PARIS (AFP) - Part one of a French ban on smoking in public
places comes into force on Thursday, covering workplaces, schools
and hospitals and setting the clock ticking for smoke-filled cafes
and bars which have until next January to kick the habit.
Smokers will now have to stub out on the doorstep of shops, sports
clubs and entertainment venues that still allowed smoking, while
"smokers' corners" in school staff rooms and hospitals will vanish
entirely.
Panicked owners of restaurants, bars, nightclubs and casinos --
anticipating a loss of custom in a country where almost one in
three adults is a smoker -- have been given a year to prepare for
the minor earthquake.
"From February 1, no one should be forced to breathe other people's
smoke," Health Minister Xavier Bertrand said last week. "I am sure
that in future our children will find it inconceivable that we used
to smoke in offices or schools."
Unruly smokers will face fines of 68 euros (88 dollars) for
lighting up in the wrong place, while business owners will be fined
135 euros.
Companies can choose to provide hermetically-sealed smoking rooms,
with powerful extractor fans, but few are expected to install the
costly systems, preferring to let staff puff away on the pavement
and offer them advice on how to quit.
The rare exceptions to the new rules are places considered as
"substitutes for the home" -- such as hotels or retirement
homes.
The government has also said it will be lenient towards hospital
patients with mental illnesses, who would not understand a sudden
ban, or those already struggling to give up alcohol or drug
addiction.
The February 1 ban is largely seen as a test run ahead of next
year's complete ban on smoking in restaurants and bars -- a
cultural earthquake in a country of coffee- and
cigarette-lovers.
But some restaurants have already taken the bull by the horns, as
in the southern city of Marseille where a growing number are going
completely smoke-free well ahead of the legal deadline.
"We felt the time was right," said Stephane Pandeli, who runs a
seafood restaurant, Toinou, in the city centre. He said he had not
lost any custom, and even gained some as non-smokers flocked
back.
"Eventually, people won't have a choice anyway. They haven't
stopped catching the train or plane since they banned smoking," he
said.
Around the corner, the Shambala oriental cafe has always been
smoke-free. Its owner, Eric Martin, said he has a loyal customer
base of "young women who come here when they're pregnant, then with
the children", to enjoy the fragrance of tea and incense without
the smell of smoke.
The Cafe des Epices, a restaurant perched in Marseille's historic
Panier neighbourhood, is booked up a week in advance despite its
smoking ban.
"We do a lot of work with spices. Cigarettes affect the taste buds
-- people wouldn't get as much out of the chef's work" if people
were smoking, said owner Eddy Reignoux.
But he admits the mild climate in Marseille -- as in Italy where a
ban on smoking in restaurants has been an overall success -- is a
help: smokers can comfortably nip outside with a glass of wine for
an open-air cigarette.
Overall, recent figures show the number of French smokers to be
rising, especially among the young. Smokers now account for 32
percent of 15- to 75-year-olds, and almost one in two in the 18 to
25 age bracket.
Smoking is thought to kill 66,000 people in France each year, while
passive smoking claims some 6,000 lives -- 1,000 of them
non-smokers, the rest smokers who also breathe the cigarette smoke
of others.
The anti-smoking decree, adopted by the government last November,
goes one step further than a 1991 law that banned cigarettes in
many places including train stations and airports, but still
allowed designated smoking areas.
