But even in this smokers’ paradise stirrings of change are in the air, says Maria Pilali, an activist with the Greek anti-cancer society who heads a local, EU-financed programme against smoking.
Greece Update
Government Rethinks Smoking Ban
Nov. 19th, 2010
by Apostolos Papapostolou
Facing harsh reactions by bar, cafe and restaurant owners, the Greek government is preparing to do a partial about-face on the anti-smoking law. The law went into effect in September and has gone largely unobserved. General Secretary of the Health Ministry Antonis Dimopoulos spoke with the press agency ANA. He stated that the government is considering modifications to the law because: “we cannot ignore reality” at a time of great economic difficulties.
The official also admitted the unexpected strong backlash by business owners who have already been hit by the economic crisis. The business owners are saying that they are losing clients due to the ban on smoking in public places. Greece has the largest smoking rate in the EU. Dimopoulos criticized the harmful stance taken by owners who allow cigarette smoking to attract chronic smokers.
According to ANA a definitive decision has not been made but several possibilities are being considered. Among them is the idea of allowing smoking in cafes and also allowing it in bars after 9:00 pm for people over the age of 18. The ban could continue to be applied in restaurants but not in nightclubs. A compromise could be reached for owners of small bars in order to decide how to apply the ban.
Last month Health Minister Andreas Loverdos reported that the anti-smoking law was “violated in 80% of the cases” despite huge fines and called the situation “very negative”. Some business owners protested and placed ashtrays back out on the tables in their establishments in an open challenge to a law that has supposedly led to a 30% decline in sales.
Greece was one of the last countries in Europe to approve strict anti-smoking laws after the centre-right government passed very mild regulations that were completely unobserved.
According to ANA a definitive decision has not been made but several possibilities are being considered. Among them is the idea of allowing smoking in cafes and also allowing it in bars after 9:00 pm for people over the age of 18. The ban could continue to be applied in restaurants but not in nightclubs. A compromise could be reached for owners of small bars in order to decide how to apply the ban.
Last month Health Minister Andreas Loverdos reported that the anti-smoking law was “violated in 80% of the cases” despite huge fines and called the situation “very negative”. Some business owners protested and placed ashtrays back out on the tables in their establishments in an open challenge to a law that has supposedly led to a 30% decline in sales.
Greece was one of the last countries in Europe to approve strict anti-smoking laws after the centre-right government passed very mild regulations that were completely unobserved.
Greece’s smokers stoke up rebellion
The country’s response to its government’s anti-smoking campaign is proving more inflammatory than predicted.
Oct. 20th, 2010
by Helena Smith of guardian.co.uk
by Helena Smith of guardian.co.uk
Change takes courage and in Greece change is everywhere. Reform, revolution, restructuring, call it what you will, the country is in the grip of massive transformation, spurred mostly by the realisation that without it cash-strapped Athens was heading for economic collapse.
But change is also painful, and of all the changes currently being enacted in a society historically resistant to reform, the government’s campaign to stub out the nation’s proclivity for a puff is proving to be more inflammatory than predicted.
Last month’s state-sponsored attempt to get Greeks to stop smoking – with the enforcement of an unprecedented blanket ban on cigarettes in all public places – was never going to be easy. To date, Europe’s heaviest smokers have snubbed at least eight such efforts.
The latest bid, more trenchant than any before, was aimed not only at improving the nation’s health but arresting the lacerating effect the habit has had on the country’s health system at a time when hospitals can barely afford needles, surgical gloves and other basic essentials. As I wrote in these columns at the launch of the campaign with 40% of the population “declared smokers” it is conservatively estimated that nicotine addiction costs the state over €2bn(£1.8bn) a year.
For the prime minister, George Papandreou, an avid non-smoker who to the surprise of many has managed to stop cadres from lighting up in the central offices of his Panhellenic Socialist Movement (Pasok), the ban was also a primary first step to making Greeks more health conscious and, in so doing, “revolutionising attitudes.” In some small way it was hoped the ban could help clean up Greece’s image, re-establish its shattered credibility less than four months after the IMF and EU agreed to emergency loans to stave off bankruptcy.
All of which might explain why smoking has become such a hot issue – not just for entrepreneurs and the patrons of cafes who, despite draconian penalties, still insist on lighting up, but for officialdom at large.
