Few smokers in Cuba, a nation synonymous with hand-rolled cigars long favored by such famous aficionados as its own revolutionary leader, are fuming about an imminent ban on smoking in public places.

That’s because not many expect the new rules, which take effect Feb. 7, to be strictly enforced.

“At most, I’ll have to smoke outside,” said cigar-smoking porter Joaquin, who chomps on stogies in a building lobby while at work. “It’s all right, smoke should not bother others.”

Officials said no-smoking signs will go up on Monday in restaurants as Cuba’s communist authorities move to curb the habit in air-conditioned public places, schools and sports centers.

But most Cubans doubted the restrictions would stick.

“Who is going to tell elderly people who have smoked all their lives and have no other pleasure they cannot smoke,” said Carlos “The Moor,” a former boxer who works as a store clerk.

“There will be arguments,” he predicted, lighting up an unfiltered cigarette inside the store in Havana’s La Copa district.

The shop sells packs of black tobacco cigarettes for 7 pesos, about 26 U.S. cents, and Cuban men born before 1955 get four packs a month almost free on the government ration card.

At a barbershop across the street, clients smoke as they wait for a shave or haircut, despite a no-smoking sign on the wall.

“That’s over on Monday. They will have to go outside, or else the inspectors will come and fine me,” said barber Armando.

Even industry executives believe the restrictions will have little impact on sales, although retailers have complained about a ban on sales of cigarettes within 100 metres (328 ft) of schools.

The restrictions published last month ban cigarette vending machines outright. Restaurants, cafes and nightclubs will have to provide non-smoking areas.

President Fidel Castro’s government says it wants to discourage tobacco use in the country of 11 million. More than half of Cuban adults smoke and lung cancer is a major cause of death.

Early European explorers first came across the tobacco plant in Cuba where the natives smoked the leaves. The Caribbean island is renowned for its hand-rolled cigars, a $240 million per year export industry.

Castro, a big cigar smoker during the early days of his left-wing revolution, gave up the habit in 1986 for health reasons.

His fondness for Cohibas led to a failed plot by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency involving chemically treating cigars to make Castro behave foolishly if he smoked one before a speech, the CIA reported in 1993.