Café terraces appeal rejected

SMOKING can carry on in café terraces enclosed by plastic sheeting, the Paris appeal court has ruled.

The court has rejected an appeal by anti-smoking group Droits des Non-fumeurs (DNF) against a lower court ruling allowing five Parisian cafés to permit smoking on their terraces.

The group had alleged that cafés have been trying to get around the laws on smoking in enclosed public places by using lightweight plastic enclosures. The air inside them was more polluted than the Périphérique, they said.

DNF's lawyer, Pierre Mairat, said the court’s argument was that “lacking a precise definition of what constitutes an enclosed or open space, the judges thought that a café terrace can’t be considered to be enclosed.”

DNF president Gérard Audureau said he planned to petition the next health minister for the law to be clarified.

“This decision damages all the efforts that have been undertaken to make smoking less acceptable,” he said.

© Igor Korionov - Fotolia.com