June 26, 2006
Man Bites Dog: NON-smokers call smoking bans "intolerant"
According to Reuters, Germans view tolerance of smoking as a benchmark of social tolerance. About 2/3rds of German adults are non-smokers, yet anti-smoking forces in Germany are doing very badly.
"I don't want to be deprived of the relaxed company of smokers in restaurants and bars," wrote David Harnasch of Freiburg in a letter to Der Spiegel weekly. "If my clothes stink of smoke, I can wash them where exactly is the problem?"Yvonne Deim from Munich wrote: "Sitting in a smoke-filled room for a few hours bothers me less than it would if smokers were forced to get up every few minutes to go smoke outside."
Governments across Europe are cracking down on smoking in public places. But resistance to new limits is strong in Germany, where the right to smoke became a mark of tolerance and freedom after the Second World War.
Polls show a majority of the population and one in two non-smokers opposed a proposed ban on smoking in restaurants and bars.....
Der Spiegel made clear where it stood by putting a picture of a broken cigarette on its cover alongside the title "Smoking The End of Tolerance".
This may have something to do with it:
Posted by Kevin Murphy at June 26, 2006 04:31 PM