Paris tries to stub out smoking in bars and cafés

Paris launched a campaign yesterday encouraging bars and restaurants to become "tobacco-free", but smokers and owners said the bid to attract health-conscious tourists and Parisians could stub out trade.

The image of smoke-filled bars, cafés and restaurants, packed with heavy smoking and heavy drinking clients, has traditionally been one of the capital's attractions.

But a change in health attitudes - notably among visitors from the United States and Britain - has put pressure on restaurateurs to clean up their smoke-filled establishments to cater for the 25 million tourists who visit Paris each year.

City authorities are encouraging the managers of Paris' 12,000 cafés, hotels and restaurants to place a blue label in their windows declaring: "Here, it's 100 per cent tobacco-free".

Many Parisians doubt the plan will help curb the quintessentially French habit of smoking. Surveys show a third of French adults smoke.

"If you put up that label, you won't have any clients left. Too many people smoke," said Ben Kram, barman at the café Royal Montmartre in central Paris. "Our non-smoking area is always empty. It just won't work."

Paris has only a handful of smoke-free restaurants. Even now no one will be forced to ban smoking because the move is voluntary.

The creation of the new label followed a series of moves by the conservative government to promote public health.

The authorities have increased tobacco taxes, pushing the price of a top brand of cigarettes up to more than €5 compared with €3.60 a year ago. Some schools have also begun banning cigarettes, enraging smoking students.

French wine producers are also warily watching a government campaign to curb excessive drinking. Senators from the upper house of parliament last week said they want wine bottles to have labels warning pregnant women of the dangers of alcohol.

Under a 1992 law, French bars and restaurants have to set up clearly defined non-smoking areas. But many bar owners say the rules are hard to enforce.