Friday, September 20, 2019

Smoking Story

There's a 10-line story out in Germany this morning....discussing the newest draft law effort....a ban on cigarette smoking in cars, if kids or pregnant women are in the vehicle. 

Four German states are pursuing this ban idea (Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, NRW, and Lower Saxony).  It's being discussed at the Bundesrat-level (the Senate-device of the German federal government). 

It was around 20 years ago that Germany banned smoking in restaurants and most pubs.  The only way that pubs avoided the issue was to ensure a separate room existed in the pub, and that one room could continue to have smokers in it.  Most pub owners will tell you that they lost around a quarter of their business when this effort started up....with smokers just staying home and drinking there.

If this goes through?  I suspect that you'd find Germans often sitting on the side of the road for ten minutes....while their wife or husband sits in the car, and they huff off a smoke. 

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