Finally.
The moment everyone who cares about their lungs, their children’s lungs, their clothes, their hair, their nostrils and their tastebuds has been dreaming about, has arrived.
The Dutch cabinet today ruled that all hotels, cafés and restaurants must be smoke-free from 1st July 2008. Coffee-shops have been given a break: only their point of sale must be smoke-free.
Minister Klink of Volksgezondheid (Public Health) is my hero.
Now the rest of Europe.
When you say “Coffee-shops”, I gather you mean the (in)famous Dutch coffee shops? I assume Bagels & Beans and other Starbucks-esque places fall under the cafe/restaurant ruling, right?
Yes, when I say coffee-shops, I mean the cannabis shops. The area where you make your purchase must be smoke-free, but the rest of the coffee-shop can be as smoky as it is today.
As for any other public place where food and beverages are served, they must be smoke-free a year from now. I hope that more and more places will make the leap before then. There are already a few restaurants here that make switched to smoke-free, but the cafés seem to be waiting for the inevitable day when they will be forced.