Posts matching tags 'smoking'
2008/7/2
The Dutch authorities have trained about 200 inspectors to catch people illegally smoking tobacco in marijuana cafes. Smoking tobacco indoors has just been outlawed in the Netherlands, as it has elsewhere, though smoking marijuana in Amsterdam's famous "coffee shops" is allowed, as long as the weed isn't diluted with tobacco.
2005/10/27
England is to ban food from pubs, after a compromise public smoking ban is thrashed out by New Labour. The ban will fall short of blanket smoking bans, such as the ones in Scotland and Ireland (and even Wales, which, whilst being governed by English law, has been given the right to ban smoking), and will ban smoking from any pubs which serve food. Which means that pubs have to choose between axing the haddock and chips and turning away their smoking clientele.
The smoking ban also highlights an asymmetry in British government: one of the main opponents of a full smoking ban was former health secretary John Reid, a MP from a Scottish constituency.
2005/3/13
France's National Library has photoshopped a cigarette out of a photograph of Jean-Paul Sartre used in a poster to promote the centenary of his birth. The action was apparently taken to comply with a law prohibiting tobacco advertising, and follows the editing out of cigarettes from other likenesses of role models. Perhaps they should edit all those removed cigarettes into images of historical villains like Hitler (or, even better, images of people considered passé and unhip though not enough to be in danger of becoming Ironically Cool). (via bOING bOING)
2003/7/31
As public-health-conscious governments/lifestyle fascists ban smoking in various public venues, some venues are starting to sell drinks laced with nicotine, complete with tobacco aftertaste. (via bOING bOING)
2003/1/23
Poster companies in the US have attracted criticism for sanitising a poster of The Beatles' Abbey Road album cover, removing a cigarette from Paul McCartney's hand. This was done without the permission of either McCartney or Apple Records.
2002/8/5
Another reason not to smoke: because it affects your cat's health. (via Unknown News)
2001/7/17
And speaking of our corporate friends, evil drug cartel Philip Morris has published a report saying that smoking is cost-effective, with the deaths of smokers reducing the costs of health care and housing for the elderly. The report was delivered as a cost-benefit analysis to the Czech government.