|
|
 |
PAUL COOPER for TIME
WHERE THERE'S SMOKE: For many Parisians, a meal requires a cigarette
|
|
 |
| Clearing The Air |
 |
|
For years, Europe has passed laws to restrict public smoking — and then ignored them. Is its pro-smoke culture ever going to change?
|
|
|
By BRUCE CRUMLEY |
|
 |
Posted Sunday, Jan. 5, 2003; 2.02 p.m. GMT
The establishment known as le Chien Qui Fume — the Smoking Dog — has all the essential charms of the traditional Parisian café: a mustachioed proprietor behind the century-old, zinc-topped bar; jambon-beurre sandwiches, frothy demis of beer and countless cups of espresso; a dog named Pat prowling for fallen scraps. Lunches go on for hours, and quick coffee breaks turn into languid contemplations of the people streaming past on the boulevard Montparnasse. But if the Smoking Dog's atmosphere seems to waft in from some bygone era, so does the thick cloud of incinerated tobacco hacked forth by its clientele — people happily flouting a 1993 law that restricts public smoking to segregated areas of the brasserie. Sometimes, in fact, it seems that the dog is the only one in this place who's not smoking.
"At first we tried to respect the law by creating smoking sections and installing ventilation systems, but it became clear smokers were going to go where they liked," explains Catherine Pinet, the bright-eyed, amiable co-owner. Like her husband Claude, who mans the bar, Pinet is an ex-smoker who'd happily do without the tobacco haze, but she says her customers' habit — and the café's monthly €106,700 in cigarette sales — demand otherwise. "Since the law isn't enforced, and non-smokers don't often protest, people have reached a kind of consensus that certain places like cafés, bars and some restaurants remain smoking areas," she says. "If a client tells us that's a problem, we do what we can to work things out. In the end, if the smoke is too much of a problem, the nonsmokers are the ones who have to leave."
Around 32% of the French population smoke — down from 45% in 1993 — but smokers are still the ones in charge. Despite a decade-old public-smoking restriction, illegal inhaling in France is still so frequent on Métro platforms, in waiting areas and dining spots that asking someone to douse their cigarette is considered bad form — and even an act of aggression. And France's unwritten — and unlawful — pro-smoking culture is far from unique. All of Europe is enveloped by a nicotine cloud that causes more death and disease each year than Chernobyl. In the European Union alone, smoking-related illness causes 500,000 deaths per year — 10% of them among non-smokers killed by secondhand smoke.
In Germany, 35% of the population light up and 300 die from their habit every day, but the country's few antismoking laws are rarely enforced. Similarly, the more than one-quarter of Britons who smoke enjoy fairly broad freedom to inhale their fags in pubs and restaurants. In free-puffing Russia, 63% of all males smoke — cigarettes account for one in four male deaths — and 400,000 people die from tobacco-related diseases each year. "There's a tenacious tobacco culture in Europe that regards smoking as an inalienable right and victimless luxury that only wimps complain about," says Christian Peschang, secretary-general of France's National Committee Against Tobacco Addiction, which monitors application of the antismoking law. "That's insane. The smoker is a victim, those who breathe second-hand smoke are victims, the millions of loved ones who survive them are victims."
In recent decades, European legislators have taken some steps to curb public smoking. Italy passed its first laws banning smoking in public places in 1975. London Regional Transport banned smoking on buses, including the top smoking deck of double-deckers, in February 1991. And in 2001, even the Russian government got in on the act, passing a host of laws that barred smoking in offices and on public transportation and prohibited the sale of tobacco to people under 18. The Russian law also proscribes depiction of smoking in TV, film and theater productions, "unless it is an integral part of the artistic plot."
Sounds good — but as often as not, the laws turn out to be as insubstantial as a smoke ring. During the 10 years that the French have been ignoring their public-smoking law, Peschang notes, not a single fine or citation has been issued. The law- books of Greece and Italy are also full of irrelevant antismoking statutes that merely wave a hand against the addiction. "Italy is good at writing laws," laments Angelo Pisani, a Naples lawyer who has filed a class action against tobacco companies. "Enforcing them is another thing."
 |
 |
|
|
A F R I C A
 It's Not Cricket: Pressure mounts on teams to shun Zimbabwe in the forthcoming cricket World Cup
B U S I N E S S
Drug Bust: Bayer needs a buyer to cure its headaches |
S C I E N C E
Mars or Bust: In which the Red Planet gets a historic visit from a British Beagle
A R T S
Midnight Matinee: Salman Rushdie's acclaimed novel finally makes it to the stage |
|
|
 |
|
