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MADRID, July 7 (UPI) - Madrid's top health official says it's not his responsibility to restrict cigarette smoking at a government-sponsored World Congress on Health and Urban Environment.
At a press briefing today, Councilor Simon Vinals (``vin YALLS'') says smoking _ while very much a health hazard _ is an individual right. He has declined to forbid smoking in the hallways of the municipal conference center where 800 delegates debate ways of making the world's burgeoning cities a healthier place to live.
Vinals says the conference meeting rooms are off-limits to smoking, and the towering ceilings and air conditioning of the Palacio Municipal de Congresos meeting site protects non-smokers from breathing secondhand smoke.
He says, ``We have the world's best ventilation system, so secondhand smoke is not a problem.''
Smoking was pervasive when the weeklong health conference opened as delegates and staff lit up in the registration hall with its low hanging ceilings, in the massive main hall, in the press room, in escalators, in corridors and in the bathrooms.
At the conference-sponsored lunch, ashtrays were plentiful and in use at almost every one of the scores of tables.
Vinals says: ``We are not going to prosecute people for smoking. In Spain, we believe that smoking is a personal right. This is a free society.''
When asked specifically if he would use his moral prerogative as health councilor to set an example for others by further limiting smoking, Vinals said, ``No.''
Dr. Tee Guidotti, professor of occupational and environmental medicine at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, says, ``For a health official not to use his moral authority to do something against smoking is a dereliction of duty.''
Guidotti says smoking is addictive, and for those so addicted, a suitable place to smoke could have been arranged.
Brian Collett, a landscape architect from Davis, Calif., says: ``The whole idea of this conference is to raise consciousness about health items. At a health meeting, one would expect this includes raising smoking consciousness as well.''
World Health Organization official Dr. Greg Goldstein, also a participant in the press conference, tells United Press International: ``We have made a lot of progress in Europe in trying to reduce cigarette smoking. Apparently, that message hasn't filtered down to Spain as yet.''
Copyright 1998 by United Press International.
All rights reserved.
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