Greece Bans Smoking in Enclosed Public Spaces
THE GUARDIAN: Tobacco advertising prohibited and anti-smoking board games to be distributed to children to cut country's high smoking rates

Smoking ban: from today, Greeks are not allowed to light up in enclosed public spaces. Photograph: The Guardian
A ban on lighting up in enclosed public areas comes into force in Greece today as part of an effort to curb the country's high smoking rates.

Offenders will be fined up to €10,000 (£8,260), and tobacco advertising will also be prohibited under the measures.

Some 42% of Greeks over the age of 15 smoke, well above the European average of 29%. The campaign will include an advertising blitz and the distribution of anti-smoking board games to children.

The prime minister, George Papandreou, said: "It will contribute to the work we're doing today that's aimed at changing attitudes, norms and behaviour to improve our quality of life and to make our country viable – not just its economy but in everyday life." >>> Associated Press | Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Hobart's Smoking Ban Begins
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: A controversial ban on smoking in Hobart's outdoor malls has been well received, the city's council says.

Hobart City Council in May passed a ban on smoking at three outdoor malls in central Hobart, which took effect on Sunday.
Smoking in Hobart's alfresco dining areas will be illegal from August next year.

The ban caused controversy when first announced, with retailers expressing concern it could affect business.

But the council said at the time it was proud to have some of the nation's most stringent anti-smoking laws. >>> AAP | Monday, August 02, 2010

Smoking Ban Extension That Would Outlaw Lighting Up Outside Pubs Is Axed
MAIL ONLINE: Smokers will continue lighting up outside pubs and offices after ministers yesterday scrapped plans to extend the ban.

The last government had proposed enlarging ‘smoke-free’ zones to include the areas around building entrances, but this has been shelved.

Anne Milton, public health minister, said: ‘We have studied the smokefree legislation and decided not to proceed with the planned review.’ >>> Sophie Borland | Thursday, July 29, 2010

Pubs Are Dying Because of One Thing: The Smoking Ban

Anti Smoking League, Politics!

Sebastian Frankenberger: Rauchverbot - ein Mann verändert Bayern
SUEDDEUTSCHE: Vom Vorsitzenden der CSU-nahen Schülerunion zum ÖDP-Politiker und obersten Verfechter des Nichtraucher-schutzes: Doch nicht alles im Leben hat Sebastian Frankenberger so konsequent verfolgt, wie den Kampf gegen die Kippe - den er nun in Bayern eindrucksvoll gewonnen hat.

Gebannt starrt Sebastian Frankenberger auf die große Leinwand im Münchner Traditionsgasthof Stemmerhof, wo jede Minute das vorläufige Endergebnis des Volksentscheids über ein verschärftes Rauchverbot erscheinen soll. "Es ist ein wunderbares Gefühl", wiederholt er wie ein Mantra, nachdem die eingehenden Meldungen ihm den klaren Sieg vorhersagen. "Dann plötzlich ruft er mit sich überschlagender Stimme: "Wir haben gewonnen."

Im Saal bricht frenetischer Jubel aus, und Frankenberger macht für die vielen Kameras das Victory-Zeichen. Anschließend sagt er: "Beim Volksbegehren konnten wir aus den laufenden Prognosen bereits herauslesen, dass wir es schaffen - aber diesmal wusste ich selbst nicht, wie es ausgeht." >>> Von Dietrich Mittler | Montag, 05. Juli 2010

Bayern Volksentscheid: Initiatoren wollen ganz Deutschland rauchfrei machen
WELT ONLINE: Bayern hat jetzt das schärfste Rauchverbot Deutschlands. Die Initiatoren des Volksentscheids wollen die Regelung jetzt bundesweit durchsetzen.

Nach dem Volksentscheid für ein striktes Rauchverbot in der bayerischen Gastronomie haben die Initiatoren die Bundesregierung aufgefordert, für ein bundesweites Rauchverbot zu sorgen. „Das Volk hat in Bayern so eindeutig gesprochen mit 61 Prozent, dass es auch deutschlandweit so sprechen würde“, sagte der Sprecher des Aktionsbündnisses Nichtraucherschutz, Sebastian Frankenberger, am Montag in München.

Er hoffe deshalb auf die Bundespolitik – diese könne den Nichtraucherschutz „sehr einfach“ über den Arbeitsschutz regeln und damit auch in anderen Bundesländern für ein ausnahmsloses Rauchverbot in der Gastronomie sorgen. Weiter lessen und einen Kommentar schreiben >>> dpa/jm | Montag, 05. Juli 2010

Raucherrepublik auf der Kippe
Spiegel Video hier abspielen
La fête de la bière de Munich bientôt un espace non-fumeur
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: ALLEMAGNE | Les électeurs bavarois, appelés dimanche aux urnes, se sont prononcés en faveur d'une interdiction stricte de fumer dans tous les lieux publics, selon les résultats officiels définitifs.

