As the European Union seeks to extend smoking restrictions to outdoor spaces, Greece’s official response has been: No, thanks.
Credit...Angelos Tzortzinis for The New York Times

Greeks Are Defying an Indoor Smoking Ban

The country, which has one of Europe’s highest smoking rates, is also resisting a wider push for outdoor bans.

by · NY Times

Greeks smoke more than most other Europeans, and even 14 years after Greece banned smoking in indoor public places, it is not uncommon to see people light up in bars and clubs.

So as the European Union urges countries to extend smoking bans to outdoor spaces as part of its efforts to “achieve a tobacco-free generation” by 2040, Greece’s official response has been: No, thanks.

Last year, a health profile of Greece from the European Commission reported that about a fifth of the country’s deaths in 2019 could be attributed to tobacco smoking, including direct and secondhand. Still, many in Greece are sticking to cigarettes — from habit, defiance or simply realizing that they can get away with it.

“When a smoker knows there are gaps in the system they can exploit to smoke, they’re going to do it,” Stathis Papachristou, a psychologist and an official at the National Public Health Organization’s smoking cessation office, said in an interview.

These days, more than a third of Greeks smoke — second in the European Union after Bulgaria — according to the European Commission.

Greece banned smoking in all indoor public areas in 2010, and the country’s statistics agency has recorded a significant drop in smoking. But the ban was widely flouted, so in 2019 a tougher law was introduced. It included fines of 100 euros (about $105) for patrons smoking indoors and up to €10,000 for businesses, along with a complaints hotline.

To enforce the ban, the authorities conducted 3,376 inspections on enclosed public spaces in the first 11 months of this year, about 2,200 of them in Athens​, according to the agency in charge. It said it had issued 659 fines, totaling €529,400, for violations during that time, mostly for business owners or managers.​

Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis says smoking in indoor areas has been stamped out.

“Greece has implemented a series of measures, it polices its restaurants, it has virtually eliminated smoking in inside areas,” he said in a written response to questions.

But experts say the country has not done enough.

“The inspections are inadequate,” said Panagiotis Behrakis, a pulmonologist and founder of Smoke Free Greece, an anti-smoking initiative that holds seminars in schools. He added that many businesses allowed smoking in formerly open spaces that were sealed off with plastic sheeting.

On a recent Saturday night, fogs of smoke hung inside several Athens bars.

“Whenever I’m stressed, I just light up and switch off,” said Antonis Vasiliadis, 45, sitting with friends at a small crowded bar.

He said the relatively low price of cigarettes in Greece — about €4.50 for a pack of 20 — allowed him to maintain his pack-a-day habit. As for nonsmokers, he said, “It’s their choice to be here.”

Katerina Theofilou, 29, a nonsmoker sitting nearby, said the smoke from neighboring tables irritated her, but not enough to flag it. “I’m out to have a good time,” she said, “not report people.”

That befits patrons like Spiros Manakis, 38, an I.T. worker at another bar who described himself as a “committed smoker.” He tried to quit once, he said, but decided that smoking suited his sedentary lifestyle of computer work and video games.

As for government restrictions, he said, “The state doesn’t have the right to ban smoking.”

The authorities in Greece disagree — to a point.

After the country introduced the stricter smoking ban in 2019, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis declared, “There is no longer the excuse of ‘These things can’t be done in Greece.’” And in late 2022, the health minister at the time used a picture of a famous actor smoking in a club to warn that no one was exempt. Both the actor and the club were fined.

Mr. Georgiadis, the current health minister, said Greece would not extend smoking restrictions in line with the European Union recommendation. In a vote on the nonbinding measure during a December meeting of European health ministers, Greece abstained along with Germany.

“Greece said, ‘Bring us a study that says exactly what the impact of your proposal is on public health, and we’ll support it,” he said.

“It’s one thing to have a strict policy,” he added, “and quite another to cause harm to thousands of businesses, our tourism product and to lots of people without knowing if this benefits or harms us.”

The hazards of secondhand smoke are well documented.

And experts like Mr. Behrakis point to the World Health Organization’s recommendation that smoking restrictions be extended to outdoor areas, with the agency arguing that “comprehensive smoke-free laws offer the only effective means of eliminating the risks associated with secondhand tobacco smoke.”

That does not faze Nikos Louvros, 69, who owns a popular Athens bar and founded a niche political party for smokers’ rights. An unapologetic chain-smoker, he said inspectors had visited his bar only once, in 2012, and had not returned.

“Whoever comes here knows they can smoke,” he said.

Experts said the challenge was to unseat such deeply ingrained attitudes.

“We can’t have an inspector over each smoker,” said Mr. Papachristou, the psychologist. “We need to change the Greek mentality that your neighbor is obliged to inhale your smoke.”

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