On January 1 2005, Bulgaria introduced limitations on smoking in public places. The Sofia Echo solicited accounts of the effectiveness, or otherwise, of these regulations, one year on.

THROUGHOUT the world, when restrictions on smoking in public places have been implemented, there have been howls of protest from restaurateurs and owners of pubs that they will lose business.

Whatever the truth of this, there is certainly one case in which it is not true - at airports.

A recent series of flights took me through the airports in Sofia, Amsterdam, Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Prague. Alone among these airports, unless I missed it, Sofia was the only one to have a dedicated smoking room, meaning a space set aside for smokers that was neither a restaurant nor a pub.

At all the other airports, smoking was permitted only in designated areas in restaurants and pubs, meaning that having a cigarette required smokers to at least nurse a coffee or a drink while doing so. At Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, while regular announcements on the public address system reminded travellers of the rule, there did not seem to be very effective methods of separate ventilation. At least one place where I dropped in for a soft drink and a cigarette was the “Casino Deli” - so named for its proximity to a gambling hall offering the opportunity to while away the layover hours losing some money - which simply occupied an open space, without separate ventilation. This was in sharp contrast to the airports in Cape Town and Johannesburg, both of which strictly observe South Africa’s anti-smoking laws by allowing one to puff away only in sections of restaurants and pubs separated from other patrons behind an impermeable wall of glass. During my short stay in South Africa, by the way, I noticed that a number of restaurants had opted to make their entire indoor area non-smoking. With it being summer, this did not imply any “inconvenience” for smokers, who could simply step out of doors. South Africa’s health minister, it may be added, last year mooted a plan to ban smoking entirely in any place to which children are admitted. In effect, this would be tantamount to a 100 per cent ban in all restaurants, given that theoretically some people might take their children into a smoking area. Needless to say, this idea has not gone down well with the hospitality industry. Chances are that, if such a ban is imposed, it will be enforced as strictly as elsewhere in South Africa - even in Cape Town’s largest casino (and it is very large indeed - during my short visit I estimated that there were at least 1000 patrons present, with several machines not in use) smoking is allowed only in a separate, glassed-off section.

In Prague, the link between smoking and spending extra money was even more direct. In a move against smokers simply dropping in to use the ashtrays, a pub in the airport’s departures area had a large sign announcing that only patrons were allowed to smoke there. To catch up on my nicotine intake cost me the price (not very much, admittedly) of a small draught of the Czech Republic’s customarily excellent beer.

It certainly was a pleasanter option than that during a stopover in Atlanta, Georgia, about five years ago, where smoking is allowed only in a tiny smoking room, so foul-smelling as to drive me out of it after only half a cigarette.

Sofia’s smoking room is vastly more capacious than that in Atlanta; in combination with the fact that being a smoker diminishes your sense of smell, I doubt that anyone would find themselves in Sofia Airport being more discouraged by the stench than driven by their addiction.

Back in Sofia, my observations are much the same as those of many other people. The coffee shops that I frequent put out ashtrays on request, at any table you choose. It has become a common sight, lingering over a cappuccino, to see unused “non-smoking” signs piled up on a counter or on top of a cake fridge. It seems mainly to be only the major multinational hotels and fast-food chains and the more upmarket restaurants that are enforcing restrictions on smoking, and even then, not always with glassed-off sections and separate ventilation.