Zagreb - The Croatian government is considering loosening a recent ban on smoking after complaints from restaurant and bar owners who have reported 80-per-cent business losses due to the ban, Croatian Health Minister Darko Milinovic said Thursday. In early May, Croatia began enforcing a ban on smoking in most indoor areas and public places, with psychiatric hospitals an exemption. Doctors explained that mentally ill smokers could become agitated without their nicotine fix.
Owners of bars and restaurants complained that the ban was keeping most customers away. The owners say the decline is 80 per cent, but official statistics are still unavailable.
Milinovic told reporters in Zagreb that changes would be made to the smoking law, but he did not specify what those changes would be or whether they would allow smoking again in restaurants.
He added: "I still believe that the losses restaurant owners reported have mostly to do with the economic crisis and not the ban on smoking."
An estimated 25-30 per cent of Croatia's 4.5 million people smoke. Croatia was hit hard by economic crisis. The country's gross domestic product fell 6.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2009, its biggest drop in years.
