Smoking: Belgium eases itself into the ban

The EU has been advocating smoking bans for years, but while Belgium may be the home of European decision-making that doesn’t always make them the first to comply with EU wishes. So when the Belgian government announced that they would be tightening the existing legislation on smoking not everyone was pleased.

Unlike the blanket ban introduced in Ireland, Belgium has adopted a more gradual process in an effort to ease the country’s transition. On 1 January 2006 smoking was prohibited in most workplaces. The following year it was banned in restaurants although separate smoking rooms were permitted, while bars larger than 50m2 were forced to provide non-smoking areas. In 2008 smoking was barred from schools. And now in 2010 ashtrays have been outlawed and there is a blanket ban on smoking in restaurants.

A la mort subite is one of Brussels’ most renowned bars and was made famous by the late Belgian singer Jacques Brel. The performer, who died of lung cancer at the age of 49, used to spend a lot of his time there puffing on a cigarette. But the bar also serves food meaning smoking is now banned. Network Europe’s Vanessa Mock visited the bar.

One patron called the ban “absolutely absurd,” adding, “to have to keep going outside is both humiliating and irritating.” While another customer agreed with the ban saying: “In the time of Jacques Brel people didn’t think about cancer, it was there way of living.”

Regardless of what the regulars of Brel’s old haunt may feel, the blanket ban looks inevitable. The final steps in making Belgium completely smoke free are due to take place in 2014.

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