THE RIGHT TO A HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT AND THE CONSUMPTION OF TOBACCO IN THE NATIONAL AND EUROPEAN LEGISLATION

If in the past the quality of the environment was a non-relevant issue, nowadays the right to a healthy environment represents a fundamental right. Being part of the third generation of the human’s rights, formed by the so-called “rights of solidarity”, the subjective right to a healthy environment is particularized by a special evolution regarding its legal recognition and guaranteeing and finds its fundament in the social and economic realities of our days. Initially, it has been internationally proclaimed by the Stockholm Declaration of 1972, and subsequently stated constitutional and/or legislative by most of the states. In our country, the recognition of the right to a healthy environment as subjective right has been made relatively late, namely in 2003 through the revision of the Constitution in 1991. The communitarian legislation does not expressly state it, but the Charter of the European Union on the fundamental rights indirectly protects it, dedicating a special article for the environmental protection. This right is also stated by the jurisprudence of the European Court for Human Rights, being considered as part of the right to private life stated by Art 8 of the Convention. One of the factors that harm the right to a healthy environment is tobacco consumption, a habit as old as it generates serious consequences on the health of the population. Thus, both European, but national, for the guarantee of the right to a healthy environment, a series of legislative measures has been adopted for the prohibition of smoking in closed public areas, the prohibition of publicity to tobacco products, for warning the smokers about the danger represented by the tobacco for their health, for restricting the sale of tobacco in public buildings, schools, hospitals, universities, sociocultural centres etc.