France may ban smoking in workplaces and restaurants.
Oct 20th, 2005, 10:37 AM
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France may ban smoking in workplaces and restaurants.
It's about time. A bill will be proposed in November.
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/N...813865,00.html
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/N...813865,00.html
Oct 20th, 2005, 01:06 PM
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France has already banned smoking in lots of places, but people still smoke. Remember what they say about France, “the country where everything is allowed, even that which is forbidden.”
Oct 20th, 2005, 01:12 PM
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Well when the no smoking law in Italy took place everyone thought it would not be obeyed, Italians are noted for finding a way to get around their laws. But evidently the no smoking ban inside public places has worked so I would think it would work in France also.
Oct 20th, 2005, 02:02 PM
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Smoking is already highly restricted in workplaces in France, has been for yerars, and generally the restrictions work. Ditto for the Paris Metro, where the ban went into effect with very little fuss. So I would not underestimate the adaptability of the French with regard to limits on smoking venues.
Oct 20th, 2005, 02:36 PM
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I doubt if a ban on smoking in bars would make it through the Parliament. In restaurants, yes, and I think it would work. The requirement of non-smoking areas in French restaurants clearly doesn't work, in a majority of cases, and part of the reason for that is the small size of the restaurants, especially in Paris.
Oct 20th, 2005, 07:07 PM
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It should be just banned in restaurants period...forget trying to make a non-smoking area. I've been vacationing in Paris, almost annually, since the mid 70's and it just amazes me how the smoking is still going on in restaurants especially. I guess know one gives a hoot about the health issues. I remember I once asked, at Joe Allen's restaurant...which is huge by French standards...if there was a no smoking section. this was about 12 years ago. The waitress said that there wasn't. I then commented that the restaurant was big enough to easily have one upon which she answered,"We in France believe in respecting people's liberty!" So, I asked her, "What about MY and other's liberty to not have to have our health compromised due to an unhealthy habit chosen by others?" She just looked at me in total shock and it didn't even register in her mind that there should also be a right to not have to inhale someone's smoke in a public place. The right...or...LIBERTY... obviously only applies to that of a smoker. It's like being in the 1960s/1970s. Happy Travels!
Oct 21st, 2005, 12:25 AM
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I find the average French cafe less smoky than the average British pub. Cafes are more open, allowing the air to circulate, and many British pubs have that garish carpeting (doesn't show stains, I guess) that retains the smoke forever, whereas most French cafes have hard floors--tile or wood. Moreover, I don't know whether France or the UK has a higher percentage of smokers, but it seems that the Brits who do smoke in pubs, smoke nonstop. Some German "stubes" seem to be the same way...dark, clsed in and smelling of years of chain smokers.
There are towns in France where the anti-smoking info seems to be getting through. Angers has very few smokers, at least in public places. Whenever we're there, cafes only have one or two smokers. At our favorite restaurants, almost no one smokes and the few that do tend to limit themselves to one cigarette with their final coffee.
Even if a law is passed, I wonder how strictly it will be enforced--there seems to be lackluster efforts to enforce such laws in many parts of Europe. While visiting Austria Telecom's headquarters, for example, I took a photo of three workers puffing away right in front of a large no smoking sign with a senior manager standing less than 10 feet from the offenders.
There are towns in France where the anti-smoking info seems to be getting through. Angers has very few smokers, at least in public places. Whenever we're there, cafes only have one or two smokers. At our favorite restaurants, almost no one smokes and the few that do tend to limit themselves to one cigarette with their final coffee.
Even if a law is passed, I wonder how strictly it will be enforced--there seems to be lackluster efforts to enforce such laws in many parts of Europe. While visiting Austria Telecom's headquarters, for example, I took a photo of three workers puffing away right in front of a large no smoking sign with a senior manager standing less than 10 feet from the offenders.
Oct 21st, 2005, 12:34 AM
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Look people were laughing when Ireland was the first, they thought it would never happen and people would still smoke anyway...it has gone smoother than anyone ever thought and now suddenly we have all these cool beer gardens and outside seating with heat lamps...they were too cheap to do this before but now they all do it for fear of losing customers. I am proud for once we did not scew it up and now we proved all the naysayers wrong.
