Have Smokes, Will Travel

Smokers on the go are always a step ahead in plotting when and where they can get that next nicotine fix.

On a day trip with the kids in the back of the car and a wife with an attitude about secondhand smoke, they finesse with frequent pit stops blamed on the bladder. But deep dread sets in when, boarding a no-smoking airliner, they know there is no finesse.

That’s a given. But what is less defined are the anti-smoking laws in the countries that you plan to visit. They vary greatly and often are winked at.

Authorities in Singapore are determined to make the city-state the world’s first smoke-free nation. Smokers can be slapped with a $600 fine just for lighting up while waiting in line for a bus or taxi.

On the other hand, smokers in Japan are allowed, for the most part, to light up when and where they please. Could that be because the powerful Ministry of Finance owns two-thirds of the stock in Japan Tobacco, which controls nearly 80% of the cigarette market?

There’s also a smoker-friendly atmosphere in Egypt, where the government owns the country’s biggest cigarette company.

A reporter who was covering Israel’s Knesset, or parliament, when it passed a law banning smoking in elevators recalls riding an elevator with the minister of police, Haim Bar-Lev, who was holding a lighted cigar.

“How can you smoke in the elevator?” the reporter asked. “Shouldn’t you be setting an example of compliance with the new law?”

Bar-Lev smiled and replied: “The law says I mustn’t smoke in the elevator. It doesn’t say I mustn’t hold my cigar in the elevator.” He later died of cancer while ambassador in Moscow.

A newswoman in a small restaurant in San Juan, Puerto Rico, was sitting beneath a no fumar sign. She asked the waiter if there was someplace else she could smoke.

“The waiter promptly lifted the sign off the wall and urged me to go ahead and smoke,” she says. “There weren’t any other customers, so I did.”

In Montreal, once a smokers’ haven, there’s a move afoot to restrict smoking in restaurants and most public places. That bothers Frank Valente, a restaurateur who fears business will suffer.

“The nonsmoker will have a coffee,” he says. “The smoker will have three cognacs and two coffees. Then he’ll have a bottle of wine with dinner.”

For the benefit of smokers--and nonsmokers--who travel, AP correspondents around the globe were asked to summarize the smoking laws where they are stationed. This is their report, with the countries in alphabetical order:

Australia: Even pubs are succumbing to creeping anti-smoke sentiment, with bar workers’ unions suggesting that employers should be legally liable if workers end up with lung disease. Smoking is outlawed in most public places and offices, and the heaps of butts at back doors and loading docks indicate compliance.

Belgium: Enter a restaurant in Brussels and one question you will never hear is: “Smoking or nonsmoking?” Belgian law bans or curbs smoking in public places, but enforcement is sloppy and violations are rampant. Complaints from nonsmokers are often treated with disdain.

Brazil: A recent ban on smoking in public buildings and on short flights is widely ignored. Smokers light up in shopping malls and waiting rooms, and the no-smoking section in planes often exists only in theory. Cigarette ads on TV must carry a health warning, but often it’s no more than “Avoid smoking around small children.” Brazil is a major tobacco producer and exporter.

Canada: Toronto tried to become Canada’s first city to ban smoking in bars and restaurants but backed down last year in the face of widespread defiance. In smoker-friendly Montreal, pending provincial legislation would outlaw smoking in most public places and require restaurants to allocate at least 60% of seats to nonsmokers.

China: With 320 million smokers, smoking is the closest thing China has to a national pastime. Lighting up in the Forbidden City, on a subway train or in other very public places can risk a small fine, perhaps 60 cents to $1.20, but generally the 1996 ban on smoking in public places is ignored.

Denmark: Although smoking is banned in hospitals, public transportation and shops, Danes can still have a puff in Copenhagen cafes and restaurants so long as they don’t bother others. Most offices have a smoking room, and, if colleagues don’t mind, smokers can light up at their desks.

Egypt: Smokers puff away almost anywhere: on buses, in elevators, next to no-smoking signs. The government regularly announces anti-smoking drives, but it owns the biggest cigarette company. Its newest brand, Toshka, is named for a vast government plan to turn Egypt’s desert into farmland--perhaps to grow tobacco?

France: Smoke-filled cafes are still pretty much the norm. But thanks to a 1991 law, the haze is starting to clear. Smoking is prohibited in subways, trains, airplanes, hospitals and public places. Though some still light up in those places, it’s happening less and less. Officials at the National Committee Against Smoking say the biggest headache remains the workplace, where it’s up to the boss to enforce the law.

