Dutch ban up in smoke

2008-11-19 20:34

The Hague - A growing number of Dutch bar and cafe owners are slapping ashtrays back on their tables just months after a nationwide smoking ban came into force for bars and restaurants, saying the measure is driving hundreds of small businesses toward bankruptcy.

"The minister is leaving bar owners out in the cold," said Lodewijk van der Grinten, after a meeting late on Tuesday with Health Minister Ab Klink. "Some 1 500-3 000 bars could go under because of this ban."

Van der Grinten leads a nationwide umbrella group of restaurant owners lobbying the government to either enforce the ban better or scrap it altogether.

:He also wants the law adjusted to punish smokers instead of bar owners, and for the government to compensate small cafe owners who are hardest hit.

Owners say they are losing up to 30% of their turnover since the ban came into force July 1, and the government enforcement agency is handing out a growing number of fines ranging from &euro,300 to €2 400.

This is the first winter that bars and cafes are having to deal with the restriction in a country where temperatures can drop below freezing in winter. The ban also is being imposed at a time of a global financial crisis and grim economic news.

Amid widespread reports that small cafes are allowing smokers to light up again, Klink wrote to Parliament this week to underscore that the government takes the issue seriously.

"Let there be no misunderstanding," he wrote. "In this country, laws have to be respected and that applies to everybody."

In the first months of the ban, bars were given warnings if they allowed smokers to light up, said Astrid Bergman, a spokesperson for the government's Food and Wares Authority, which oversees the ban.

That changed on October 1, and since then the authority has fined about 500 establishments, Bergman said on Wednesday. She stressed that the majority of bars and restaurants are sticking to the ban.

Others are building special sealed smoking areas or providing covered outdoor seating and heaters for smokers.

The Netherlands is one of the last European countries to impose smoking restrictions in public eateries in an effort to reduce the effects of passive smoking.

The European Commission estimates that nearly 80 000 people die each year in the 27-nation bloc from inhaling other people's tobacco.

All EU nations have rules limiting smoking in public places, but they vary from country to country. Some permit exemptions allowing smoking to continue in bars and cafes, posing health concerns for those that work there.

- AP