Odense votes against plan to ban council employees from smoking

The story is here. Councillors reckoned that the time was not right for a complete ban on smoking within working hours.

In another story, it is reported that the young are bucking the downward trend for smoking. This does not bode well for future attempts to ban smoking at work.

And in by the back door ...

I'm travelling soon so many preparations to make but here in the meantime (reported from Malta) is a story of how smoking rooms are returning. (For some.)

Even as Spain prepares to ring in the New Year with a smoking ban in bars, renegade nightspots in Paris and Berlin are bucking the European trend, opening designer smoking rooms, complete with pianos, pool tables and cigar lockers.

Enjoy.