When in the course of testing the ban last month I wrote that I, too, had violated the law, flagrantly defying the prohibition at a soiree given by a government minister in a downtown bar, the protests were vivid and loud. For many the piece amounted to crass stereotyping of the country as a third-world state unable to apply the rule of law.
Greeks, perhaps more than ever before, are ultra sensitive about the way they are portrayed by the western press. The government, unquestionably the most cosmopolitan of modern times with the US-born Papandreou an internationalist par excellence, is acutely image conscious.
After inheriting a carcass of a Greek economy in the wake of five scandal-ridden years of conservative rule, the reform-minded socialists have borne the brunt of excoriating criticism from fellow EU states with Germany leading the charge that Athens had lied and cheated its way into the hallowed euro zone. Not infrequently, Greeks have been portrayed as jingle-jangle Zorbas, undeserving of EU membership.
The drastic steps that Papandreou’s modernising government has taken to allay the crisis – with draconian cuts of wages, pensions and benefits in the public sector – have gradually helped shift the anachronistic perception of Greeks as lazy, happy-go-lucky Levantines.
But the sacrifices have also stoked the nation’s innate anti-authoritarianism – an instinctive rebelliousness that authorities may not like but have encountered repeatedly in recent months.
The announcement this week by Greek bar and restaurant owners that they will be putting ashtrays back on tables – citing the prohibition’s disastrous effect on business at a time of deep recession – should not take officialdom by surprise. Nor should coverage of the development be interpreted as below-the-belt criticism.
Rather, the collective snub is yet another example that the Greeks are not going to take this crisis and the hard-hitting changes that it has spawned, lying down.
Eight in 10 Greeks violate smoking ban
Oct. 7th, 2010
By Reuters
ATHENS – Greeks are largely ignoring a new smoking ban, lighting up in restaurants and bars despite threats of fines on Europe’s heaviest smokers.
The new Socialist government hoped fines would work after a partial ban in 2009 was largely ignored, but the law is flouted, again.
“Everywhere, I mean in eight out of ten cases, the ban is being violated — and this is really bad for the state,” Health Minister Andreas Loverdos told lawmakers late on Wednesday after undercover inspectors went to check on bars and restaurants.
Bars and restaurants were given one month, until Oct. 1, to comply with the Sept. 1 ban on smoking in indoor public places — no easy task in a country where about 40 percent of people smoke.
Inspectors can impose up to 10,000 euros ($13,990) in fines on bar-owners tolerating smoking and up to 500 euros for smokers who break the law.
Dozens of bar owners rallied in a central square in Athens to protest against the ban, with banners reading: “We say yes to ashtrays.” Some also shut their cafes.
“Bars are dependent on tobacco, music and coffee. If this law is implemented, it will be a disaster. They will shut down,” said bar owner Spyros Aloyannis.
The government has also increased the tax on tobacco in a revenue-raising measure under a fiscal austerity plan mandated by an EU/IMF bailout to ease Greece’s sovereign debt crisis.
New Greece Smoking Ban Begins
September 1, 2010
deTraci’s Greece Travel Blog
By deTraci Regula, Greece Travel Guide
Will it work this time? Greece has enacted an EU-regulation friendly smoking ban for public places in Greece beginning September 1st, 2010. While previous restrictions have been going into effect – at least in theory – over the past few years, this one is much more sweeping. With a high rate of smokers – nearly half of adult Greeks admit to the habit – the number of potential scofflaws is also high. So this time, the fines on businesses allowing smoking on the premises are high, and the government is promising to enforce the new fines – possibly because of the current Greek financial crisis. It’s a guaranteed moneymaker.
The Greek passion for the habit is amazing, in spite of or perhaps even because of the risks. I talked with an older Greek who notes he’s lost lung capacity and says he didn’t quit early enough – he waited until he was over seventy. “Sixty would have been better,” he noted blithely. Not smoking at all just wasn’t seen as an option. Another younger Greek felt no shame in declaring himself to be a non-smoker to a potential girlfriend – after all, he smokes less than two packs a day! By Greek standards – at least until now – that was almost like not smoking at all.
How will the new Greek smoking ban affect your travels? You should enjoy cleaner air in restaurants and bars. Bans on public transportation have been in place for a while, and while sometimes breached, they seem to have been reasonably effective.
