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• Court spares small Dutch cafe over smoking ban 

Dutch court on Friday rejected a bid by prosecutors to punish a small cafe for defying the smoking ban, arguing it was too small to be subject to the country's tough restrictions.

The Victoria cafe, in Breda, near the Belgian border, escaped prosecution demands for a 1,200-euro (1,600-dollar) fine and closure for a month, after the court decided the prosecution was unjustified. . . .

Several thousand small bars and cafes in the Netherlands united in late 2008 to flaunt the smoking ban and create a joint legal defense fund, arguing that they lacked the floorspace and money to erect separate smoking-only areas.

In its ruling, the court said it was likely that smokers would go to the bigger cafes that could afford separate smoking areas, which could lead to a big drop income for the smaller venues.

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Another café prosecuted for smoking 

This time it's the Café Victoria in Breda, in the southern province of North Brabant. Inspectors from the Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority noted multiple violations of the smoking ban. The managers of the café could face a fine of up to 18,500 euros.

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Corporate art’s new realism 

Whenever they grew tired of the production line, workers in a cigarette factory in the Dutch town of Zevenaar could look up from their labours and gaze on avant-garde works by artists such as Karel Appel and Anton Henning, which decorated the factory. Now, no longer. The plant was closed by BAT Industries last year and the art – a collection brought together to improve the quality of employees’ working lives – has largely been sold off.

While a factory closure or a change in strategy may cause companies to sell their art, a more pressing reason is the turmoil gripping markets. Finance directors are looking afresh at these non-core assets and seeing the chance to release much-needed cash.

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Dutch bar owners fined 1,200 euros over smoking ban 

A Dutch court fined the owners of a small Dutch bar 1,200 euros Friday in the country's first-ever court case for flouting a smoking ban imposed on the hospitality industry.

Brothers Gerhard and Ronald Sannes, owners of Cafe de Kachel in Groningen in the north of the country, admitted contravening the oft-flouted law when they appeared before a district court in the same city earlier in the month.

Court spokesman Maurice van Dyk said Friday that on top of the fine, the owners were also sentenced to a one-year probation period, during which time the bar will be closed for a month for any further contravention.

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First smoking ban conviction 

The owners of the pub De Kachel in the northern city of Groningen have been fined 1,200 euros for violating the smoking ban for bars, cafes and restaurants which the Netherlands introduced last July. If the pub allows smoking again, it will be closed down for a month. . . .

Co-owner Jeroen Sannes says he can understand that the judge has no alternative but to fine a transgression of the law. But Mr Sannes says he is enraged at the judge's suggestion that small pubs should expand or move, if they don't have enough space to create a separate smoking room. "How does he think we are going to finance such a move?" Mr Sannes exclaimed.

This was the first case brought against a hostelry in the Netherlands for failing to comply with the smoking ban. The owners of De Kachel had received five warnings before being charged.

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• Bar owners face fine for flouting Dutch smoking ban  

THE HAGUE - Brothers Gerhard and Ronald Sannes, owners of Cafe de Kachel in Groningen in the north of the country, appeared before a district court in the same city where they admitted one count of contravening the oft-flouted law.

"We asked for a fine of 1,200 euros and a probation period of one year, during which time the bar will be closed for a month for any further contravention," prosecution spokeswoman Kerstin Smit told AFP.

The bar had been caught contravening the ban on six occasions, she said.

Gerhard Sannes told AFP the ban, which came into effect last July, created an unfair competition advantage for bigger establishments.

"We have a small bar with no extra space in which to build a smoking section.

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• Dutch court closes pub for defying smoking ban 

Dutch judges are closing a cafe for a month for allowing its patrons to smoke.

It's the first case to be brought to court since smoking was banned in restaurants July 1.

The court fined the owners of the Kachel Cafe in the northern town of Groningen euro1,200 ($1,535) after they ignored six warnings. The cafe had argued it was too small to provide a separate smoking area.

Small bars and cafes report business has fallen 30 percent since July. Many are reportedly defying the ban.

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Smoking and Cognitive Decline Among Middle-Aged Men and Women: The Doetinchem Cohort Study  

Objectives. We studied the effect of smoking on cognitive decline over a 5-year period at middle age (43 to 70 years).

Methods. In the Doetinchem Cohort Study, 1964 men and women in the Netherlands were examined for cognitive function at baseline and 5 years later. The association between smoking status and memory function, speed of cognitive processes, cognitive flexibility, and global cognitive function were assessed.

Results. At baseline, smokers scored lower than never smokers in global cognitive function, speed, and flexibility. At 5-year follow-up, decline among smokers was 1.9 times greater for memory function, 2.4 times greater for cognitive flexibility, and 1.7 times greater for global cognitive function than among never smokers. Among ever smokers, the declines in all cognitive domains were larger with increasing number of pack-years smoked.

Conclusions. Interventions to prevent or stop people from smoking may postpone cognitive decline in middle-aged persons.

