Report from the Conference on Smoke-free Poland, Ministry of Health, Warsaw, Poland, 18 May 2016

The conference, organised by the Ministry of Health of Poland in collaboration with the Health Promotion Foundation (Fundacja “Promocja Zdrowia”), was attended by over 100 participants representing a wide variety of backgrounds – physicians, politicians, civil servants, artists, journalists, and many others. This breadth was characteristic of the diverse nature of the anti-tobacco movement in Poland. It was this extensive coalition that helped to bring the Polish Anti-Tobacco Law to be accepted by the Polish Parliament in 1995 and enacted in May 1996 [1]. The range of expertise was reflected in the list of awardees of the Polish Ministerial and State Merit Awards for Outstanding Contributions to Healthcare (see the Box 1). The award ceremony, presided by Dr Konstanty Radziwiłł, the Minister of Health of Poland, opened the Conference on Smoke-free Poland (Fig. 1).

Welcome address by Dr Konstanty Radziwiłł, Minister of Health of Poland

In his welcome address, Konstanty Radziwiłł (Fig. 2) reminded the participants that thirty years ago Poland was one of the global leaders in smoking prevalence. He pointed out that it was the people gathered in the Ministry of Health, ‘an incredible group of veterans of tobacco control in Poland’, who were the first to understand what a grave impact these smoking rates would have on the health of Poles. He also attributed the success of the anti-tobacco efforts in Poland in the last decades to their efforts.
Minister Radziwiłł called the Polish Anti-Tobacco Law of 1995 a crucial milestone in Poland’s road to limiting smoking. He praised its educational role in building awareness of smoking harm, both among the public and among health professionals. It was through discussions surrounding the bill and its implementation that many people understood the full implications smoking had on the health of Poles. Minister Radziwiłł also praised the hard-fought amendment to the Law that was introduced in 2010, and that implemented a ban on smoking in many public places, workplaces, and restaurants. Despite the doom mongering of the amendment’s opponents, the ban did not negatively affect the gastronomic industry, and now remains emphasised very positively by the public.
The Minister emphasized that the medical profession must finally accept that smoking is a medical condition, not just a custom or a matter of strong will, and that it must be approached with adequate diagnostics and treatment. He also underlined...


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