Mark

It looks like another domino is about to fall in the campaign to allow people to go out to a bar or restaurant without coming home smelling of second-hand smoke: the Swiss canton of Bern is considering a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants with the exception of those which create fumoirs - special sealed smoking lounges. Bern would join cantons Tichino and Soleure, and of course the neigboring states of France and Italy in doing this, following on examples set by New York, California, and Ireland.

I of course am all for this since I like to go to bars and restaurants, and I don't like to come home stinking, or at least not of second-hand smoke. I know some people like to frame this as a question of personal liberty, and it is, but maybe not the way smokers think of it: people should have the freedom to attend a concert or go to a bar or have a nice meal without having to breath somebody else's tobacco smoke! If you want to smoke take it outside.

For some incomprehensible reason the Swiss restaurant association opposes this move, even though illiminating smoking has increased restaurant profits everywhere it's been tried, sometimes dramatically. Thankfully the cantonal chapters are not going along with this.

• original URL: http://movemearound.org/blog/posts/bern_no_smoking.html