Little Huffing and Puffing Over French Smoking Ban

PARIS, Jan. 4, 2008 — -- Have you ever run out of a restaurant or a cafe in Paris wondering how the French could stand eating and drinking in such smoky places?

Well, if you go back to France these days you can linger over your cafe au lait, and enjoy your glass of wine while gazing at the Eiffel Tower while taking in clean, fresh air.

In fact, since Jan. 1, a smoking ban has been in effect in all public places in France, including cafes and restaurants, but also nightclubs and casinos. It is a small revolution in a country known around the world for its smoky cafe culture.

Not everyone is pleased with this development.

"We are in a dictatorship," Gerard Bohelay, president of the French tobacconist federation for the Paris region, told ABC News. "I agree that a health policy is necessary, smoking is bad for you, but our profession is very specific and some places could have been left out of the ban."

Smokers lighting up in public places now face a $100 fine while any cafe or restaurant owner that allows a breach of this new law on their premises will be fined $200 per smoker. To avoid being fined, owners must also remove ashtrays from tables and "no-smoking" signs must be clearly displayed.

Smoking will be tolerated on terraces, even if they are covered, but under drastic conditions. Sealed and ventilated chambers are also allowed but again, their specifications are strict.

In France, about 66,000 smokers and 5,000 nonsmokers die annually from inhaling the fumes of the 13.5 million French adult smokers, according to government figures.

Some, like Georges Mendez-Ferrera, are happy with the ban. He runs the Café Brasserie Le Balto in Levallois Perret, just outside Paris. As an occasional smoker, he said he appreciates the potential health benefits.

"I think it's great to no longer have to work in a smoky place," he told ABC News. His bartender, Roland Gerard, 33 years in the profession, could not agree more. "This is a very good law. To be in the smoke all day, after a while, that's enough."

"We are more relaxed at the end of the day than when the place was filled with smoke," Gerard Gabriel, a waiter at Le Balto, said.

"There is also less cleaning to do, less ashtrays to clean. People are no longer throwing stuff on the ground, like they used to with their cigarette butts," he added.

Customers have mixed feelings. It, of course, all depends on whom you talk to.

"I think it's great. My wife is happy because my clothes no longer stink when I get home," Alli Majid, a nonsmoker, told ABC News while drinking a beer, resting his elbow on the bar.

"It bugs me. I just want to smoke a cigarette right now. This is all I'm dreaming of," an irritated Eliane Roy said. "To have a coffee without a cigarette is no fun," she added, getting up to quickly to go back to work nearby.

"This new law bothers me," Osman Unal, a construction worker, said outside the cafe, lighting up a cigarette. "Before the law, I would drink my cafe while smoking a cigarette. We would stay longer at the bar. Today, we stayed 10 minutes, had one drink and left."

And this is what worries most professionals. The smoking ban may have a real impact on the turnover of the many small cafes or bistros that don't offer food and rely solely on the sale of drinks at the bar; some are now crossing the line of legality.

"I know bistro owners who are disregarding the law. They don't have a choice." Bohelay said. "If small bistros don't let customers smoke at the bar, they're dead."

Mendez-Perrera, who offers food in his cafe brasserie, is optimistic about the repercussions of the law. "It's too soon to know if this law will have an impact on us, but I think that we will not see a big gap in our sales," he said.

So far, the ban is being respected. Controls have started, and officially, day four into the ban, no fines have been handed out. Police and public health officials have been ordered to enforce the law but with discernment, suggesting the government wants to ease into the ban without any major incident.