When I read this piece on the internet I was amused. Did I say amused? I Laughed my heads off. Sorry people, but I found it Hilarious...France has banned its citizens from smoking? You know why I found it funny? Because 1/3 of its adult population smokes. You guys know what that means? The adult population divided by three, one set smokes. And now its illegal? How in the world will they survive? The ban for smoking in public places came into force on thursday Jan 25th 2007. No more smoking in schools, hospitals, work places and smokers will now have to stub out on the door step of shops, sports clubs. But the real test for the french will be in 11 months when clubs, restaurants, cafe's and its like will have to comply. And are the french angry? They are so so miffed. Smokers are feeling persecuted by this ban, they feel its an attck on their personal freedom. Of course this invariable means that clubs and cafe's will suffer low patronage. Under this new law, smokers who light up publicly will pay a fine between 450 to 650 euros, while business owners will pay up to 750 euros.
My question is; will this people comply? About fifteem million of them. Some of them have been smoking for 10, 20, 30, 40 years...how do they stop all of a sudden? My other question is; is it right to enforce this law? Maybe. Because according to their health ministry's report, tobacco is the leading cause of avoidable death, claiming 66,000 lives per year and passive smoking claims another 5,ooo lives per year. The french govt are hoping that the ban will encourage smokers to kick the habit and many businesses are offering in-house sessions on how to quit smoking.
France joins Italy, Belgium and Britain which has banned smoking in public places.
I am in toatal support of the ban. Totally. Stop smoking, more lives are saved. I hope it gets to Nigeria soon
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