Once viewed as a measure pursued by fanatically healthy Californians, similar smoking bans have become law in a number of countries, including Ireland, Norway, Sweden, New Zealand, Bhutan and Scotland, with more bans being debated elsewhere.
Three U.S. states — California, Delaware and New York — have banned smoking, and Maine and Massachusetts are to follow. Many U.S. towns and cities also have smoking bans, such as Burlington, Vt., Lexington, Ky., Charleston, S.C., Dallas, and Honolulu.
It’s the Big Apple, however, that has been cited as a crucial test case. Both advocates of smoking bans — if you can ban it here, you can ban it anywhere, one could say — and opponents have used statistics from New York just as often to make their case that bans are bad for business.
In Ireland, New York stories filled the airwaves as Health Minister Miche