buongiorno

My city, Philadelphia, just voted in a smoking ban today. I am a smoker and really don't care about it. Most of the better restaurants in town have not allowed smoking at tables for a long time. If you wanted to smoke, you had to go outside. Look, as a smoker, I realize it's a dangerous habit. It's damn hard to break though. Nonetheless, I don't want smoke blowing in my face when I eat either. The main thing it hurts in Philly are the small neighborhood bars where the locals go to have a smoke and a pint.

xyz123

"The main thing it hurts in Philly are the small neighborhood bars where the locals go to have a smoke and a pint."

Trust me, it has been shown beyond a shadow of a doubt that introducing this wonderful regulation does not hurt drink and food sales at any pub in the slightest...those who have to have their cancer sticks simply walk outside the door.

logos999

Didn't those cigarettes come from the US in the first place? ;-) My granddads both smoked cigars and would NEVER ever have touched a cigarette. Neither would I, btw.

walkinaround

>>>>>
For a long, long time law states that you must be protected from other peoples smoke in your workplace. (befone this issue came up in the US?)
>>>>>

as long as smoking is allowed in restaurants and bars, it is allowed in the workplace (people do work in pubs and restaurants). i work all over europe in offices of big companies and some still have smoking at the desks (eg recent assignments in czech, france, germany). others allow it in stairwells and hallways (eg assignments in sweden denmark and spain). no matter how you cut it, we in europe have lagged seriously behind the US in workplace clean air. and europe does like to see herself as more progressive in terms of workplace safety and comfort as compared to the US.

logos999

>germany
You should have complained to management, it's clearly illegal. Never have experienced such a thing in the last 20 years. .

twoflower

Talking about placing bread, pretzels on the table and then charging if you ate any (see earlier in this thread), I once travelled across Turkey in a series of overnight bus trips. The bus fare was advertised "breakfast included". At the breakfast stops, bottles of water were placed on the table, and if we opened them we were charged for them. We accepted this as one of the quaint little quirks of international travel, but you do find yourself wondering why they didn't just up the fare a $ and save themselves the bother.

Neopolitan

Hmmm. Not unlike the recent bottled waters in US hotels sitting out with the sign. "This water is placed here for your convenience. If you drink it you will be billed $87.50" or some such nonsense.

walkinaround

>>>>>
You should have complained to management, it's clearly illegal.
>>>>>

they are customers...there is no complaining. just leave work with a dull headache everyday.

illegal or not...my point still stands that it is not enforced nor is it in the culture to think that there is anything wrong with this. germans and french, in my experience, will make up justifications like, "as long as everyone in the room agrees" and "as long as a window is opened". these sort of rules do not work in practice for many reasons. the only answer is to take it seriously and not to allow it at all. taking seriously means that there are significant consequences for the companies who don't enforce it and force their employees to work in foul air.

i stress that these were BIG companies so it's clear that they are not afraid of allowing smoking. in the US and UK you would never think of smoking in the office of a large company (nor most small companies that know what decade we are living in). so whilst europe is ahead on some things, they clearly can be much more progressive in some areas.

i am not anti-smoking but i believe that everyone deserves a healthy, safe, and comfortable work environment. it's a shame that so many so-called progressive countries are still living in the dark ages on this issue.

kerouac

It's only been a few years now, but now in France the smokers have to go downstairs in front of the building to smoke. In my company in Paris, smoking has been banned since 1991, when the first antismoking law went into effect (not respected by many until recently).

It is expected that a total public smoking ban will go into effect in France perhaps as soon as January 1st, 2007 -- supported by 75% of the population, including smokers. However, 2007 is an election year, which makes the party in power rather skittish, so they are hemming an hawing about details of possible exceptions like casinos, discotheques, prisons and psychiatric hospitals.

walkinaround

>>>>
in France the smokers have to go downstairs in front of the building to smoke
<<<<

this may be so in your office but it's not everywhere.

as recently as 6 weeks ago i was in the paris office of a large multinational corporation (60,000+ employees worldwide, couple thousand in this paris office) and some people were smoking at their desks. this is not a single observation of this in france...just a recent example.

GreenDragon

Re charging for condiments, some US fast food places have started charging for extra packets of sauce, dressing, etc... evidently people were taking them home and using them

Tulips

I wish they would ban smoking in restaurants all over Europe.

I eat mayonaise with fries but I think the point in fast food places is you pay for what you eat. If you don't eat ketchup or mayo on your fries, you don't pay for it.
I love the USA, love travelling there, but please don't export your eating habits to Europe! If a kid wants to drink a liter of cola with his burger, let him pay for a liter of cola.

I don't often see restaurants that charge for bread that is placed on the table without asking, but if they do, I will not go there again.

I gladly pay for using the toilets if they are kept spotless. If there's an attendant, you would normally tip them anyway. But I object to this if it's in a very expensive restaurant or hotel, where I would expect clean toilets to be included in the price.

kerouac

Absolutely true that some people still smoke in offices in France... also in the United States and in restaurants there as well. One need only visit some of the southeastern states or Nevada. I suppose that when total uniformity sets in, we'll all be wearing those 1960's Chinese worker outfits as well. (now THAT would be practical! no more clothing discussions here!)

CheBird

It's so nice to have a water glass filled with ice water as soon as you sit down at a restaurant in the U.S.

ira

>we'll all be wearing those 1960's Chinese worker outfits as well. (now THAT would be practical! no more clothing discussions here!)<

Hmmmmmmmmm.

I will be visiting xxxx in May. Will I have to bring my dressy black Mao jacket or will a clean tee shirt and olive green trousers be OK?

GreenDragon

Re toilets: When we arrived last summer to London airport, we had gone straight to the ATM to get out some £ to use. We got our tickets to the train station, (we were taking a train to Leeds) and then realized we REALLY had to use a bathroom. The bathroom only took coins - alas, we only had bills. I had to wait in a long line for a vendor, buy something, get change, and nearly wet myself before I got back to the bathroom line to wait again.

Argh!

chartley

But can you get a discount if you don't have the iced water? What about if you have water, but not ice? It has to be paid for somehow, just like the "free" bread.

missypie

The city of Dallas passed a no smoking ordinance several years ago. The casualty? Bowling alleys! I've been told that now there are virtually no bowling alleys in the city limits. (I had personally not noticed before someone pointed this out to me.)

Neopolitan

missypie, I wonder if that's a direct relation. Bowling alleys have been dying out all over the country -- often having nothing to do with smoking rule changes.
That's not unlike the banning of smoking being blamed for some small mediocre restaurants to close. They like to blame it on the ban, but the fact is they really weren't doing well before and the smoking ban became an "excuse".

Pausanias

Showers -- I miss showers where you can stand up and not splash water all over the room . . .