Sweden: You are permitted to smoke in your yard!

Woman affirmed right to smoke in own garden

7 Aug 09
The Local.se


A feud in Åkarp in southern Sweden between a cigarette-puffing woman and her smoke-sensitive neighbour has finally been put to rest by Swedish courts.

On Friday, the the Environmental High Court made a final ruling that the woman may light up as much as she wants to in her own garden. In its decision, the court said that the neighbour had been been unable to prove that the woman's smoke “poses such a significant threat to human health” that the environmental code would prescribe prohibiting the woman to smoke in the garden. The conflict between the neighbours has been an ongoing legal saga since 2006. The smoke-sensitive neighbour, a lawyer, was so disturbed by the smoking that he wore a breathing mask whenever he was in his garden at the same time the woman was smoking.

In 2007, the Environmental Court in Växjö initially banned the woman from smoking in her own garden, ruling that she was banned from smoking within a nine metre radius of her neightbour's house. The 49-year-old woman then appealed the decision to the Environmental High Court, which in turn found no reasonable grounds for an interim ban before a final decision was reached.






smoking