Smoking ban

It's Greece's third try at kicking the habit, but critics fear loopholes in the legislation - and its unpopularity - mean it could prove as ineffective as previous attempts.

More than 40 percent of Greece's population smokes, with six out of ten being exposed to passive smoke in their workplaces. Around 20,000 Greeks die a year from tobacco-related ailments, according to the country's health minister, Dimitris Avramopoulos.

Many European Union countries have laws to limit exposure to second-hand, or passive, smoking. Britain and Ireland have the strictest rules, where smoking is banned in enclosed public places, public transport and workplaces, as well as restaurants and bars.

EU aims for standardized smoking laws

The European Union's health chief on Tuesday proposed that uniform laws be drafted for all 27 countries in the bloc to regulate smoking more strictly in public areas and workplaces by 2012.

"Each and every European should be entitled to full protection from tobacco smoke," EU Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou told a press conference on Tuesday.

She said in countries with looser regulations on smoking, nearly one in five people were exposed to tobacco smoke in the workplace.

According to Vassiliou, an estimated 19,000 non-smokers in the EU died due to second-hand smoke at home and in workplaces in 2002.

Each member state decides the level of its own smoking restrictions. In Belgium, for example, smoking is allowed in restaurants only in separate rooms where no food is served, and smoking is banned in all enclosed workplaces.

Only 10 member states - Britain, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Sweden, Latvia, Finland, Slovenia, France and the Netherlands - have comprehensive anti-smoking laws, Vassiliou said.

The EU defines such laws as ones that either ban smoking completely in public places or permit it only in separate smoking rooms.

Bulgaria looks likely to be the next to join them, banning smoking in indoor public places and workplaces, including bars and restaurants, in 2010.

German legislation among the weakest

Germany's Federal Drug Commissioner Sabine Baetzing has spoken out in favor of stricter anti-smoking laws in Germany.

In Germany laws vary from state to state, with North Rhine-Westphalia being the most lax. In most restaurants and bars, puffers can still indulge to their heart's content.

Since 2007, smoking has been banned on public transport, but the penalty is less than half that for traveling without a ticket.

“Protection for non-smokers should be uniform across the entire country,” Baetzing told the Rheinische Post newspaper.

“Other countries have set an example,” she said, “and they have showed that society has accepted these laws, and that in the end they don't damage business.”

Those in favor of public puffing seem to be on a dramatic decline. A poll by EU survey group Eurobarometer last year indicated 84 percent of respondents supported smoke-free offices and other indoor workplaces, 77 percent favored smoke-free restaurants, and 61 percent supported smoke-free bars and pubs.

ch/Reuters/AFP

Editor: Kate Bowen