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Proposal Has Cafe Regulars, Bar Owners Fuming
Jump to full article: The Washington Post, 2005-08-23
Author: Erika Lorentzsen Washington Post Staff Writer ; Page D05
Intro: "Sartre smoked. Colette, George Sand, Marguerite Duras, [André] Gide -- they all smoked," said Jean Claude Blondel, manager of the Café Flore. "We have a long history of great thinking here, [with] coffee and cigarettes."
Nevertheless, the anti-smoking forces are swirling in Europe. Ireland, Italy, Malta, Norway and Sweden have already banned smoking in public places. Finland, Poland, Latvia and Hungary are expected to follow. And in the United States, several states and major cities -- such as Boston, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco -- have smoking bans in place. Montgomery County has a ban in place, and the District is considering one.
In 1991, the French government passed a law requiring restaurants and bars to provide nonsmoking areas. . . .
In France, the business of selling cigarettes is reserved for the 29,000 buralistes , or tobacconists, who are licensed to sell tobacco in France's bar-tabacs . . . .
The economic impact of smoking bans is unclear. In Italy, tobacco sales fell 20 percent following the ban on public smoking in January. In Ireland, restaurant revenues decreased around 7.5 percent in the first six months after its smoking ban began in March 2004 but have since begun to recover, according to studies by the Smoke Free Europe partnership. And researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health found that a smoking ban in Massachusetts did not adversely affect business for restaurants and bars.
Nevertheless, Andre Daguen, head of the Trade Union for Hotel Industries, worries about the effect of the ban on his members.
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