On July 1 2008, a complete smoking ban will take effect in the Netherlands, in all cafes, pubs, discos, hotels, restaurants, theaters, museums, cinemas, indoor shopping malls, congress centres, airports and sport venues. These venues had been exempted so far from the general smoking ban on the workplace that has applied since a few years.
Coffeeshops (the famous euphemism for places where you can buy soft drugs) will also become smoke-free.

An exception applies if there is a special smoking room. This room must be completely closed off from the rest of the establishment, so that the staff can not inhale any tobacco smoke. Staff is not allowed to work in the smoke room. As yet, not many establishments seem to be creating a special smoking room.

Although it is possible for the Arena Stadium management to allow smoking if the roof of the stadium is open, they decided to ban smoking completely, because enforcement of the rules would become too difficult. There will also be no special smoking room.


Smoking ban in the Netherlands as of July 1