La fumée ne sera plus tolérée à la fête de la bière après cette édition 2010. Photo : Tribune de Genève
Après le décompte des votes dans les 96 circonscriptions de Bavière, le camp d'une interdiction de fumer dans les lieux publics a obtenu 61% des voix pour une participation toutefois faible (37,7%). >>> ATS | Lundi 05 Juillet 2010

Related here

Wisconsin: Statewide Smoking Ban Nears


THE CANADIAN PRESS: German state of Bavaria to hold referendum on smoking ban in pubs, beer tents: BERLIN — Germans in the southern state of Bavaria are voting on whether to completely ban smoking statewide, or to continue to allow exceptions for clubs, bars[,] cafes and beer tents. >>> The Associated Press (CP) | Sunday, July 04, 2010

Ministers to Review Pub Smoking Ban
MIRROR: Ministers are to review the smoking ban amid claims it is crippling Britain's £6billion[-]a-year pub and bingo industry.

Around 130 bingo halls - 20 per cent - have closed in the three years since the ban in 2007. Thirty-nine pubs go bust a week.

The Government has ordered a review of anti-smoking laws this autumn. >>> | Sunday, June 27, 2010

Hypocrisy! Nick Clegg Interview - On the Smoking Ban and Drug Policy

Prisoner Sues After He Is Banned from Smoking
THE TELEGRAPH: A prisoner addicted to tobacco is seeking damages after he was banned from smoking for swearing at a prison officer.

Lawyers acting for Jack Richard Foster claim the staff at High Down prison, Surrey, breached their client's human rights by submitting him to ''cruel and unusual punishment''.

They argued that, as a tobacco addict and habitual smoker, he should have been given nicotine skin patches, chewing gum or some other means to satisfy his nicotine craving during the period the smoking ban was in force.

Philip Rule, appearing for Foster, said at the High Court in London today the case also raised concern over the adequacy of the guidance given by Justice Secretary Jack Straw concerning the denial of nicotine to prisoners as a punishment for breaches of discipline.

Mr Justice Collins adjourned the case so that more information could be gathered. He said it should come on for a full hearing in June-July this year.

He described the legal issue raised as ''quite an important one for the future''. >>> | Monday, March 22, 2010

No Exceptions to the Dutch Smoking Ban, High Court Rules
NRC HANDELSBLAD INTERNATIONAL: The Dutch high court has upheld the smoking ban, overturning two rulings by lower courts that allowed one-man cafes to let their patrons smoke inside on Tuesday.

The owners of smaller bars had taken their cases to court because, they said, they were not breaking the Dutch anti-smoking law, introduced in 2008. Unlike other countries, the Netherlands’ smoking ban is based on the right of employees to work in a smoke free environment. Owners of small bars who don’t employ staff argued this made them exempt from the ban. >>> NRC Handelsblad News Staff | Tuesday, February 23, 2010

NRC HANDELSBLAD INTERNATIONAL: Why only the Dutch resist the smoking ban: Smoking bans have been well accepted in almost all countries that introduced them. Except in the Netherlands, where resistance has been high and public support is waning. Three experts try to explain why. >>> Onno van Schayck, Hein de Vries and Marc Willemsen | Friday, May 29, 2009

Artist David Hockney Slams Smoking Ban
YAHOO! NEWS: Artist David Hockney has said he loathes the Labour Government for interfering in his life by introducing the smoking ban.

The 72-year-old lifelong smoker is backing a cross-party group of MPs who want the ban to be relaxed, so people can light up in designated rooms in pubs.

Hockney told the BBC's Politics Show that he was appalled to find that his local cafe in east Yorkshire no longer allowed people to smoke at tables outside, because they were frightened that smoke would waft inside and breach the law.

He said Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his predecessor Tony Blair were responsible and added: "I loathe them for it."

Hockney also took a swipe at the Government's "nanny state attitude", saying that if ministers had told the late TV chef Keith Floyd to give up rich food, alcohol and cigarettes in order to live longer, "he would have said to them that's not what I call living. Up yours! >>> ITN | Sunday, September 20, 2009

More Sh** from the White House! Reform Obama First!
To expect people to die for their country and then deny them cigarettes is disgraceful! – ©Mark

MAIL Online: It is an iconic image of movies and real life - a battle-weary GI sits down during a lull in the fighting and sucks on a calming cigarette.

