Smoking...

[ThankU]

You can smoke in every pub, cafes and restaurants in all the EU countries and these places are booming

[VinnieK]

You can smoke in every pub, cafes and restaurants in all the EU countries and these places are booming

 

No you can't. Italy for instance set up a smoking ban in 2005, but they're generally a little more relaxed about its enforcement (and breaking the ban) in some parts of the country than is the case in the British Isles.

[Pierrot Lunaire]

You can smoke in every pub, cafes and restaurants in all the EU countries and these places are booming

Gosh, the thought that the success of economies might be proportional to the laxity of laws regarding tobacco use in public. How cute.

[Slim]

You can smoke in every pub, cafes and restaurants in all the EU countries and these places are booming

 

Not true

[thebees]

Maybe Europe needs a plague of NO SMOKING notices.

[Mutley]

Maybe Europe needs a plague of NO SMOKING notices.

 

[Mutley]

going slightly off on a tangent here... myself and sunny north were having a nice glass of chardonnay in the garden last night and we were discussing this thread and about smokers being social outcasts. We were chunnering on about how only a few decades ago it was "classy" to be seen with a fag delicately draped from you fingers and now, with the effects of smoking now known and the drain on health resources how it is just not acceptable any more and as a smoker you are nigh on seen as a leper. But anyway as the conversation went on we were wondering whether, maybe not my generation, but maybe in my kids generation or their kids generation, whether the same stance will be taken with alcohol, as all of a sudden it is in the limelight with the increase in alcohol related diseases draining NHS resources. I know it is all blamed on alkies and binge drinkers, but the reality is - is most people don't realise that they are damaging themselves just by having a few bevvies a week (I myself love a glass of wine of an evening time - and am probably damaging myself - along with the fags!!). But do you think that in a couple of decades time that drink will be extortionately priced - pubs will be seen as irrisponsible and closed down and people who drink will be as much of an outcast as a smoker in this day and age.....just a thought....

 

Read this interesting article today...

[Augustus]

You can smoke in every pub, cafes and restaurants in all the EU countries and these places are booming

 

Utter bollocks, although expressed with immeasurable certainty.

[Trueblood]

You can smoke in every pub, cafes and restaurants in all the EU countries and these places are booming

 

What about Eire, then?

[ThankU]

You can smoke in every pub, cafes and restaurants in all the EU countries and these places are booming

 

Not true

 

Just spent five weeks away,

 

France, smoking in a bar was ok but not if hot food was being served

Belgium could smoke in bars cafes etc

Holland smoking was no problem

Germany smoking was no problem

Poland smoking allowed

Republic of Slovakia smoking allowed

North Itally smoking in most bars, but not all was ok as long as no food was being served

[La_Dolce_Vita]

What is plainly evident is that tobacco companies do most of its customer recruiting amongst children who are then set up with a habit for life. Children are enticed into it arguably because of the only enticing feature of smoking - its image.

 

It seems a morally safe decision to gradually reduce smoking to a legally permitted activity but confine it to people's private property. Do what you like as long as you don't do it in the streets and scare the horses, so to speak.

As with alcohol, I think the main reason kids are motivated to try cigarettes is because they are illegal and being told by some unknown that they shouldn't do something when adults do it. And because very many adults smoke.

 

I certainly don't think smoking should be confined to private property. If nobody is going to breathe in the smoke then there is nothing wrong with it. Just a shame that so many think it is acceptable to smoke where others will breathe it in. And even having a non-smoker (or smoker) breathe in the tiniest wiff of smoke is wrong.

[piebaps]

You can smoke in every pub, cafes and restaurants in all the EU countries and these places are booming

 

Not true

 

Just spent five weeks away,

 

France, smoking in a bar was ok but not if hot food was being served

Belgium could smoke in bars cafes etc

Holland smoking was no problem

Germany smoking was no problem

Poland smoking allowed

Republic of Slovakia smoking allowed

North Itally smoking in most bars, but not all was ok as long as no food was being served

 

My own experiences differ.

 

France - no smoking indoors. Two weeks on hols in last 12 months.

 

Germany - Generally no smoking indoors however in smaller bars it may be permitted (Berlin). Also permitted in lounge bar of holiday Inn Bonn. From a long weekend in berlin 2008 and a shorter business trip in 2010.

 

Belgium - Generally no smoking indoors however in smaller bars it may be permitted. From a long weekend in Ieper 2009.

 

Northern Italy - No smoking indoors. From a week in Selva in March 2010.

 

Spain - Smoking permitted indoors in a hotel's designated smoking lounge and in a transport caff. Butts just chucked on floor too. A week's hols in 2009.

 

Denmark - No smoking indoors. Lonely planet suggested that smaller bars etc may allow smoking but I didn't come across any. Business trip 2008.

 

Finally, quitsmoking, the basic concept is simple. Just stop smoking! There's no magic remedy - it's difficult and you can't get away from that. If you really want to stop you will be able to no problem. If you need some kind of crutch then maybe you just don't want to quit.

 

I find quitting easy - I've done it hundreds of times!

[P.K.]

Apparently nicotine patches are useless - they keep going out!

[ballaughbiker]

France, smoking in a bar was ok but not if hot food was being served

Just because you say something in a convincing way doesn't make it true. Whilst many bars in France turn a blind eye to smokers, it's illegal indoors.

 

I have no objection whatsoever to people smoking out of doors but some things that I heard said are (and the people saying them no doubt convinced themselves they're completely true)!

 

1) There actually no scientific evidence that smoking does you any harm.

2) Only 10% of tax levied is spent on the healthcare of smoking diseases.

3) If you've got a car you have no right to complain about smokers.

 

All of them total bollox of course but there's nothing as powerful as the self-convincing thoughts of a smoker in denial..... I particularly like the last one as it neatly exploits the simple thought process that 2 wrongs = a right and neatly ignores the fact that that there is a lot more use in driving a car that sucking over 100 poison directly into your bloodstream with a fag. Some of those are very poisonous too eg phosgene / carbon monoxide /dioxin etc.

 

However, it now looks like I'm on an anti-smoking mission but that's not the case. I get no pleasure whatsoever seeing smokers persecuted and smoking outside isn't a problem apart from maybe giving kids something to copy or (generalisation) throwing down the butts instead of disposing of them properly. There is considerably more antisocial behaviour out there that we seem to just ignore so why does officialdom pick on smokers?

[La_Dolce_Vita]

You could try those e-cigarettes. They do taste better than fags.