European nations adjusting to new concept: no smoking

DUBLIN, Ireland — At The Duke pub, just off busy Grafton Street in the heart of this jovial city, smoke shimmies through the air as customers indulge in a cherished but seemingly doomed ritual: a sip from a pint, a drag on a cigarette, a sip, a drag.

On Jan. 1, Ireland is expected to become the first European country to ban smoking in pubs. The move is so bold and contentious in a country so devoted to pub culture that few in Europe, and even fewer in Ireland, believe it will succeed. Customers will be asked to step outside to light up; pub owners, most of whom oppose the ban, will risk prosecution if they fail to comply.

"It's a bad idea," said David Turner, the bartender at the Duke. "Cigarettes and alcohol are synonymous, at least in Irish culture."

It is a radical assault on smoking, especially for a European nation, but Ireland is not the only place it is happening. In a sign that the anti-tobacco movement is gaining ground in Western Europe, where smoking is as much a statement as a personal habit, a number of countries are passing strict laws to battle it.

"There is momentum on this issue," said Tom Power, the chief executive officer of the Office of Tobacco Control in Ireland, an independent government agency.

Although Europe still lags far behind the United States in persuading people to give up the habit or to bypass it altogether, governments are beginning to address the hazards and costs of smoking more aggressively than ever.

Two other countries — Norway and the Netherlands — have approved prohibitions on smoking in bars and restaurants. Norway's will take effect in the spring; the Netherlands, which is in a furor over the law, will put its ban in place in 2005.

Some countries, including nicotine-loving France, have sharply increased taxes on tobacco in the past year, a move that hurts tobacco sales and fattens treasuries at the same time.

France is also close to approving a law that would stiffen penalties on selling cigarettes to minors by year's end. It has even started an American-style lawsuit against tobacco companies. A local state-run insurance fund in St. Nazaire, in western France, is now in court after filing a lawsuit against four tobacco companies, the first action of its kind by a public authority in France. The fund is seeking to recoup the $37.8 million it has spent to treat smoking-related illnesses.

Even Greece, with one of the highest smoking rates in Europe, is expected to extend restrictions on smoking next year, lest athletes at the Summer Olympics be forced to wade past noxious clouds on their way to events.