Greece, Europe’s heaviest smoking nation, will try to kick the habit by banning tobacco in indoor public places from July 1, but many doubt the ban will work.

Greece breaks all European records with more than 40% of the population smoking and six out of ten being exposed to smoking at work, according to a European Union poll.

“We can’t take it any more. Where I work there are so many smokers,” 55-year-old Elisavet Vasileiadou told Reuters.

“I hope the ban will be implemented for the sake of our health, but I think it will be difficult,” said Vasileiadou, a shoe-store employee in central Athens. “It’s not easy to tame Greeks, they’ll find a way out.”

Greece has tried to ban smoking in hospitals and offices and requires restaurant and bar owners to designate smoking areas, but the measures have so far been widely ignored.

Smoking-related diseases kill about 20,000 people a year in Greece, costing the country 2.14 billion euros ($2.97 billion) a year, the Health Ministry said.

The new law will ban smoking indoors in all public or private areas used for working purposes, including airports, taxis and buses.

Restaurant and bar owners of properties of up to 70 square metres can decide whether their business is smoking or non smoking. Others can set up ventilated smoking areas.

Bar and restaurant owners, as well as the private sector’s umbrella labour union, say the law will harm business.

“I hope it will not work, I’m completely against it,” said smoker Nafsika Charalabidou, 39, a translator. “I may quit, but I want people to smoke anytime they want to.”

Smokers breaking the law will pay a fine of up to 500 euros.

Businesses breaching it for the first time will face fines of up to 1,000 euros ($1,386). The fines go up for each repeated offence and businesses could be banned from selling alcohol or tobacco for up to three months on the third violation. The fourth time, the company’s licence would be removed.

“It’s a good law ... but it will work only if Greek authorities control it and if they really apply penalties,” Cornel Radu, policy manager at the Brussels-based European Network for Smoking Prevention said.

By Renee Maltezou and Ingrid Melander
ATHENS (Reuters)