17 countries in the world ban indoor smoking - ENFORCEMENT..

Laissez faire (opposes governmental regulation of or interference in commerce beyond) attitude both about the health effects of smoking and the need for strong government regulation of the tobacco industry.

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia - Councils responsible for Sydney's beaches have not fined one smoker, four years after the ban was introduced. (Cigarette beach ban goes up in smoke in Sydney, The Australian, 1/11/2009.

Netherlands - Clean Air Netherlands, says the ban on smoking in bars and restaurants that began July 1, 2008 has so far been a failure. It maintains a majority of bars are not observing the new legislation because the authorities are not enforcing it strictly enough. (Netherlands - ban on smoking in bars and restaurants NOT enforced.."

Scotland - 800 shops have been subject to "test purchasing" stings by trading standards teams across the country since October 2007, when the minimum cigarettes sales age was increased from 16 to 18. The Scotsman has found that 24 per cent of those targeted sold cigarettes to youngsters. The children used in the stings were as young as 14 – four years below the minimum age for sales. Several councils are planning to launch fresh operations this year, and shopkeepers who flout the law face on-the-spot fines and being barred from selling cigarettes under proposed new legislation to be launched this spring 2009. Quarter of shops break law by selling cigarettes to children by Michael Howie, The Scotsman, 1/9/2009.

In Italy, nearly as many people smoke as did before Rome passed a law in 2005 prohibiting smoking in cafés, according to the Health Ministry.

In July, a federal court in Germany, after a slew of lawsuits from restaurateurs, ruled that one-room pubs don't have to offer separate rooms for smokers and nonsmokers.

Spain banned smoking in public places in 2006, but the law contains loopholes and is loosely enforced. In practice, people can smoke in most bars, and most restaurants allow smoking for fear of a backlash from consumers.

References: Europe's Smoking Culture Lingers, Despite Bans by CHRISTINA PASSARIELLO, Almut Schoenfeld and David Crawford in Berlin and Thomas Catan in Madrid contributed to this article, The Wall Street Journal, 1/2/2009;