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In the first days of January, dozens of residents petition the Vilnius City Municipality every day to ban smoking on the balconies of their homes.
It seems that Vilnius residents were eagerly awaiting the opportunity to ban smoking in their apartment buildings, requests poured in on the first day the law came into force.
“We received around 40 objections and around 10 different questions about how the law works, what are the bans and how could they be applied,” Gintaras Leperskas, head of the Vilnius municipal branch, told LNK News.
During the first week of 2021, from January 4-8, 80 applications were received in Vilnius to declare a non-smoking area of various apartments.
There were 15 such requests in Kaunas, 3 in Klaipėda, 2 in Panevėžys and none in Šiauliai.
Kaunas Police Representative Odeta Vaitkevičien declaró stated that local officials have not felt much difference so far.
LNK news journalists asked Kaunas residents what they thought about the possibility of banning smoking in their apartment building.
“Total nonsense. Will you turn us into smoking places near the apartment buildings? Will they heat up, arm the cells so that the homeless don’t visit them?” A Kaunas resident asked the question.
“Let them quit, they can’t quit. They can,” said another.
Another Kaunas resident supported this idea. He stressed that smoking is not healthy, his whole family does not have this harmful habit.
A Vilnius man told LNK News that he does not smoke on the balcony, but in the kitchen. In his opinion, the insurance has loopholes.
“You can’t smoke on the balcony, but if you sat and smoked in the room, the window would open. You’re probably getting the same thing,” he said.
According to municipalities, smoking can be prohibited not only on the balcony, but also in the rooms if the window is open. This was the first request in Klaipeda.
“(Application, aut. P.) It is due to smoking in the room. It is because of a neighbor who smokes in the apartment and the smell coming out of the apartment bothers the neighbors, ”said Marius Poimanskis, head of the Klaipėda municipality subdivision.
When the municipality receives the request, there are no deliberations, only a check is made to see if the person really lives in that house.
“There is only one possibility of rejection: if the person complaining does not live in that house,” said the head of the Klaipėda municipality subdivision.
When the municipality declares that the apartment building has a non-smoking area, it is forbidden to smoke in the open spaces of that house. And residents of the house can call the police if they see a neighbor smoking.
Edvardas Danila, head of the Santara Clinics Pulmonology Center, told LNK News that passive smoking is also dangerous.
“The two diseases that threaten passive smoking are lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,” he said.
According to the professor, those who have never smoked regularly seek help for problems inherent in smokers.
“Yes, it really is the bread and butter of a pulmonologist,” said questioner Danila.
The professor recalls that more people die from lung cancer than from other cancers combined.
The probability of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease if a person does not smoke at all and does not breathe tobacco smoke is 3 percent, if they do not smoke but breathe tobacco smoke, 18 percent, and if they smoke, 35 percent.
Ms. Danila said that the greatest damage occurs when smokers breathe lightly, but over many years.
“Anyone who smokes fewer cigarettes but smokes longer has a much greater and more effective damaging effect. The same happens with passive smoking ”, explained the doctor.
When an apartment building is declared a non-smoking area, only registered residents of the house can report the violation. Smokers in such a house face a fine of 30-60 euros, a fine of 120 euros for repeated offenses.
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