Smoking Ban in Belgium

Several weeks ago I posted the following question on the www.xpats.com Q&A section:

As I sat in a bar in Schuman, rubbing my eyes and wafting away endless plumes of smoke, I wondered when, if ever, Belgium will impose a total smoking ban. I heard it’s coming in January. Is this true? Is Belgium finally ready to join more civilized European countries like Ireland, Britain and France and put these coughing, spluttering, yellow-toothed, yellow-nailed addicts out on the street?

I’m thrilled to say that my suffering at the hands of the nicotine addicts and the question they inspired me to ask have prompted a flurry of passionate responses. Some were so passionate that many of them didn’t even bother to check spelling. grammar or punctuation!, But let's gloss over that and get to the heart of the matter, because I love a good debate, especially one where I know I’m right. It’s like arguing with someone who still believes in God, or someone who’s a Liverpool fan (I support Man Utd).

My favourite reply by far was this one from someone posting as ‘fitt’:

I'm from Ireland and am SICK of people saying that the smoking ban is a success there. It's not. It's a total failure. I know people who have started smoking because the of smoking ban. Everybody stands on the pavements now. The inside of the bar is full of wankers and old people, and the fun is outside. So who wants to be sitting inside? Nobody. There have also been lots of pubs closing, especially in rural locations, becuase Mr.Farmer or whatever he's called can't have a pipe, cigar or ciggy with his pint, so stays home and gets depressed drinking tins infront of the lonely fire. It has put Ireland back about 200 years. It's total madness.

Where to start?

Lets first address your claim that in Ireland the ban has been a “total failure,” and “everyone stands on the pavements now.” I’m not sure what you consider to be the point of this historic piece of legislation. My interpretation is that it was intended to improve human health by banning smoking in public buildings. Apart from a few sad people who have gone to absurd lengths to try and smoke legally in public buildings, the law has largely succeeded in banning smoking. Please do what you did not do in your posting and tell us what you take to be the meaning of the smoking ban, or perhaps even just the word ‘ban’.

You then say, “I know people who have started smoking because of the smoking ban.” I find this incredible. Surely these people are not trying to stick it to the man by taking up smoking? Yeah, that’ll show ‘em. You’re smoking outside on the pavement, just as the law intended. It would be rather like protesting against the hunting ban by going on a legal hunt, having never previously ridden a horse. The only possible reason I can think for someone to take up smoking because of the ban is that most, if not all of their friends are spending significant time outside “on the pavements”, while they are stuck inside alone with all the, “wankers and old people,” as you call them. Such a person is obviously awash with self-confidence, so it makes sense that they join a group of people who started smoking to look cool.

Like several of the other current or future lung cancer victims on your side of this debate, you think that it’s the government’s job to keep pubs alive, but that not only are they failing, they are actually trying to do away with them altogether. I don’t know about Ireland, but it is true that independent pubs in Britain are closing at a rapid rate. This has been a long time coming, however. I found an article that gives some statistics for this year. You can find it here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8161793.stm
As the writer points out, there are many factors contributing to the high rate of closures. The biggest two are probably the poor weather in Britain during the summer and the cheap offers in supermarkets. This writer lists the smoking ban as one of the reasons, but I think this is erroneous. To say that the ban is a significant factor in the decline is very difficult to verify, and I have yet to see any kind of statistical proof. The best people like you can do is give angry anecdotal evidence from your small, smoke-filled corner of the world. Show me somebody who has stopped going to his or her local because he or she cannot smoke there and I will show you someone (me, for example) who goes to his local more often because it is now smoke-free.

‘Fitt’, your posting is a joke from start to finish, but you save the best for last. You say there is now a situation in Ireland where you have, “Mr. Farmer or whatever he’s called,” drinking at home instead of going to the pub. First of all, like you, I don’t know this farmer’s name, but I’d be really surprised if it was Mr. Farmer. But it’s the next line that I really love. You claim that the whole thing, “has put Ireland back about 200 years.” How do I even begin to mock this? 200 years ago Ireland was mostly a country of illiterate peasants and farmers under British rule. Has this system come back? Or are you simply referring to the fact that 200 years ago cigarettes as we know them did not exist? I don’t know, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t either.

Someone named Mr. Neutral replied to my question with, “Avoid smoky bars and go to Salons de Thé instead. _You'll meet civilized people who don't drink, don't shout, don't smoke, don't swear, don't fart... people as boring than you seem to be.”

If I were you, sir, I would have spent less time coming up with a witty name and more time proof-reading my post. So people who don’t like smoky bars are boring? I go to bars because I want to watch the football and have a pint. I don’t think I’d be able to do this in a salon de thê. And for your information, I have no problem with shouting, swearing or farting, and in fact when I’m at a bar I do all three regularly.

I also enjoyed this reply: "Do you have any idea how boring you are with your complaining! Sick of these idiots who think it's a good thing to violate the rights of others. Far better for you to stay at home and not infect us smokers with your miserable whining and moaning"

It’s ironic that this person would suggest that people like me might “infect” smokers like him with our “whining and moaning.” Sir, if there’s any infecting going on, I rather think it’s you who is doing it. And it’s not nouns you’re infecting us with, it’s second-hand smoke. But on to the only remotely sensible argument you made, that we are “idiots” who think violating your rights is a good thing. I don’t think violating the rights of others is a good thing, but banning smoking does not fall into this category. I believe that governments should only legislate behaviour that impacts on others. That’s why I believe it was sensible for the British government to downgrade cannabis to a class C drug, because someone having a spliff in a park is not having an impact on someone else.

However, smoking in a bar is different. You are having a very big impact on me. My hair and clothes stink, my eyes get dry and blurry and my lungs fill with all the delightful ingredients of cigarette smoke.

If I could I would ban smoking everywhere except in peoples homes, and then only if there were no children living there. The problem when dealing with smokers is that you have to be very patient with them. Most are highly stressed and irrational, so total eradication can only be sought in small steps, lest they be pushed them too far and their blood-pressure – already higher than the average citizen’s – goes off the chart.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, when a smoker’s addicted mind says ‘time for a cigarette’, that smoker is a drain on society. At that moment nothing else matters for the smoker. Nicotine must be had. Flaming tobacco must be sucked. I’ve seen children disregarded, conversations dumped, deadlines missed and even cars crash because people need a cigarette. And when the cigarette is finished, normal feelings towards littering are forgotten or ignored, because a cigarette is different; a cigarette butt, like the ash that preceded it, can be tossed anywhere – on the street, off a station platform, in the sand on a beach, in a lake. Anywhere. A few days after I posted my question on the Q&A section someone asked if tossing cigarettes from car windows could ever be banned, making the excellent point that if that cigarette ever hit a patch of oil you would have a very nasty situation on your hands.

That’s why if I could I would say, enough. Go back to your stinking flat, take off your wreaking clothes, and while you wait for the shower to warm up so that you can wash the stench out of your greasy hair, have a look in the mirror at your yellow teeth, your pale skin and the sagging violet bags under your eyes. If you’re a woman, ponder the difference between ‘slim’ and ‘gaunt’, and try to convince yourself that thanks to smoking you’ve achieved the former and not the latter. If you’re a man, shift your eyes down from your flabby belly to your wrinkled manhood and ask yourself why, if you ever manage to bed a woman who isn’t repulsed by your smell, you can’t get it as hard as you’d like, and that the sex only lasts eight minutes, during most of which you try desperately to not cough up a wad of phlegm.