DWARS in Debate: The smell of tobacco over a smoke-free city

The weather is lovely and I am standing in the Zerniketer grounds with a sandwich. Since I stopped smoking three weeks ago, my sense of smell returns violently. I suddenly smell the scent of grass that I had forgotten years ago, as your sense of smell deteriorates a lot due to smoking. But I also smell a scent that incredibly triggers me: the smell of tobacco. I immediately feel like lighting a cigarette and look around to see who is smoking. No one. Which is only logical, because since two months the entire area around Hanzehogeschool has been smoke-free. Anyone even looking at a cigarette is addressed by a site guard. But where does the smell of tobacco come from?

Smoke-free city

From 2017, Groningen has been working on making the city smoke-free. First only around schools, sports clubs and playgrounds, but later also around the library and Hanzehogeschool.

The UMCG has been working for some time to make the area as smoke-free as possible. Initially, only the area belonging to the hospital grounds was smoke-free. However, a fortnight ago, the municipal area around the hospital was also declared smoke-free. This is the first official smoke-free zone in the Netherlands. 

But despite all the measures taken against smoking in the city, the smell of tobacco is still present throughout the city. 

Tobacco factory

The smell of tobacco in smoke-free areas comes from the Niemeyer tobacco factory. In some circumstances, the wind carries the smell all the way to the Zerniketer area and thus to my house which is nearby. In the city centre, you can smell the odour very regularly. As a recently quit smoker, I cannot understand how a city announces its intention to become completely smoke-free but leaves the factory's tobacco smell unmentioned in it. 

Addiction Ethics

The fact is that the Niemeyer factory makes tobacco that is distributed to addicted smokers all over the world. That the factory happens to be located in an anti-smoking city makes no difference to production. The municipality and anti-smoking policies have little influence on this either. Still, I think it is important to include this phenomenon in anti-smoking policy. 

Making Groningen smoke-free sounds like a very idyllic plan. But is it ethical to ban addicted residents from smoking if the whole city smells of the thing they are addicted to? Isn't that a bit like putting a beer in front of the average student, with the message: “you can't drink from this”? 

Groningen should also take action against the factory in the middle of the city for a consistent anti-smoking policy.

This opinion piece was written by editorial board member Like Veeman for DWARS in Debate. Have an idea for an opinion piece or want to write one for us? Get in touch via redactie.groningen@dwars.org and we will help you further.