ninme

Times Online - Paris Weblog - France bends its imminent smoking ban, by Charles Bremner

French smokers are counting down the days. On January 1, the national ban on indoor smoking will be extended to bars, cafés, restaurants, night clubs and the other “places of conviviality”. These were given a one-year reprieve last February while smokers got used to the new prohibition on work places and other indoor space. …

But wait. Die-hard smokers — and there are about 10 million of them — have now been given hope by Roselyne Bachelot, the Health Minister. Under pressure from the tobacco lobby and catering industry, she has revised the rules for café and restaurant terraces. Under the previous definition, smoking would be tolerated on out-door terraces only if these were not covered overhead and were open on the front. Under Bachelot’s new definition, smoking will be allowed on terraces under awnings and open only on one side.

This obviously defeats the intent of the law since most people sitting on the terrace will get a dose of smoke and the anti-cigarette lobby are annoyed. It has also had another undesirable consequence: a boom in out-door gas heaters.

Brasserie and cafe owners are snapping up “propane parasols” that radiate onto tables so they can keep their terraces open in winter for smokers. The heaters are costly to run and are of course about as environmentally incorrect as you can get.

ninme rit et rit et rit