Wien is widely regarded as one of the best cities to live in globally. It is clean, surrounded by natural beauty, has excellent recreational facilities and has many excellent restaurants and cafes. It has a pleasant night life and you often read that the city also has great cafes and restaurants. However, for a nonsmoker like myself, going to a cafe to relax for a bit is not as straight forward as it seems. Austria is one of the few remaining countries in Europe that still allows smoking in cafes, and well let’s face it, I cant really go to many good rustic cafes without having passively smoked a few good swigs of tobacco every few minutes I spend there.

Wien’s romance with smoking is a bit of an enigma to me. Why do the otherwise health conscious people here tolerate public smoking, disregarding the substantial and ever increasing research pointing to the harms of active and passive smoking? The problem is in fact darker than what it seems at the surface. The country already has one of the highest smoking rates in Europe.[Source] In Austria, lung cancer, which is one of the most direct and harmful consequences of smoking accounts for 6.8% and 3% of total deaths in males and females respectively. Central Europe (including Austria) lags behind the US and countries in Western Europe in terms of decline in the prevalence of smoking. More worryingly, prevalence of smoking seems to still be on the rise among women and this has corresponded with an increase in lung cancer rates among females. So, we must admit that the problem is more than just skin deep.

For years, protesting lax regulations on smoking seemed to be just as pointless as donning expensive Calvin Klein perfume to one of the smoke filled pubs, cafes and bars of the city. However, finally there has been some good news for anti-smoking activists after their long, commendable fight. In 2015, years and years after similar measures in other countries, the Austrian government finally decided to bring about a complete ban on smoking in pubs, bars and cafes by 2018.[Source] So we can hope for clearer, healthier breathing for coffee lovers, employees and visitors who just want to sip their cup of delicious cocoa and watch the city walk past without dabbling with carcinogenic agents swirling around, eagerly looking to ensnare their next unsuspecting victim.

Since late is better than never, we must wholeheartedly welcome this progressive step to limit smoking in public areas as it will definitely help Wien become a healthier city for everyone living here.