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Tobacco Tot Portraits - 'Smoking Kids' Aims to Ignite Discussion Over Belgium's Smoking Ban (VIDEO) 

'Smoking Kids' is a photo series from Belgian photographer Frieke Janssens that confronts the country's recent ban on smoking. The shoot is filled with children dressed as adults enjoying cigarettes.

The shoot is designed to spark thought, not controversy. Janssens chose to use kids in order to get attention focused off of the adults themselves and onto the act of smoking. The kids are not dressed as normal children however. They represent adult smokers and are dressed as everything from members of the military to early Hollywood actresses. The artist was inspired to create Smoking Kids after watching a YouTube video starring an Indonesian boy who chained smoked up to 40 cigarettes a day.

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• Controversial ‘Smoking Kids’ Glamour Shots: Artistic or Absurd? [VIDEO] 

Now there is the "Smoking Kids" pictorial spread. Belgian photographer Freike Janssens was inspired by the YouTube video of the two-year-old Indonesian boy who chain smoked 40 cigarettes a day.

So she developed "Smoking Kids." The glamour shot series includes 15 portraits of children, dressed in various ornate garments, smoking cigarettes. They are meant to visually mimic adult figures, like military personnel and Old Hollywood actresses.

Titled "The beauty of an ugly addiction," Janssens supposedly confronts viewers with the contradiction of an unhealthy habit and the alluring attraction of cigarette smoking, according to ILoveBelgium.com.

The children in the photos are between the ages of four and nine.

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• Belgium denies massive increase in cigarette sales  

Belgium denied reports Saturday of a massive increase in tobacco sales due to the lure of the country's cheap cigarettes and tobacco for discount-seeking smokers from Britain and France.

The finance ministry denied a cover story by the daily Le Soir and radio reports that said cigarette sales leapt 19 percent in the first nine months of the year.

Citing exclusive data from the finance ministry, Le Soir said sales of roll-your-own tobacco increased 25 percent.

It also reported booming business in filling stations near the Franco-Belgian border, where some owners were quoted saying tobacco sales were outpacing sales of petrol.

But Claude Monseu, an advisor to Finance Minister Didier Reynders, later told the Belga news agency that sales were expected to show a 12-month fall and that the discrepancy between the paper's report and the ministry's data resulted from a change in the way tobacco products were taxed and the timing.

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Smokers fume over hidden cost for a smoke break  

Belgian authorities are clamping down on civil servants who nip out of the office for a smoke break.

18-thousand staff who work for the French-speaking Walloon regional government have been told to clock out when they pop out, and the time will be docked from their working day.

Smokers are fuming.

One employee said: 'It's never been demonstrated that there was a big productivity difference between a smoker and a non-smoker. I don't think that's what counts, a conscientious worker, even if he is away 5 or 10 minutes to smoke, will make sure his job is done by the end of the day. I'd say it's a little insignificant.'

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Smokefree Innotec Receives Signed Contract Selling Belgium Subsidiary  

George Roth, President of Smokefree Innotec, Inc. (OTC Pink: SFIO) announced today that "The corporation has received a fully executed Stock Purchase Agreement with James Denverson Corporation, a Nevada corporation ("Denverson"), by which Smokefree has transferred its 80% ownership and control of Smokefree Innotec, Bvba ("Smokefree Bvba"), its Belgium subsidiary corporation, to Denverson, effective August 31, 2011, which will carry along with it all assets, liabilities, cash held in depository accounts and full management control of the operations of Smokefree Bvba on the terms outlined therein. The minority shareholders owning 20% are retaining their shares, and have taken management positions with Denverson."

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• Belgium officials ordered to clock in and out for smoke 

Trade unions Monday kicked up a storm in Belgium over a rule ordering 10,000 French-speaking civil servants to clock out whenever they stop work for a smoke, with each minute sliced off their wages.

"The rule is that when you go out or come back into a building you clock in," Hugo Poliart, the spokesman for the administration of the French-speaking Wallonia region, told AFP.

But unions say the rule discriminated against smokers.

The order dates back to 2009 but has resurfaced following a request for clarification

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"The smoking ban is a success" 

The vast majority of smokers in Belgium are respecting the ban on lighting up in public places. The ban was introduced one week ago and is also applying to cafés and pubs now. Inspectors working for the Health Department have only seen smokers flouting the ban in 3 percent of the cases.

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Belgium bans smoking in cafes 

A comprehensive ban on smoking has been introduced for all of the cafes in Belgium starting from Friday, July 1st 2011.