Germany: Health-conscious Germans are drinking less beer and eating leaner meat, but they still like their cigarettes. Big no-smoking signs hang at Berlin subway entrances, but there are ashtrays on the platforms. In February, the parliament easily defeated the first attempt to regulate smoking nationwide.

Greece: One would never know it, but smoking is actually forbidden in public places in Greece, where 45% of adults smoke, and it has been for years. It is banned on all public transport (1952), in closed public spaces (1980), on domestic flights (1990) and in health-care facilities (1993). “Regardless, some people abuse it,” says Pantelis Vekios of the Health Ministry. “It happens a lot in Greece. If your boss smokes and you can’t say anything to him because he’ll fire you, what can you do?”

Israel: By and large, Israel has followed the United States’ lead in enacting bans. But the head of Israel radio, Amnon Nadav, refused to allow government inspectors into his building after some of his staff complained about the round-the-clock stench of nicotine.

Italy: Cigarette smoke wafts from the Colosseum in Rome; cigarette butts litter the Forum. The country’s anti-smoking laws are blowing a lot of smoke. Two years ago, the government banned smoking in private businesses serving the public and ordered government agencies to enforce the prohibitions. Still, banks put up no-smoking signs just a few feet from . . . ashtrays. Ditto for some hospital waiting rooms.

Japan: In Tokyo, restaurant patrons eat in a fog of tobacco smoke, a blue haze hangs over coffeehouses and workplaces reek of cigarettes. Restrictions are slowly springing up. Smokers are limited to special parts of train platforms, for example, and small no-smoking sections are appearing in family-style eateries.

Mexico: If it isn’t a smoker’s paradise, it’s only because the cigarettes are so bad. It’s hard to walk a block in Mexico City without finding someone hawking smokes such as Marlboros or Delicados (unfiltered “Delicate Ones”). The only places with effective bans are movie theaters, the subway and public buses.

Netherlands: You can walk into a so-called coffeehouse and smoke marijuana or hashish without fear of arrest, so puffing on mere tobacco is tame stuff. But change is in the air. More companies are sending employees outside to smoke, and this year KLM Royal Dutch Airlines banned smoking on all flights.

Portugal: When entering an elevator in Lisbon, don’t worry if the ashtray is full. You can stub out your cigarette on the floor, like those before you. Such occurrences are much rarer than they once were, but the smoke still blows thick in Portugal--especially in bars and restaurants.

Russia: Moscow has a few designated no-smoking areas, but everywhere else people smoke as they please. State officials light up in the corridors of government buildings, schoolteachers puff away in lounges and school stairwells and restaurants allow smoking. Even in clinics and hospitals there is little apparent objection. But smokers may be fined if they light up on a city bus or subway.

Singapore: Soon smokers will have nowhere to hide. It’s still safe to light up in a bar, disco, karaoke lounge or outdoors. But if you are in line for a bus or taxi with more than two other people, stub out that butt fast. Selling tobacco to anyone under 18 can bring a $6,000 fine. But after 28 years of increasingly restrictive laws, about 18% of the population still smokes.

Spain: When dining out in Madrid, don’t worry about fighting for a seat in the no-smoking section; there’s no such thing. Just hold your breath and chew fast. In other public places, such as stores and public transport, smoking is banned, but some people light up anyway. In government buildings, smoking is prohibited only in ones that deal directly with the public.

Turkey: A year after a law banned smoking in public offices, hospitals, buses and airports, people are still said to “smoke like a Turk.” Cinema lobbies and waiting rooms seem less hazy lately, with the nonsmoking minority policing the ban. Still, ashtrays remain under no-smoking signs for violators who dare to face a $36 fine.

United Kingdom: Pity the smoker who doesn’t drink, as pubs remain a safe haven. Otherwise, British smokers increasingly are relegated to the sidewalk or the parking lot, largely at the initiative of employers, and smoking is banned in many public places including subways and trains. By 2000, the government wants to cut cigarette consumption by 40%.

Venezuela: It’s pretty much OK to smoke anywhere you want in Caracas and most other cities, with a few exceptions, such as hospitals and the Health Ministry. Upscale restaurants are beginning to create no-smoking sections, and there’s a de facto ban on overcrowded buses because passengers are already irritated by exhaust fumes.