In its fourth attempt in a decade, Greece on Wednesday moved to wean the country from cigarettes by imposing a sweeping tobacco ban and stiff fines. But many critics doubt whether Greeks, Europe's most nicotine-loving people, can conform as they grapple with a grave economic recession.
With more than 42 percent of its citizens lighting up every day, Greece has the highest smoking rate in the European Union, according to an EU study released last year. Successive governments have tried to ban smoking in hospitals and public offices, but the measures have always failed. Greek parliamentarians even defied orders to put out their cigarettes while debating anti-smoking legislation.
The new measures outlaw lighting up in all indoor, public areas and ban billboards that advertise cigarette brands from city centers and roadsides. Casinos and nightclubs will have nine months to join the quit list, and lawmakers must now step out of the parliamentary chambers in Athens to pursue their vice.
Louisa Gouliamaki, AFP / Getty Images
A man smokes next to a no-smoking sign in a cafe in Athens on Wednesday. Greek smokers are under pressure to curb their habit as a new law banning smoking in public places goes into effect in Europe's most nicotine-addicted nation.
For anti-smoking advocates, the new measures offer fresh hope. But reining in this cigarette-loving nation will not be easy.
"If it happens, then I'll quit," says Amalia Lemou, a 20-year-old law school student, as she takes a drag on a cigarette.
Although Europe still lags far behind the United States in persuading smokers to give up the habit, the anti-tobacco movement seems to be gaining ground in Western Europe. Governments and the EU as a whole have begun targeting the hazards and costs of smoking like never before.
The European Commission, the EU's executive body, launched a "No Tobacco Day" earlier this year, transmitting anti-smoking messages via television, the Internet and mobile phones. The public awareness campaign capped a $10 million effort aimed mostly at European youth.
Some EU countries, notably Germany, have increased taxes on tobacco as part of their attempts to crack down on smoking and increase state revenues, with mixed results.
As much as the highly indebted Greek government needs revenue, however, it claimed that wasn't the motivation. As scores of green-capped municipal police officers fanned out across the Greek capital to inspect cafes and public buildings on the first day of the smoking ban, authorities argued the new measures were aimed at promoting good health.
"We're not out to hunt down smokers as a way of collecting more revenues for the state," said Andreas Papadakis, the deputy mayor of Athens, as he patrolled with law enforcers along Metropolis Street, a popular haven of small, smoke-filled cafes. "There is a new momentum now, and we finally have to change our country's attitude towards smoking."
Anti-tobacco forces acknowledge an uphill battle.
In Greece, where old habits die hard, any attempt to impose bans is viewed as an attack on personal freedom. And for restaurant and cafe owners feeling the crunch of austerity measures enforced earlier this year in a bid to brave through a devastating debt crisis, the new legislation represents a further economic threat.
"We agree with the measures in principle, but the timing is off," said George Kavathas, a member of Greece's association of restaurant owners. "When the economy is in a recession and our industry faces between 20 to 25 percent drops in profit, such measures will shut down several operations and increase unemployment."
Such arguments were behind a legal challenge to German laws that mandated separate smoking rooms in pubs and restaurants. Two owners of single-room pubs won a high court ruling two years ago that because they couldn't afford to set up such a space, the law effectively banned smokers from their facility.
Nikos Louvros, owner of a single-room cafe in a bohemian quarter of Athens, is waging a similar legal battle in Greece, arguing that the anti-smoking measures put his business, the Booze Bar, at a disadvantage.
"All my customers smoke. That's what unites them. That's why they come here," he says.
A chain-smoker for 32 years, Louvros awaits a court ruling next month. In the meantime he has formed Greece's lone pro-smoking political party, which won some 1,500 votes in last year's national elections. He is now preparing to run in upcoming municipal polls.
Greek health officials have enlisted Harvard University's School of Public Health to help gauge the effect of second-hand smoking in Greece. The study found "extremely high levels of toxins" in public places and will track the impact of reduced smoking on public health.
By some accounts, more than 20,000 smoke-related illnesses are recorded each year in Greece, imposing an additional burden of more than $2.5 billion on the national health system.
Louvros, for one, doesn't buy it. "It's not smoking that kills," he says. "It's stress."