News: Germany

Germany started banning smoking in bars and restaurants across most of the country Tuesday, but unlike in neighbouring France establishments will be allowed to provide separate smoking rooms.

High taxes and health scare tactics have driven an estimated 240,000 New Yorkers to drop smoking in the last five years, the largest drop in the United States, news reports said Friday based on research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.New York City's residents who quit smoking during the period represented 19 per cent of all smokers, which the city's government put at 1,305,000 in 2002, or 21. 6 per cent of the adult population. In 2006, the number of smokers dropped to 1,065,000, or 17. 5 per cent.