Smoke-Free Greece by 2010?
Friday November 7, 2008
It's official - Greece will be bringing its anti-smoking laws (yes, there are some) into full effect in 2010, outlawing smoking in most public spaces and imposing new limitations on those places that do allow smoking. While surveys show that most Greeks actually support these measures, this change will probably be met with the usual protests and strikes closer to the deadline.
In the meantime, if you are a smoker, go to Greece in 2009 - it may be one of your last chances for "free-range smoking" experiences.
Is the smoking still will be allowed outdoors?, in places like cafes or restaurants.
It remains to be seen. Since the cigarettes that ate smoked in Greece are made from strong tobacco, even outdoors smoking is a problem for the rest of us.
For someone with medical problems or allergies, a visit to Greece can be problematic. Hotel lobies are filled with smoke, restaurants and cafes, also. The most distressing problem was entering into our hotel room and finding the room filled with a cloud of smoke. The hotel in Paleo Faliro, has an open system of heat/AC and the smoke is free to circulate throughout the rooms.
Also, in the hotel restaurant areas the same conditions prevail. It is very hard to have breakfast when the people around you are smoking non-stop.
Are the Greeks aware that smoking can be hazardous to their health?
First they came for the smokers and I did not speak out because I was not a smoker.
Then they came for the fatties and I did not speak out because I was not a fattie.
Then they came for the unsafe and I did not speak out because I was not unsafe.
Then they came for me and there was no-one left to speak out for me. (Paraphrase: Pasteur Martin Nimoller 1892-1984)
Someone is coming for the smokers, he’s called Death.
And worse – long, debilitating illnesses that eventually will kill such as emphysema (takes 10 years to die), chronic bronchitis etc etc.
Greeks don’t care about or even understand that passive smoking also kills, maims and severely damages the future health of children and unborn babies. I have asked Greeks if they are aware they can loose their legs from smoking, and that it causes impotence – they’ve never heard of this.
Nothing singles Greece out more as a backward, stupid nation that its inability to educate and protect people from smoking.
PS: for an asthmatic or anyone with any kind of respiratory problem, this country is Hell.
All I can say is that Greeks are so selfish about “their right to smoke” that they fully deserve the cancer and sickness that so many will assuredly get.