Many café owners have already announced that they will seek a court order which will call on the government to cancel the new law.

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• No smoke without ire  

Friday, 1 July, will mark the first day of Belgium's nationwide ban on smoking in all public places, including bars, cafés and nightclubs.

Whether or not Belgians feel as though they've been eased into this non-smoking zone, Friday's ban is just the latest in a line of various smoking bans in the country. It follows a 2006 ban on smoking in enclosed workplaces, a 2007 ban on smoking wherever cooked food is served, a 2008 ban on smoking in schools and a 2010 ban on smoking in restaurants and any place that serves food.

Now, Belgium joins the ranks of other European countries with blanket smoking bans. . . .

As with each country's ban, there were protests in Belgium at the announcement. . . .

Despite protests and backlash from citizens and business-owners, the smoking bans have still steam-rolled over the continent - every member state now has some form of smoking ban in place.

Research has shown that these smoking bans do decrease the smoking rate in the cities where they are enacted - the European Society of Cardiology has found that legal bans and increased taxation are the most effective methods of decreasing smoking overall.

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75 percent of the Belgians supports general smoking ban for pubs 

On 1 July, a general smoking ban in pubs, cafés and restaurants will be introduced. It turns out that almost 3 in 4 Belgians supports this ban, compared to 1 in 2 seven years ago. That's according to a poll ordered by the Stichting tegen Kanker, the organisation concerned with the battle against cancer.

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More than 300 tobacco jobs to go in Houthalen 

In three years' time, the cigar factory of Scandinavian Tobacco in Houthalen (Limburg province) is to close its doors. 300 jobs will be shed in the process. Trades unions are considering strike action.

In a first phase, 142 jobs will be scrapped, but by 2014 this number will reach 310.

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• Belgian barkeepers demonstrate against smoking ban 

More than 800 Belgian bar owners and their supporters demonstrated Saturday against a decision to widen a smoking ban in public spaces to cover all cafes and the kingdom's nine casinos from July 1.

The demonstration in Brussels was organised by the federation of cafe owners and restaurateurs, which claims that 4,000-5,000 of the country's 12,000 cafes are threatened with closure by the new legislation.

Smoking has been banned in work places, restaurants and pubs that serve food since 2009, while temporary exemptions had been granted to casinos and cafes that only serve snacks.

The law had called for the exemptions to end sometime between January 1, 2012 and January 1, 2014, but the Flemish Anti-Cancer League asked Belgium's constitutional court to strike them down.

The court decided to lift the exemptions but gave establishments until June 30 to "adapt to the general smoking ban."

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Belgium expands smoking ban to all cafes, casinos 

Belgium's top court decided Tuesday to widen the country's smoking ban in public spaces to cover all cafes and the kingdom's nine casinos from July 1.

Smoking has been banned in work places, restaurants and pubs that serve food since 2009, while temporary exemptions had been granted to casinos and cafes that only serve snacks such as crisps and peanuts.

The law had called for the exemptions to end sometime between January 1, 2012 and January 1, 2014, but the Flemish Anti-Cancer League asked Belgium's constitutional court to strike them down.

The court decided to lift the exemptions but gave establishments until June 30 to "adapt to the general smoking ban."

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• Belgium Bans Smoking in Cafes, Casinos 

Smoking has been banned in work places, restaurants and pubs that serve food since 2009, while temporary exemptions had been granted to casinos and cafes that only serve snacks such as crisps and peanuts.

The law had called for the exemptions to end sometime between January 1, 2012 and January 1, 2014, but the Flemish Anti-Cancer League asked Belgium's constitutional court to strike them down. Smoking ban law effective from July 1.

The court decided to lift the exemptions but gave establishments until June 30 to "adapt to the general smoking ban."

The judges ruled that the government failed to prove that pubs would be harmed by a general smoking ban, saying that drawing distinctions between establishments was actually harmful to competition.

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• Belgium expands smoking ban to all cafes, casinos  

Belgium's top court decided Tuesday to widen the country's smoking ban in public spaces to cover all cafes and the kingdom's nine casinos from July 1.

Smoking has been banned in work places, restaurants and pubs that serve food since 2009, while temporary exemptions had been granted to casinos and cafes that only serve snacks such as crisps and peanuts.

The law had called for the exemptions to end sometime between January 1, 2012 and January 1, 2014, but the Flemish Anti-Cancer League asked Belgium's constitutional court to strike them down.

The court decided to lift the exemptions but gave establishments until June 30 to "adapt to the general smoking ban."

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