L: kissing. Eleanor Beardsley sends this report.</s>ELEANOR BEARDSLEY: There is nothing more French than the bise. To faire la bise is to exchange light kisses on alternate cheeks when saying hello and goodbye. Friends do it, office colleagues do it, and children learn the gesture from the earliest age. Any visitor to France is struck by all the kissing going on, but some now fear the bise could become the kiss of death in the event of a flu pandemic.</s>ELEANOR BEARDSLEY: Some companies and schools have already starting discouraging the social ritual. At Guillaume Appoline(ph) Junior High in central Paris, students are hanging around the school at the end of the day. Most of them give each other the bise when saying good-bye.</s>U: (French spoken)</s>ELEANOR BEARDSLEY: We're still doing it. We're just taking a few precautions, they say. We're not kissing everyone anymore. The national government hasn't yet called for an end to kissing, but the health ministry on its swine flu hotline recommends that people avoid close contact, including shaking hands and giving the bise.</s>U: (French spoken)</s>ELEANOR BEARDSLEY: A video urging people to wash their hands regularly and cover their mouths with a cloth when they sneeze has been airing nonstop on TV.</s>U: (French spoken)</s>ELEANOR BEARDSLEY: Alain Tongee(ph) is the mayor of a small town in Brittany, the first to actually ban the bise.</s>M: (French spoken)</s>ELEANOR BEARDSLEY: For NPR News, I'm Eleanor Beardsley in Paris.</s>PRINCE: (Singing) Kiss.</s>PRINCE: : This is NPR News.
Fears of a swine flu pandemic are forcing counties to step up prevention measures. In France, a deeply-held social custom may be affected. Some companies and schools already have started discouraging the social ritual of kissing.