Finally it is forbidden to smoke in Danish trains. After having lived in the nearly smoking free New York for quite some time, coming back to Europe was a bit of a shock in terms of non-smoker protection policies.

Even though the situation has gotten a bit better over the last years, many Europeans still can’t imagine to live without smoking. Especially bad is Germany: Even though an anti-smoking law was in discussion for a long time ,the government bailed out at the last moment, claiming that it isn’t empowered to pass effective anti-smoking legislation. At least smoking in trains will be forbidden at some point in the future in Germany, too. I think this kind of weak legislation will keep Germany where it currently is: in the shameful third place on the list of European countries with the most number of smokers in the population.