Smoke-free legislation works well in Ukraine

In December 2013, a nationwide monitoring of the comprehensive smoke free law was conducted by the Regional Advocacy Center "Life" and Smoke Free Ukraine Coalition, covering nearly 900 cafes, bars and restaurants in Kiev and 13 other cities in Ukraine. The law, which came into force in December 2012, completely banned smoking in indoor premises of restaurants, cafes, bars and other public catering facilities.

Key findings of the monitoring are as follows:

• The overall level of smoke free law implementation remains high – 90.6% of catering points follow the law;
• The total percentage of violations detected is 9.4%, including 55 violations of cigarette smoking (6.2% of the total) and 28 violations of hookah smoking (3.2% of the total).
• The chief violators are bars, breweries and billiards clubs (14% of the total number of violations), followed by restaurants (10%) and cafes (7%).

Monitoring also indicates that smoke free legislation did not have any negative impact on restaurant businesses. According to the experts’ reviews, national restaurant business will end up this year with 10-12% of growth.

But the major result of this law is that Ukrainians smoke less. According to State Statistics Department, the cigarette production in January - November 2013 dropped by 10% (8.7 billion cigarettes less) in comparison to the same period in 2012.