Pub ashtrays will soon be collector’s items

In England’s pubs, you’ll no longer have to peer at your drinking buddy through a thick veil of smoke, and if you want to have a cigarette with your pint of Fullers, you’ll have to step outside. Pubs are going smoke-free starting Sunday, when a ban on smoking in enclosed public places — public transport, shops, hotels, eateries and pubs — takes effect.

England is following the lead of Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland, which all prohibited smoking in public places this year. Ireland outlawed it in workplaces in 2004.

Hotels will have to designate smoking and no-smoking rooms. At least one British hotel chain, Malmaison, has gone completely smoke-free.

It may be tough for English smokers to adapt at first. According to Britain’s Office for National Statistics, one-quarter of adults were smokers in 2004, the latest year for which statistics are available. Scofflaws will have to pay $60 to $100 in penalties.

But the ban “will create a more healthy environment,” said Andrew Weir of the Visit Britain tourist office in New York. And, he said, it may result in more food sales and gastro-pubs. Now, that’s something to look forward to.