More and more Greeks are turning their back on smoking. This is the result of the nationwide research conducted on behalf of The Institute of Public Health, at The American College of Greece, which also featured on this weekend’s Guardian online edition. “It is a moral victory” commented to this weekend’s Guardian online edition Panagiotis Behrakis, head of The Institute of Public Health and of the Joint Action force on tobacco control in Europe.
The research concerns the anti-smoking law and the protection of the public against secondhand smoking. The sample was 2,054 people from all over the country.
According to the findings, lots of Greeks have turned their back on smoking and are disappointed by the failed application of the anti-smoking law to restaurants and other communal areas.
Specifically, 27.1% of the population are still smokers compared to 36.7% in 2012. This drop, of 9.6 percentage points over 5 years, marks an all-time low at a European level and certainly holds the smallest prevalence of smoking in the Greek population.
Read the full Guardian article here.