Tabakverbot

Der globale Siegeszug des Tabaks hatte viele Hürden zu überwinden, die von sozialer Ächtung über prohibitive Steuern bis zum regelrechten Tabakverbot reichten. Nach der weltweiten Verbreitung des Tabak-Rauchens kam es ab dem späten 20. Jahrhundert zu einer restriktiveren Politik, die das Tabakverbot wieder aktivierte.

Frühe Tabakverbote

Osmanisches Reich:

The first Ottoman firman (decree) against the use of tobacco appeared in 1609, showing that smoking it had spread from the larger cities into surrounding towns and villages. According to research conducted by Dr. Fehmi Yılmaz, the reason given for issuing the firman was the amount of time it took to smoke tobacco that kept men from working as well as it causing illness and raising the number of deaths. Moreover the city’s buildings were constructed of wood for the most part and fires frequently broke out. The fire of 1633 was specifically blamed on tobacco. Other firmans followed in 1610, 1614 and 1618, demonstrating that smoking tobacco could not be stamped out. Cultivating the tobacco leaf also spread because it was more profitable to sell it than some more traditional crops, thus upsetting the established food chain.

Katip Çelebi (1609-1657) wrote the “Mizanü’l-haqq” (The Balance of Truth) in 1656 just after the grand vizier of the time tried to stamp out a Sufi order that endeavored to rationalize matters instead of engaging in mysticism. In his work, Çelebi discusses smoking tobacco and drinking coffee, taking a rational approach against forcing people to abandon customs that were rooted in history.- Çelebi points out that trying to enforce firmans against smoking only succeeded in driving people to smoke at home since it was too dangerous to do so in public. - As for smoking tobacco being an innovation – and the door had been closed to innovation centuries earlier – Çelebi comes down on the side of this being an innovation since even the word did not exist in Adam’s time. He further states that tobacco is mekruh, a word that in canon law means “not forbidden by God but looked upon with horror and disgust.” (Redhouse Dictionary) Although he concedes that the scent of tobacco smoke and the tobacco leaf are not unpleasant, the taste it leaves in one’s mouth is. For all of that and other reasons, he concludes by suggesting that it’s simply best to let everybody do what they want to. - De facto legal: Although the firmans against smoking were never rescinded, Yılmaz has pointed out that it became de facto legal to smoke tobacco when the government began to impose a tax on it in 1688. And smoking among the Turks has continued ever since.

Russland England

Tabakverbote in Deutschland

- Dieser Beitrag will erst noch geschrieben werden -

Tabakverbote im 20. und 21. Jahrhundert

Strengere Tabakregulation durch Neufassung der EU-Tabakproduktrichtlinie im Jahre 2013 (Betriebsräte 2013).

Weblinks und Literatur

• Betriebsräte schimpfen über strengere Tabakregeln. Arbeitnehmervertreter sehen Tausende Arbeitsplätze in Gefahr. Die EU sieht diese Gefahr nicht. FAZ 2.10.13: 14.
• Hess, Henner (1987) Rauchen. Geschichte, Geschäfte, Gefahren. Frankfurt, New York: Campus.
• One of the Ottomans' Favorite Vices: Smoking