September 1, 2010
deTraci’s Greece Travel Blog
By deTraci Regula, Greece Travel Guide
Will it work this time? Greece has enacted an EU-regulation friendly smoking ban for public places in Greece beginning September 1st, 2010. While previous restrictions have been going into effect – at least in theory – over the past few years, this one is much more sweeping. With a high rate of smokers – nearly half of adult Greeks admit to the habit – the number of potential scofflaws is also high. So this time, the fines on businesses allowing smoking on the premises are high, and the government is promising to enforce the new fines – possibly because of the current Greek financial crisis. It’s a guaranteed moneymaker.
The Greek passion for the habit is amazing, in spite of or perhaps even because of the risks. I talked with an older Greek who notes he’s lost lung capacity and says he didn’t quit early enough – he waited until he was over seventy. “Sixty would have been better,” he noted blithely. Not smoking at all just wasn’t seen as an option. Another younger Greek felt no shame in declaring himself to be a non-smoker to a potential girlfriend – after all, he smokes less than two packs a day! By Greek standards – at least until now – that was almost like not smoking at all.
How will the new Greek smoking ban affect your travels? You should enjoy cleaner air in restaurants and bars. Bans on public transportation have been in place for a while, and while sometimes breached, they seem to have been reasonably effective.
Greece’s smoking ban not working, say officials
05 Feb 2010
Athens – More than six months after Greece introduced a ban on smoking in public places, officials were conceding that the third attempt to stamp out the habit is failing, it was reported Friday. Greece, one of the last bastions of smoking in the European U nion, introduced a ban on smoking in public places on July 1.
According to a report in the Greek daily Kathimerini, despite awareness campaigns that were initially well received by the public in the countdown to the ban, the necessary reforms have not been carried out to ensure that the restrictions are enforced.
As a result, smoking continues in most bars and cafes, public offices and hospitals, according to Panayiotis Behrakis, the head of the steering committee set up to oversee the implementation of the restrictions.
“The whole country is smoking,” Behrakis was quoted as saying to Kathimerini.
Under the new law, anyone caught lighting up will now be subject to a 1,000 euros (1,400 dollars) fine, whilst establishments that do not comply with the new regulations risk losing licences.
Britain, Ireland, France, Germany and other EU states have already introduced public smoking bans.
But, considering Greece’s patchy track record for implementing new laws, it appears that the new law, which allows for some loopholes and is largely unpopular has proved to be unsuccessful.
One of the problems seems to be that bar and cafe owners have submitted incomplete applications for revised operating licenses.
Small cafes and restaurants with premises measuring less than 70 square metres have had to choose between becoming tobacco-free or admitting only patrons who smoke.
In addition, companies with more than 50 employees will be able to set up dedicated smoking areas on their premises.
Similar laws introduced in 2002 and 2003 went largely unheeded in a country where nearly 45 per cent of adults smoke and where puffing on cigarettes in offices and cafes is seen as a traditional pastime.
Each year, 20,000 people in the nation of 11 million die from tobacco-related illnesses, according to European Commission figures that place Greece ahead of Bulgaria at 39 per cent and Latvia, 37 per cent of the share of adult smokers.
A 2007 survey found the number of smokers in Greece had risen 10 per cent in a decade while other developed nations were kicking the habit.
05 Feb 2010
Athens – More than six months after Greece introduced a ban on smoking in public places, officials were conceding that the third attempt to stamp out the habit is failing, it was reported Friday. Greece, one of the last bastions of smoking in the European U nion, introduced a ban on smoking in public places on July 1.
According to a report in the Greek daily Kathimerini, despite awareness campaigns that were initially well received by the public in the countdown to the ban, the necessary reforms have not been carried out to ensure that the restrictions are enforced.
As a result, smoking continues in most bars and cafes, public offices and hospitals, according to Panayiotis Behrakis, the head of the steering committee set up to oversee the implementation of the restrictions.
“The whole country is smoking,” Behrakis was quoted as saying to Kathimerini.
Under the new law, anyone caught lighting up will now be subject to a 1,000 euros (1,400 dollars) fine, whilst establishments that do not comply with the new regulations risk losing licences.
Britain, Ireland, France, Germany and other EU states have already introduced public smoking bans.
But, considering Greece’s patchy track record for implementing new laws, it appears that the new law, which allows for some loopholes and is largely unpopular has proved to be unsuccessful.
One of the problems seems to be that bar and cafe owners have submitted incomplete applications for revised operating licenses.
