TurquoiseB wrote:
A good thing. There will be some blowback about
this, interestingly enough from cafe and restaurant
owners who feel (rightly) that it will hit them in
the cash register, but in the latest polls over 70%
of the people felt that it was time, so it's time.
What I'm wondering is whether there are loopholes,
such as I've seen in California and recently in
Dublin. It turns out that in both those places,
although smoking is banned in restaurants and bars,
that only covers areas under the *roof* of the
building. So what happens is that establishments
put tables and chairs in the adjoining alleyway
or the area formerly used for garbage bins, and
get to call it a smoking area. It turns into a
real windfall for the few establishments that can
do this, because all those who haven't given up
smoking flock to the place.
In California if you have a family run restaurant with no employees
outside the family you can have smoking in the bar area. We have a
local family run restaurant with great Italian food I won't frequent as
the only visit there was for dinner and the bar and dining room are in
the same room. We enjoyed the food but not the smoke. They could also
stand to invest in some acoustical ceiling as the room was too loud.
And then they don't take credit cards. They must stay in business
because of the food quality.
That said, it's really going to change the French
cityscape. Smoking and smoking in cafes is so much
a part of the French mythos that it's going to cause
a lot of smokers to go through a *bunch* of changes.
Not as many changes as dying, however...
A few years back at a local Starbucks I was sitting outside in an area
designated no smoking. This particular Starbucks had a large area
around the corner for smokers. The no smoking signs were prominently
displayed in my area but still some guy came out of an adjacent
restaurant, stood right in front of where I was sitting with his
cigarette smoke drifting right into my face. When I asked politely if
he minded moving he launched into a tirade. I was pretty close to
getting into a brawl that day as I tend to up the ante in a heated
moment. I mentioned to the manager a couple days later how people
ignored the no smoking sign and she who is a smoker herself replied
some people have shit for brains.
Yup, it should be interesting to see how Europeans react to this
especially if it spreads to other countries that don't already have such
a rule.
And speaking of the French and smoking, click this
link and then scroll to the bottom of the page to
see a recent photo of Jean Paul Belmondo at 73. The
dude's had some health problems in recent years, but
has hit the gym to combat them, and to my eye he looks
*really* good for 73, and for the man who almost single-
handedly formed the link in film buffs' minds between
French men and the cigarette dangling from their lips.
http://tinyurl.com/jnjw2
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, shempmcgurk [EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:
France to impose smoking ban from 2007
Sun Oct 8, 2006 1:47pm ET
Health News
We have decided to ban smoking in public places from February 1,
2007, he told RTL radio and LCI television.
He added that bar-tabacs, discos and other such places would have
until January 1, 2008 at the latest to comply with the rules.
Public places include stations, museums, government offices and
shops but not in the streets or private places such as houses or
hotel rooms.
Villepin added the state would take charge of one-third of the costs
of anti-smoking treatments, such as a patch.
That would represent the first month of treatment, he said.
In a report presented on Wednesday, several parliamentarians called
for a total ban from September 1, 2007 at the latest, without
exception. But a smoking ban will cause problems for the many
tobacco shops in France.
Villepin declined to comment on the impact it would have on
government tax revenues, saying that public health considerations
outweighed any such fiscal impact.
In the report, the parliamentarians said that each year between
2,500 and 5,800 people died of the consequences of passive smoking
-- inhaling the smoke of smokers. Some 66,000 smokers die each year.
Continued...
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
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