Click to play videoNew York: With nerves already rattled over the terror scare, it's maybe not the best week to give up smoking! But lighting up in pubs and other public places across England is now against the law.
Across the pond, New Yorkers already are quite familiar with coping with terror jitters - without being able to smoke a cigarette.
The great indoor New York smokeout began four years ago when Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed a local law to "prohibit smoking in all workplaces including bars and restaurants".
Bar owners weren't cheering, predicting that business would collapse now that the smoke had cleared. Since smoking was banned in bars, New York City says impact has been minimal and restaurants have flourished.
However, a lower Manhattan club owner, David Rabin, disputes the rosy comparisons saying that "business seems to have grown only because the statistics are based on the years immediately following 9/11 and the dot com recession".
While many are relieved that they can breathe freely, others are crying in their beer over the prospect of London drinkers having to endure the indignities that are now part of life in New York.
Some American bar owners are even saying that their British counterparts should stage a revolution fighting the implementation of this law, which came into force on July 1.
However, there are no unanimous views on the law. While smokers feel this law curbs their freedom, others feel that smoking in a public place is distressing for others and smokers need to take it outside!
Rabin complains that this leaves bars in a catch-22 situation. If they allow smoking inside, the Department of Health can fine them out of existence. But if they push their smokers outside as they're supposed to, they anger their neighbours.
But despite all the opposition, many New Yorkers are willingly endorsing the ban which new England Health Secretary Alan Johnson has described as 'the most important public health legislation for a generation'.
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