They are a familiar sight in New York, Dublin and Rome. But it seems huddled groups of smokers puffing away outside bars and restaurants stand little chance of appearing on the streets of Paris.
The city council was on Wednesday forced to acknowledge that a voluntary scheme launched three months ago aimed at encouraging Paris’s 12 452 cafes, bistros and brasseries to declare themselves smoke-free zones had been adopted by barely 30.
”It’s early days yet,” a spokesperson said. ”The idea is good and I’m sure it will catch on eventually. I think bars and restaurants just had other things to think about over Christmas and the new year.”
But in a nation of unrepentant cigarette-lovers, others are less sure.
”It’s a daft idea and it was doomed to failure from the start,” Yves Bougeard of the catering industry union UMIH, told Le Parisien. ”France’s existing laws already force bars and restaurants to provide no-smoking areas. Surely that’s enough? How can you ask customers to stop smoking when 43% of establishments in Paris also sell cigarettes?”
Under the scheme, devised by the city’s deputy mayor in charge of public health, Alain Lhostis, cafes and restaurants can apply for a sticker issued by the Mairie de Paris bearing the words: Ici, c’est 100% sans tabac .
Last month Rome became the latest city to in effect ban smoking in public, outlawing tobacco in all indoor spaces unless they have separate smoking areas with continuous floor-to-ceiling walls and ventilation systems.
Offending smokers can be fined â,¬275, and proprietors up to â,¬2 000 if they fail to call the police when customers refuse to put out their cigarettes. The Irish Republic successfully introduced similar, though less stringent, legislation nearly a year ago, while smoking bans are common across the United States.
The French remain a nation of dedicated smokers: according to the latest government figures, 32,2% of all 26- to 75-year-olds are regular consumers and the figure rises to 36,7% in the 12 to 25 age group. In the face of customer pressure, laws on smoking in public places are widely ignored in most cafes and restaurants.
Proprietors argue that banning smoking would amount to commercial suicide. – Guardian Unlimited Â