The hi-tech smoking rooms may be allowed in Hong Kong bars when a total ban on cigarettes in places where food and drink are being served comes into effect in 2009. Hong Kong officials are examining a $40,000 smoking room partly funded by British American Tobacco at a Hong Kong bar to see if exemptions should be granted to bars with hi-tech facilities.

 

This wonder room seems to remove and recycle smoke fumes safely and the tobacco company says it can save bars with high percentages of smoking customers from going bust. The Hong Kong government will make recommendations to legislators on whether or not to allow the smoking rooms in a report early in 2009. Authorities banned smoking in all public places in Hong Kong in January 2007, but a grace period of two and a half years was granted to some bars and nightclubs in the city of 6.9 million people.

 

In related news, it looks like train stations in the Tokyo area will ban smoking from April 1, in another dent to Japan's reputation as a smokers' paradise, the railway company announced on Friday. The smoking stations from 226 stations along 17 major lines will be eliminated, as the company already prohibits smoking inside local trains. However, a few stations will retain smoking areas in small rooms enclosed by glass. The railway company earlier designated smoking areas on the ends of the platforms of major stations but they were not kept.

 

Authorities can't really tell if their decisions are affecting smokers, but it would seem the answer is no. One year after a ban on smoking in cafes and restaurants, French people still smoke as much as ever, as the agency stopping them complained on Thursday. Annual tobacco sales have remained steady since 2004, when the French smoked 54 billion cigarettes, despite these measures.