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• Group slams smoking ban  

The pressure group, Clean Air Netherlands, says the ban on smoking in bars and restaurants has so far been a failure. It maintains a majority of bars are not observing the new legislation because the authorities are not enforcing it strictly enough.

The group wants establishments taken to court if they are regularly found flouting the ban, but it also wants individual smokers fined.

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• Smoking ups risk of common heart rhythm problem  

a new study finds that both current and former smokers run an elevated risk of the heart rhythm disorder atrial fibrillation.

The condition, also known as AF, is the most common heart arrhythmia in the U.S., affecting about 2 million people. During an episode of AF, abnormal electrical activity in the heart causes its upper two chambers to beat in a rapid, uncoordinated rhythm; the arrhythmia itself is not life-threatening, but over time AF can contribute to stroke or heart failure in some people.

While smoking is a well-known risk factor for heart disease, it has not been clear whether the habit boosts the risk of AF specifically.

The new findings, reported in the American Heart Journal, suggest that it does -- even after a smoker quits.

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Dutch firm meets a burning desire 

Smokers, and bars and restaurants where smokers once openly satisfied their habits, have found ways to cope with the ban on indoor smoking in Pennsylvania. . . .

All of that segues into a story out of the Netherlands, where some bars have reported a backlash from the ban on smoking there. . . . Enter a theatrical equipment company, Rain Showtechniek, which has marketed a machine that emits the synthetic stench of cigarette and cigar smoke.

It's harmless. There's no real smoke, no health risks and no lingering effects on the hair or clothing of bar patrons.

Called Geurmachines, the devices range from powerful puffers that can fill an arena or convention hall with aromas to ones that sends scents into bars and other smaller spaces.

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• Dutch cafe owners rally against smoking ban 

THE HAGUE (AFP) — Dutch cafe owners on Saturday took to the streets of The Hague in protest at a smoking ban they say has seen business drop by up to a third.

Organisers said 5,000 people took part although police estimates put the number at around 1,500.

"A cigarette is part of cafe culture," said Wiel Maessen, secretary of the Save the Small Cafe Owners' group which organised the rally.

"The cafes (in the Netherlands) are really struggling. Soon we will find ourselves having to ask for social welfare," added Marina Bosma from the western city of Leiden in a speech.

Protesters brandished banners denouncing the "dictatorship" of Dutch Health Minister Ab Klink.

The cafe owners want the ban, which came into force on July 1, scrapped arguing they have neither the space nor the money to build specially-ventilated smoking areas.

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• Smoking ban, shaky economy wallop Dutch bars  

He is not the only Dutch smoker deciding to stay home. Bars and cafes in the Netherlands are seeing revenues slump after the government introduced a smoking ban in July, shortly before the credit crisis took hold.

The double whammy is costing bars as much as 30 percent of their business, said Joris Prinssen of Royal Horeca Netherlands, a lobbying group representing 20,000 bar and restaurant owners.

Other countries, too, have been hit by the coinciding smoking bans and economic malaise.

Gerard Laloi, who heads a group that represents France's bar owners, said beer sales fell 12 percent in the first nine months of the year compared with the same period last year. France banned smoking in bars and restaurants on Jan. 1. . . .

In Israel and Cyprus smoking bans also are regularly flouted.

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Punishment for venues boycotting the smoking ban  

"Cafés boycotting smoking ban will be closed! Tough measures from health minister" states the front-page headline in De Telegraaf. De Volkskrant’s front page reads "Severe measures against smoking" and AD prints "Minister threatens rebellious bar owners with closure".

De Volkskrant writes that the health and justice ministers decided that infringement of the anti-smoking law will now be prosecuted as an economic crime, as bars and cafés that allow patrons to smoke are guilty of unfair competition.

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• Smoking while pregnant harms baby's blood vessels  

Women who smoke during pregnancy may cause permanent blood vessel damage in their children that may become evident as early as young adulthood and raise the risk for heart attack and stroke, Dutch investigators reported today.

The study involved 732 young adults, born between 1970 and 1973, who were evaluated at around 30 years of age. Compared with young adults of mothers who did not smoke during pregnancy, young adults of mothers who did light up during pregnancy had much thicker walls of the carotid arteries in the neck that supply blood to the brain.

Even if the mothers did not smoke during pregnancy, having a father who smoked during gestation was also associated with thicker neck or "carotid" arteries. The association was strongest when both parents smoked during pregnancy.

Dr. Cuno S. P. M. Uiterwaal, from University Medical Center Utrecht in The Netherlands, and colleagues also found that young adults of mothers who smoked were more likely to smoke themselves, and these subjects had the greatest increase in carotid artery thickness compared with nonsmokers who were not exposed in the womb to tobacco.

"The interaction between participant's current smoking behavior and maternal smoking during pregnancy could indicate that if the cardiovascular system is exposed to tobacco smoke in utero, the vessels are more vulnerable to tobacco smoke later in life."

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