It has endured through two world wars, and major conflicts such as Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq and numerous Hollywood blockbusters - John Wayne and Robert Mitchum in the D-Day blockbuster, The Longest Day and Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan.

But it could all soon be a thing of the past - because of health and cost concerns.

Pentagon health experts are urging US Defence Secretary Robert Gates to ban smoking by troops and end the sale of tobacco in PXs, the military base shops where cut-price cigarettes have always been a popular line.

And it’s all due to a new study revealing the hidden cost to America’s three million men and women serving in the US Army, Navy, Air Force, and the Reserve.

An investigation by the influential Institute of Medicine, commissioned by the Pentagon found that one in three members of the US services use tobacco, compared with one in five adult Americans.

The heaviest smokers - maybe, not surprisingly - were soldiers and Marines who had done most of the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

About 37 per cent of soldiers used tobacco and 36 per cent of Marines.

Combat veterans were 50 per cent more likely to use tobacco than troops who hadn't seen combat, it said. The report acknowledges that it is calling for a seismic change.

The sheer number of troops smoking also had economic costs. Researchers discovered that smoking and chewing tobacco costs the Pentagon more than £540 million a year in medical care and lost productivity.

The Department of Veterans Affairs spent up to £4billion a year on treatment for tobacco-related illnesses, the report added.
In comparison, tobacco sales in PXs netted less than £60 million a year which was spent on base recreation schemes and family support programmes.

It said: ‘A ban would confront a military culture in which the image of the battle-weary soldier in fatigues and helmet, fighting for his country, has frequently included his lit cigarette.

Troops worn out by repeated deployments often relied on cigarettes as a ‘stress reliever.’ Pentagon calls for smoking ban among US soldiers >>> Barry Whigmore | Friday, July 09, 2009

Bar Owners in Germany Complain about Lost Income: Will Germany's Constitutional Court Overturn Smoking Ban?
’The Marlboro Man’ courtesy of Google Images
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Germany's Constitutional Court is due to consider this week three complaints put forward against the country's smoking ban by bar owners. The court may well rule that smoking should once again be allowed in small bars and discos.

The walls are covered with posters of Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and Johnny Cash, the ads are for whisky, vodka and tequila, the music coming from the loudspeakers is by Cat Stevens, Jethro Tull and Blue Öyster Cult, and clouds of cigarette smoke float through the room.

Sylvia Thimm, 45, has been the owner of Doors, a bar in Berlin's fashionable Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood, for the past six years. She is proud of her dimly lit haven. "I'm not just selling beer here," she says. "I'm selling an attitude to life."

But Thimm fears that all of that could soon end. Seventy percent of her patrons are smokers, and in Berlin, smoking is banned (more...) in all bars that have no separate room for smokers. Thimm is still allowing smokers to enjoy their habit in her 34-square-meter (366-square-foot) bar, and fines are not yet being handed out to violators in Berlin. But all of that will change on July 1, when the grace period for enforcement of the city's new anti-smoking law comes to an end.

Many of her patrons have indicated that if they aren't even allowed to smoke at Doors, they'll stay at home or go someplace else. Thimm still doesn't know what she'll do when that happens. "Then I'll have to come up with a Plan B," she says. "I'll probably have to look for a different job."

But because she likes her current occupation, Thimm has taken it upon herself to challenge Berlin's smoking ban before Germany's Federal Constitutional Court. The court's decision could prove to be the salvation of Thimm's pub. This Wednesday, the justices in the southwestern city of Karlsruhe will hear three out of roughly 30 pending constitutional complaints regarding smoking bans. Silvia Thimm's is one of them. Will Germany's Constitutional Court Overturn Smoking Ban? >>> By Dietmar Hipp | June 10, 2008

SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL:
The Irony of Holland’s Smoking Ban >>> By Frederik Hartig | June 11, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – Canada)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback – Canada)

Austria Wary of Banning Smoking
YAHOO NEWS (UK & IRELAND): VIENNA (AFP) - While many European countries have imposed smoking bans in bars and restaurants, Austria, afraid of hurting businesses, has so far resisted legislation preventing people lighting up where they please.

After a six-month break, the ruling Social Democrats and conservatives returned to the negotiating table this week to discuss a no-smoking policy in public places, an issue that has deeply divided politicians.

Conservative Health Minister Andrea Kdolsky and the Social Democrats want to protect non-smokers without hurting businesses, while the environmental Greens and trade unions are calling for a total ban.

