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Comment by lelanthran | Hacker News Reader

> Even many European states that have what I'd consider much more progressive social welfare systems have smoking rates that are appalling, often 3x or more the US rates.

Which countries are those? I ask because it would be nice to compare the incidence of the top smoking-related diseases between the countries.

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France is a smokers country for instance.

France is an interesting comparison. As I understand it, smoking is highly class correlated in the US, but much less so in France.

I have a PhD and studied for a time at one of France's premier universities: my advisor smoked, and one graduate student in his lab smoked. All told, probably 10-20% incidence. In America I've worked with or around close to 100 physicists, and only one of them was a smoker.

That may explain something.

The other day I watched a French movie - "Other peoples' children". I had to check and re-check and check again if this was an old movie re-launched or something. In the movie the actors all started smoking at private dinners (with, in this case, a small child living in the house), women with cigarettes held vertically in that stupid-looking way, like in an old fifties tobacco ad. I couldn't understand why that was made part of a movie which was supposed to be "slice of life". It looked completely wrong. I can't imagine people smoking inside houses now, none of the people I know who still smoke will actually smoke inside. None. And everyone just grabbing a cigarette inside that living room? I think I even saw a cigarette scene inside a restaurant too.

No one in my family smokes but my childhood best friend's mom smoked a lot inside their apartment (not a very big space), and I spent so much time over there. It was sad, they always had a smell about them because of this. They were indoor kids and I spent years of my youth at their place playing video games and D&D. I didn't know any better as a kid but I think back on it and wonder how much that affected my lungs. I stopped going over so much around my senior year of highschool (mid-90s) and then eventually lost touch in the late 90s because our lives went in different directions so my lungs have probably recovered a lot from whatever damage that did. Now I hate the smell of cigarette smoke and can smell it from a good distance away.

IMO this is because France was reluctant to increase the price of tobacco. I remember going to NYC in 2010 and a packet of cigarettes was 15$, nearly 3 times what I used to pay in France. Now they’ve set tobacco prices increase in motion, I expect the number of smokers to drop significantly. In the UK where tobacco prices have been on par with the US, I notice much fewer smokers than in France, and most of them seem to be foreigners

I believe around 20% of respondents in the Netherlands said they smoked in 2020.

For the same period, Iceland though was close to the US, with a reported rate of 12% of respondents saying they smoked.

> said they smoked

"Smoked cigarettes right? :D"

Netherlands: stares in Dutch

"Smoked cigarettes right? :o"

Most of Eastern and Southern Europe, for sure. Whenever I visit and go to a bar I have a mild shock at the smoke everywhere.

Austria

Yeah Austrian restaurants were an absolute shocker for me. There are so many places where the 'non-smoking area' absolute reeks of second hand smoke.

Coming out from a night out with your clothes smelling like cigarettes felt like going back 30 years in time.

I'm not sure when you have been there last. The smoking ban passed a few years already, I haven't smelled cigarette smoke inside in a long time. Patios on the other hand is a different story altogether where sadly smoking is still allowed.

Indeed I now realize it may not be very up to date. I was there pre pandemic perhaps this is now changed as you say.

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