the ÖDP initiative - at least in Bavaria. Not all federal states followed suit. To this day, smoking - at least in special smoking rooms - is still permitted in Baden-Württemberg, Berlin, Hesse, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony, Saarland, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. According to calculations by the German Cancer Research Center, non-smoker protection saves society over 25 billion euros a year in health care costs caused by smoking. The Secretary General of the ÖDP, Dr. Claudius Moseler, assesses the success of the ÖDP: "Non-smoker protection is health protection and the ÖDP has shown how it can be done! However, we also need further efforts at federal level: Ban on overt and covert tobacco advertising. Adoption of a nationwide non-smoker protection law that includes employee protection, because no one should be forced to smoke! The costs of the damage caused by tobacco and alcohol consumption must be borne by the respective industries in accordance with the polluter pays principle, as in the USA."

Ökologisch-Demokratische Partei (ÖDP - Die Naturschutzpartei)
Pommergasse 1
97070 Würzburg
Germany

https://www.oedp.de/aktuelles/pressemitteilungen

Herr Gerd Pfitzenmaieer
0172/9225161

presse@oedp.de

The Ecological Democratic Party (ÖDP) was founded in 1982 as a federal party. The ÖDP currently has over 7,000 members nationwide and over 530 elected representatives at municipal, city and district level, is represented in district assemblies, provides mayors and deputy district administrators and has also been represented in the European Parliament since 2014.

Who we are ...
The Ecological Democratic Party (ÖDP) is made up of people who think and act for the common good. The overriding principle of our political action is that we think not only of ourselves, but also in solidarity with all people on our planet and future generations. We develop sustainable solutions for people, animals and the environment with the aim of creating a just and peaceful society worth living in. The principle of "people before profit" is at the heart of our policy. We solve the environmental and poverty issues together by taking an honest and far-sighted view of economic, ecological and social interrelationships.

Link to the ÖDP program: https://www.oedp.de/programm/bundesprogramm/

This release was published on openPR.