A compromise deal, due to be presented in mid-May, suggests that all pubs, cafes and restaurants have a sectioned-off area for non-smokers, unless they are protected property or safety requirements make it impossible.

A new piece of legislation introduced at the beginning of the year required any place of 75 square metres (807 square feet) or more to offer a non-smoking area, while smaller businesses could choose whether or not to serve smokers.

"We cannot overly regulate. A total ban would cause problems," Kdolsky's chief of staff Michael Kloibmueller said, referring to claims that it would infringe on businesses' rights, an argument used by a German court to relax a total ban on one-room bars. Austria Wary of Banning Smoking >>> By Luc Andre | April 9, 2008

THE GUARDIAN:
The death of the village pub: They are closing at a rate of two a day. Have you lost yours? By Allegra Stratton

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)

Bavarian Politicians Want to Relax Smoking Ban
Image courtesy of Google Images
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: The leaders of Bavaria's ruling party, the Christian Social Union, want to relax the state's smoking ban -- and very quickly. Many of the party's politicians blame the ban for the CSU's poor showing in recent local elections.

The leaders of the Christian Social Union, the conservative Bavarian sister party to Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, are planning to relax Bavaria's smoking ban -- just two months after it was introduced.

The state's ruling party wants to introduce the relaxation next week, granting special exemptions to beer tents and small pubs. The change in regulation is aimed in particular at large tents, as found in Munich's famous Oktoberfest (more...). Bavarian Politicans Want to Relax Smoking Ban >>>

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Do You Want to Beat the Smoking Ban? Do You Want to Enjoy a Cigarette on Board? Then, in Future, Fly SMINTair (Smoker’s International Airways)
SMINTAIR: SMINTair is set to be the World's Most Luxurious Airline.
Since April 2005, the SMINTair DEVELOPMENT TEAM has been working on every aspect to set base for launching a successful airline on a long-term perspective. Ideas, some completely new to the airline industry, have been developed and pursued until working perfection. SMINTair >>>

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

Helmut Schmidt, Germany’s Ex-Chancellor, Faces Charges for Defying Smoking Ban
Photo of Helmut Schmidt and his wife, Loki, courtesy of Google Images
THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY: Helmut Schmidt, Germany's 89-year-old former chancellor and its most renowned and inveterate nicotine addict, became the first prominent victim of his country's new anti-smoking laws yesterday and faced the prospect of court action for lighting up in public.

Mr Schmidt and Loki, his 88-year-old wife, are well known in Germany for theirchain-smoking. The ex-chancellor even has a weekly interview column in the respected Die Zeit magazine entitled "A Cigarette with Helmut Schmidt".

The couple attended a new year reception at a theatre in their home town of Hamburg only days after Germany's ban on public smoking was introduced on 1 January. As guests of honour, the Schmidts were provided with ashtrays as soon as they sat down.

Photographs of Mr and Mrs Schmidt drawing heavily on cigarettes and clearly enjoying their smoke at the theatre were plastered across the mass-circulation Bild newspaper the next day. In Germany, such a flagrant breach of the law was bound to have consequences.

Yesterday they arrived in the form of a declaration by Hamburg state prosecutors that they were investigating the Schmidts on suspicion of causing "bodily harm" to other guests at the theatre and of being in breach of the city state's ban on smoking in public places.

The case against the Schmidts was brought by the anti-smoking lobby group, Non Smoker's Initiative. Roland Keiser, the group's spokesman, said: "Their illegal behaviour was encouraged by the theatre which provided them with ashtrays despite the ban on smoking."

Helmut Schmidt's office declined to comment. The former Social Democrat chancellor is one of Germany's elder statesmen. He invariably lights up when interviewed on television. Schmidt faces charges for defying smoking ban >>> By Tony Paterson in Berlin

BBC:
Female smokers 'double in Russia'

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

England’s Last Haven for Smokers
THE GUARDIAN: Smokers bemoaning the new ban on lighting up in pubs and other indoor public spaces in England have a new sanctuary: Stoke-on-Trent.

The Staffordshire city has acquired a sudden popularity among tobacco aficionados after a bureaucratic mix-up left its council unable to enforce the July 1 smoking ban.

Until this is rectified - August at the earliest - smokers can enjoy their habit in Stoke's pubs and clubs, not to mention bus shelters and other enclosed spaces, without the risk of a £50 fine. City’s smokers escape ban after council mix-up (more) By Peter Walker and agencies

Mark Alexander

Virtual Smoke
Beat the smoking ban: Get your virtual smoke here – the ultimate in virtual naughtiness!

Mark Alexander