If I was blogging...

Bit busy today but if I wasn't I would be writing about these stories...

Hospital smoking bans are a step too far in Toronto. Even someone who think smoking is "vile" agrees. An interesting op-ed...

Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health is making a healthy choice. It’s bringing smoking back onto hospital grounds after instituting a ban in April.

As another anti-smoking group comes out with another study that 'proves' that smoking bans don't hurt the bar trade*, Dutch bar owners have other ideas...

Nearly half of the Netherlands' 5,630 bars openly defy a smoking ban that is two years old on Thursday, saying they risk financial ruin if they show puffing clients the door.

"If I prevent people smoking in my bar, it would mean bankruptcy for sure," Gerhard Sannes, owner of De Kachel (The Stove) bar in Groningen in the north east of the country told AFP.

"I tried it in the beginning, but my sales fell by 75 percent" in a two-month period, he said.

If the Dutch won't obey the law, will the Germans? Bavaria has voted for a stronger smoking ban...

Although voter turnout for the referendum was relatively low, at 37.7 percent, a full 61 percent of those casting ballots favored a complete ban on smoking, according to Bavarian election officials. The ban overturning an existing law will take effect on Aug. 1 — with an exception allowing limited smoking at this year's Oktoberfest.

Finally, the swine flu panic is looking more and more stupid in hindsight...

Just 12% of patients who got anti-flu drugs using the swine flu hotline and website actually had the virus, figures obtained by the BBC suggest.

And:

Billions of pounds in public money were wasted worldwide on buying drugs to combat a swine flu "pandemic that never was", says Newport West MP Paul Flynn.

He has compiled a report on the H1N1 virus for the Council of Europe.

He told BBC Wales' Dragon's Eye the World Health Organisation (WHO) made a "terrible mistake" in causing panic.

* The study is from ClearWay Minnesota, who have form when it comes to being economical with the truth in these matters. See p. 233 of Velvet Glove, Iron Fist.