Smoking in Europe

As we walk around and explore cities here in Europe, my dad and I have noticed a far greater number of people smoking than you see in the average city in America.  Many of the young people here smoke, too, which means they picked up the habit long after the health risks were exposed.

Growing up in Davis, smoking was never something I was exposed to much.  There are strict non-smoking ordinances in place in the entire city prohibiting people from smoking in public buildings or on transit.  In fact, Davis' ordinances were the first of their kind in the entire country.  In Europe, it's completely normal for people to smoke in restaurants and bars, or standing immediately outside office buildings.

It's odd that a continent that is light years ahead of us in terms of sustainability is so far behind in this issue of public health.

In restaurants, we have been seated indoors eating when longtime friends have dropped by to sit with us.  They know we don't smoke, but they pull out their cigarettes and light up right at the table anyway, often making no attempt to direct the smoke away from us.  Really ruins your appetite.

One friend at a crowded beer hall kept nudging his ashtray over in front of my dad, in order to clear the table space in front of him.  When it got full, he called a waitress over and proceeded to dump the ashes and cigarette butts out all over her tray that she was serving food and drinks on.  She looked absolutely livid, but kept her temper and simply turned on her heel to go deal with the reeking mess.

In Munich, there must be some kind of no-smoking rule in the train station, because we did see designated "Smoking Areas".  Not very effective, though: a yellow painted rectangle on the floor doesn't contain the smoke well at all.

In Gent, we went to an Irish Pub for lunch with a friend of ours, and the restaurant had a "smoke-free" entrance if you wanted to avoid the cigarettes.  It was a set of double doors that led down a hallway into the courtyard, which was full of people smoking at tables while they ate their lunch.

It's impossible to walk a block on the sidewalk without encountering at least a handful of people standing outside on their smoke break.  We've seen parents walking down the street with their toddler on one hand and a cigarette in the other.  There's no escaping it.

I've seen only a few anti-smoking advertisements in all of Europe, and they were in Germany or Austria.  It seems to be a battle the governments here aren't concerned with fighting.