SMOKING

If you look at films from the 1950's, then everybody - both men and women - seem to be smoking all of the time, in all possible places. Nowadays, it's hard to think of a group of people who are bigger social pariahs than smokers.

In Denmark, things have just got worse for them. A new smoking law, agreed over the weekend, implements a total ban on smoking anywhere in kindergartens, schools and other educational establishments, and social institutions for children. Plus offices in unincorporated businesses (i.e. the self-employed). Exceptions have however been given for farmers in their tractors (surprise, surprise), and drivers of lorries, cranes and company vehicles, if there is only one person in the vehicle at any one time. A controversial exception is childminders, who can smoke in their own home outside working hours. If the idea is to stop the effects of passive smoking on children, then this last exception seems a bit daft.

Governmental attempts to influence social behaviour are rarely uncontroversial, and this latest attempt is no exception. The right-wing opposition thinks it will in fact lead to more passive smoking, as smokers congregate in doorways and other public places where people pass. While one of the main cancer charities thinks it doesn't go far enough, since smoking rooms and "cabins" will be still allowed.

And in these straightened times, do Governments really want to stop people smoking? After all, they make a lot of money from taxing it.

Walter Blotscher