Even though many other countries have already passed Lebanon by on the issue, and even though a conference blooming with well-meaning rhetoric is no guarantee of future action, it certainly was praiseworthy for the Health Ministry and its National Tobacco Control Program to agitate last week for a comprehensive ban on smoking in public places.

Before even addressing the stale arguments over whether a ban would encroach on personal freedom, a prohibition makes sense purely to keep more humans alive and cut health-care expenses from this country’s already catastrophic budget: more than 3,500 people die every year here because of tobacco-related diseases, while the state bleeds about $900 million annually of its roughly $28 billion GDP to treat heart and lung diseases caused by tobacco, according to ministry statistics. 

Smoking kills, and Lebanon’s public places are particularly deadly – the World Health Organization recommends less than 15 micrograms of tobacco pollution per cubic meter, but 20 out of 30 pubs and restaurants tested here revealed 309 micrograms per cubic meter, which the WHO labels “emergency conditions.” 

And let’s forget any spurious perspectives claiming a cultural predilection and acceptance of tobacco in this region – people can literally smoke themselves to death here because cigarettes are cheap, lack warning labels and are easily accessible to children at the age when they are most susceptible to becoming addicted. A recent Economist Intelligence Unit survey found that these shortcomings were driving a dangerous rise in the numbers of smokers in the Mideast and Africa – the developing world accounts for some 70 percent of the world’s total smokers in 2005, compared to about 40 percent in 1970. In other words, countries poorly equipped to handle health emergencies are most likely to face the worst consequences of tobacco-related diseases and deaths. 

Shall we do something about that? Well, we already promised to, but are failing to keep our word. Lebanon signed the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2005, which requires signatories to put effective health warning labels on tobacco products within three years and to “strive to provide universal protection” within five years. 

In case any doubt remains over the meaning of universal protection, we only have to note the smoking bans lately adopted in Bahrain, Syria, Israel, Iraq, Qatar, Turkey and the UAE. Put another way, Lebanon has now fallen behind all those countries on a major human-rights issue – yes, Lebanon has fallen behind Syria in liberating its citizens to be free of murderous second-hand smoke in public places.

But we here in our glass house at The Daily Star should not be the first to cast stones. To illustrate the hurdles a welcome and overdue ban would face, we at the newspaper enjoy a smoke-free work environment – until 9 p.m. Even this would-be watchdog of the public interest seems to respect human rights only some of the time.