Dutch government will change law to keep bars smoke free..

September 12, 2009 - The Dutch (Netherlands, Holland) government vowed Friday, September 11th to change the law to keep bars smoke free after it suffered two successive defeats in court against bar owners challenging a smoking ban. The legal reasoning behind lifting the ban these hole-in-the-wall bars don't have employees, no one is being involuntarily put at risk by exposure to smoke.

A cabinet statement said the government would introduce changes to legislation in order to make sure that "a uniform obligation" applied to all.

Dutch bar owners won two victories earlier this year in their fight against a smoking ban on their premises. Two different courts found that the law, aimed at protecting staff from second-hand smoke inhalation, unfairly discriminated against small, one-man operations that employed none. Two brown bars (bars known for their picturesque dark interiors and typical Dutch 'gezelligheid' (coziness))– Cafe Victoria in Breda and De Kachel in Groningen, a college town in the north of the country – beat the ban with separate court cases that were upheld on appeal in different appeals courts on the grounds that the law unfairly targeted smaller businesses.

Several thousand small bars and cafes in the Netherlands united late last year to defy the ban that entered into force in July 2008, creating a joint legal defense fund, arguing they lacked the floor space and money to erect separate smoking-only areas.

The cabinet said the planned changes would make allowances for the introduction of "innovative air sytstems" if they could be proven effective enough to be an alternative to a dedicated smoking area in small bars.

Reference: Dutch govt to change smoking law after court defeat, Agence France-Presse (AFP, oldest news agency in the world), 9/11/2009.

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Congratulations are in order: Netherlands, Romania & Alberta...

Clikc on image to enlarge, Coat_of_Arms the Netherlands..