Small cafes and restaurants with premises measuring less than 70 square metres have had to choose between becoming tobacco-free or admitting only patrons who smoke.
In addition, companies with more than 50 employees will be able to set up dedicated smoking areas on their premises.
Similar laws introduced in 2002 and 2003 went largely unheeded in a country where nearly 45 per cent of adults smoke and where puffing on cigarettes in offices and cafes is seen as a traditional pastime.
Each year, 20,000 people in the nation of 11 million die from tobacco-related illnesses, according to European Commission figures that place Greece ahead of Bulgaria at 39 per cent and Latvia, 37 per cent of the share of adult smokers.
A 2007 survey found the number of smokers in Greece had risen 10 per cent in a decade while other developed nations were kicking the habit.
Greece to ban smoking in public places
07/05/2008
ATHENS (Thomson Financial) – Greece is to impose a smoking ban in public places, the health ministry announced on Wednesday, after previous partial-bans were ignored in what is one of Europe’s heaviest smoking nations.
Two previous laws, forcing businesses, bars and restaurants to limit smoking to designated areas, were widely flouted.
The new total ban, which will also include a provision to raise the tobacco-purchasing age to 18, will be presented to the Greek parliament in June.
07/05/2008
ATHENS (Thomson Financial) – Greece is to impose a smoking ban in public places, the health ministry announced on Wednesday, after previous partial-bans were ignored in what is one of Europe’s heaviest smoking nations.
Two previous laws, forcing businesses, bars and restaurants to limit smoking to designated areas, were widely flouted.
The new total ban, which will also include a provision to raise the tobacco-purchasing age to 18, will be presented to the Greek parliament in June.
Smokers in Greece stand their ground
ATHENS, Jan 4, 2005
Welcome to Greece, the last sanctuary for smokers in a European U nion at war with nicotine.
“Non-smokers do not entirely feel at home in this country, and with cause,” laments John Kosdouros, the head of the Greek anti-smoking society, a citizens group.
“There are laws against smoking, but they are not applied, and nobody dares sanction those who break them,” he says.
Ranked second in tobacco production in Europe, Greece is also the EU’s most prolific consumer of the “nicotiana tabacum” — an estimated 45 percent of the Greek population lights up on a regular basis.
Women almost as much as men: nearly half of Greece’s men puff their way through more than 18 cigarettes a day, while fully 40 percent of women inhale upward of 15.
This, despite a bundle of legislation passed three years ago outlawing smoking in public places, and designating special areas for restaurants and cafes.
“Whether at the bank, in shops or in any public place, people here smoke,” says Kosdouros. “Bizarrely, the rule is only enforced aboard public transport.”
The situation is hardly better in the Greek civil service, despite a profusion of yellowing “No Smoking” printouts on office walls.
“Nobody respects the ban in our ministry,” says Markos, a 47-year-old, chain-smoking civil servant who declined to give his last name.
“One non-smoking colleague makes a fuss every day, and threatens to call the health service, but I’m not too worried — our directors also smoke,” he notes.
But even in this smokers’ paradise stirrings of change are in the air, says Maria Pilali, an activist with the Greek anti-cancer society who heads a local, EU-financed programme against smoking.
“It’s true that if you make comparisons with the progress made in Ireland and Italy, we are far behind,” Pilali says.
“But compared to the situation a few years ago, the Greek mentality is evolving,” she notes. “For example, fewer people nowadays believe that smoking constitutes a rite of passage into manhood.”
Increased media interest in campaigns on the adverse effects of tobacco also indicates a change in views, adds Pilali.
“A few years ago, journalists wouldn’t even turn up to our press conferences,” she says. “This is no longer true.”
But will stiffer smoking regulations — as recently passed in Spain — lead to a fall in Greek tobacco consumption? Given Greek attitudes towards authority, Pilali doubts it.
“Greeks don’t like having rules imposed on them,” she says. “It’s wiser to play on people’s conscience, by repeating that tobacco is very dangerous to one’s health.”
Still, there are exceptions to this rule. Lambrakis Press, one of Greece’s largest publishing groups, enacted — and enforced — a smoking ban in July 2004 in its new corporate headquarters. Not only has the restriction been respected, but it seems to have helped some staffers quit.
“The move passed without trouble,” says Romolo Gandolfo, the group’s director for international affairs. “We now have a small room for smokers on each floor, and there’s rarely more than three people inside at a time.”
