Subversive Greeks stub out cigarette habit in record numbers

As tobacco use plummets, figures reveal dramatic attitude shift from EU’s worst offender

No campaign could do it. No health warning could do it. And, for a very long time, no change in the price of a pack could do it.

But as they learn to survive on less, Greeks have earned themselves the unusual distinction of abandoning cigarettes in record numbers. In a rare feelgood story from the crisis-plagued country, experts who had previously blamed the nation’s tobacco epidemic for the critical state of its health system are in ebullient mood. “I am 100% sure we have solved the problem,” said Panagiotis Behrakis, who heads the Joint Action force on tobacco control in Europe. “It is now just a matter of time.”

Continue reading... January 20, 2018 at 05:39PM