The cigarette smoke is thickening

The struggle of the Health ministry against smoking continues without any results. Six months after the implementation of the antismoking law for cafes, bars, restaurants, even hospitals, the smoke is getting thicker by the day instead of decreasing.

On the contrary, what is decreasing are the fines from the municipal police, which in turn leads to the provocative violation of the law both by owners health-related business and by citizens. It is significant that the number of fines in the last two months, during which checks have increased, does not exceed 5% of all controls.
 
The municipal police force is blocked

Despite the dynamic announcements by the leadership of the Health ministry in early February about mobilizing all the "forces" to apply the antismoking law, the chambers of the municipal police seem trapped in the different requirements of the municipal rulers, who often give orders about simple warning and not the imposition of fines against the offenders in their area.

According to the information available to protothema.gr, of the 169 Municipal Police Corps around the country, only 114 conduct inspections. In the other 55, the municipalities refuse to provide the staff of the municipal police for antismoking inspections, citing other priorities in their area. Furthermore, checks are also conducted by 27 out of the 54 Directorates of Health in regional parts of the country.
 

Intensive inspections but with few fines

According to information obtained by the relevant departments of the Health ministry, the number of checks is satisfactory; in the last two months, 15.000 checks have been reported in indoor public places, businesses, public transport etc. It is significant that within one week (12-19 March) 2.189 antismoking inspections were conducted in sanitary facilities throughout the country, while during the period of October-December 2010, the inspections did not exceeded 6.500.

However, while clouds of smoke are covering most of the places where smoking is forbidden, the inspectors found only 148 offenders and fined only 128 of them. The total amount of fines for the last inspection week reaches 78.850 euros.
 
Checks by the Health Inspectors too

In a final attempt to actually implement the law, the Health ministry has thrown 20 Health Inspectors in the battle.

Their first round of checks for the weekend of March 20-21 in Athens businesses (Kolonaki, Exarchia, Gazi) was deemed as effective by the leadership of the ministry. "They were much stricter than the other inspectors, including the municipal police, who do not do their job as they should because they are hindered", said a ministry official.

In fact, the severity of the Health Inspectors surprised many owners of cafes, bars and other places, who had difficulty believing that they were being fined. In other cases, inspectors found that some shops, popular hangouts of Kolonaki and Keramikos, were one step away from a temporary lockdown due to repeated violations of the anti-smoking legislation.