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PARIS - Surprising tolerance, widespread resignation and a few wails of dismay have greeted the latest phase in Europe's campaign to roll back smoking.
France, one of the most tobacco-addicted countries in the world, began the New Year with a ban on the weed in cafes, restaurants and nightclubs, a move that was also implemented in Portugal and several regions of Germany.
After outlawing smoking in the workplaces, shops and other public places, France applied anti-tobacco restrictions to the hospitality industry as of January 1. Anyone caught smoking in such areas face fines of up to €450 ($867) and the business owner can be penalised by up to €750 ($1445).
The weeks leading up to the new law saw enormous speculation as to whether the ban faced a civic revolt. Tobacco is deeply ingrained in French society: Paris even has a Museum of Smoking in honour of the practice.
In the latter part of the 20th century, a smouldering cigarette, with its sexy waft of smoke, was a cultural icon, embraced by movie stars, singers and fashion models and promoted on advertisements and billboards.
Among the public, smoking was as automatic as breathing. To visit the Cafe du Commerce was to step into a miasma from Gauloises, Gitanes and "blondes" as Virginia tobacco is called. Anyone with the courage to complain about the fug would be scorned, ignored or told to leave.
Despite huge efforts to encourage smokers to quit, with ever-more graphic warnings and even the offer of subsidised nicotine-patch treatment, tobacco use remains entrenched. Among France's population of 60 million, 14 million smoke.
The direct effects of smoking kill 66,000 French people each year, and passive smoking kills another 5000, says the Ministry of Health.
Many cafe and restaurant owners predicted the ban would be unworkable or bring disaster upon their business, as so many people reach for a cigarette with their morning coffee and croissant or evening aperitif.
But to widespread surprise, smokers have taken to the chilly January streets with barely a murmur and business turnover so far seems barely to have been dented.
"Smokers are getting the message," said Daniel Tual, a waiter at Le Marivaux cafe in Paris' Opera district, where no-smoking signs were prominent. "I haven't had to ask anyone to stop smoking in the cafe. They all go outside to light up."
"I'll get used to it," said Thomas Sechet, as he tossed his cigarette butt into the gutter. "We've known for a long while that this was coming."
As the new law does not apply to cafe terraces, owners have been putting gas heaters near outside tables, covered by an awning, and even lent smokers scarves and jumpers.
But few have invested in expensive ventilated "smoking cubicles", where smokers can sit after buying a beverage but not be served there.
While obeying the law, some smokers say with regret that the long, leisurely meal is over.
"You do lose out on enjoyment," said Michel, a 38-year-old sales rep, after a dinner with workmates. "For instance, we decided not to have an aperitif, as this makes you want to smoke, nor did we order a dessert, to make it quicker to leave and have a cigarette on the street afterwards."
The ban came nearly four years after Ireland became the first European country to outlaw smoking in public places - a move emulated to a similar or lesser extent by 17 other European nations.
The crackdown figures among a growing list of European environmental and health laws that are causing a grinding of teeth among civil libertarians.
As part of its campaign against child obesity, Britain outlawed TV ads for food and drinks laden with fat, salt and sugar which target children under the age of 16. Berlin, Hanover and Cologne imposed restrictions on the worst polluting vehicles, while the northern Italian city of Milan imposed tolls on them.
Public-health costs "are being used to justify an ever more coercive control over our private lives", complained French sociologist Henri-Pierre Jeudy, writing in the left-wing Liberation.
A similar view was aired in Le Monde, where doctor Micheline Benatar blasted the smoking ban as the first step towards a "totalitarian society" in which food police would patrol restaurants to ensure menus were low-fat.
