Jeez! Stay home with your HEPA filter on; and then when you do venture out, do something about the city smog and the smoke belching from tractor-trailers and buses--must be several cartons of cigarettes' worth in just one emission.

I just walk out if theres smoke . Dont have to put up with it. sometimes take out work best.!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After a day of the smoke in Vienna,<BR>we just smoked ourselves for the two weeks we were there and quit when we returned.

Walking out is fine, if you can. But I've been stuck at business dinners where I couldn't just leave. Once in a Thai restaurant in Frankfurt it was so bad that I had to visit the ladies room several times during dinner just to get a few breaths of smoke-free air. We were seated on an upper balcony and not only was everyone around us smoking, but the people below were as well and the smoke came straight up into our area. I was actually nauseous from it, and I did smoke at one time in my life.

I just spent most of the past three months in Europe on business project (four countries) and can count on one hand the number of restaurants that even had non-smoking tables set aside for patrons, even then, they did not have separate ventilation system so your clothes will all smell like smoke after the evening is over. Sorry, you just have to learn to live with it or else stay at home. <BR><BR>If you want to go a country where restaurants have a real &quot;no smoking&quot; policy, go to New Zealand.

It's not just restaurants... People smoke EVERYwhere, in line at the bank train, metro, etc. I *do* think you need to just &quot;get over it&quot; if you want to enjoy your trip to Europe.<BR><BR>If a true no smoke environment is absolutely essential (i.e., you are allergic or have health issues over a normal american aversion to smoke) honestly I would plan my vacation elsewhere.

As Pink Floyd sang, &quot;the tide is turning&quot;...

August 11, 2003: &quot;Antitobacco Trend Has Reached Europe&quot;

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/11/in...pe/11TOBA.html

A couple excerpts...

On Jan. 1, Ireland is expected to become the first European country to ban smoking in pubs. The move is so bold and contentious in a country so devoted to pub culture that few in Europe, and even fewer in Ireland, believe it will succeed.

It is a radical assault on smoking, especially for a European nation, but Ireland is not the only place it is happening. In a sign that the antitobacco movement is gaining ground in Western Europe, where smoking is as much a statement as a personal habit, a number of countries are passing strict laws to battle it.

Although Europe still lags far behind the United States in persuading smokers to give up the habit or to bypass it altogether, governments are beginning to address the hazards and costs of smoking more aggressively than ever.

Two other countries ? Norway and the Netherlands ? have approved prohibitions on smoking in bars and restaurants. Norway's will take effect in the spring; the Netherlands, which is in a furor over the law, will put its ban in place in 2005.

Some countries, including nicotine-loving France, have increased taxes on tobacco in the past year, a move that hurts tobacco sales and fattens treasuries at the same time.

My tactics for smoke avoidance are:
1) Eat outdoors or at least places with open windows.
2) Walk away from smokey places.
3) Take away can be good.
4) Eat at locally unfashionable times.

Unfortunately these tactics only go so far and some smoke must usually be inhaled to avoid starvation! One thing I won't do is spend a lot of money on a nice restaurant that is smokey because I know I don't enjoy good food in a smoke filled room.

Hi all,

As a person who enjoy smoking cigarettes and also recognizes that some people are smokaphobics, I am never the first to light a cigarette.

I also ask the people near me if they mind if I smoke, and if they say &quot;yes&quot;, I don't.

OTOH, if you can't stand tobacco smoke and you enter a place where people are smoking, you should not ask them to stop simply because YOU HAVE ARRIVED.

However, I can't stand people who pull out stinky cigars and pipes and ruin the entire evening for the rest of us. :)

Hi Ira,
Stinky cigarettes do to me what stinky cigars and pipes do to you.
They spoil my air and invade my space.
Muck