Today's day came – July 1^st and Greek smokers will suffer, because smoking in public places is forbidden and fines will be high.

In Greece cigarettes have taken the role of the Last Emperor. Smoking is living its last days of glory, before it is finally forbidden in all public places. Ever since the first time cigarettes appeared in Greece, the country took the leading part in the tobacco industry and later on in tobacco consumption.

From the beginning of the 20^th century Greeks have been exporting tobacco for Germany, Holland and Egypt. In the period between the two world wars, tobacco production starts to systematically develop in Katerini, Xanti, Agrinio and Kalamata, where thousands of families survive thanks to it.

The famous Greek actress Melina Mercury makes smoking become a symbol of women’s emancipation through her role in the film “Stella” in 1955, where she plays a vampire style woman. Before that it is believed that only women with more open attitude were smoking.

During the TV era the celebrities from the Greek cinema establish smoking as a style and even the nonsmokers, start smoking. During the 60s, smoking becomes a symbol also of the youth revolution, which made it attractive even to younger people.

Smoking reminds of many movie scenes, fashion icons, and commercials, which according to experts has contributed for its trend.

During the 70s in Greece, together with advertising campaigns and long sideburns, the production of different categories of cigarettes starts. This is the time when “light” cigarettes appear and smokers have still not started smoking foreign cigarettes but only the local ones – Assos. By the end of that decade people start talking against smoking and about its “angel” image and the first anti-smoking campaign was organized by the health minister at that time Spiros Doxiadis.

Even though the cigarette industry in Greece shows great resilience, by entering the EU the country needed to create some strict rules against smoking. During the last few years the antismoking battle was hard but it finally gave result and the date July 1^st was established as the beginning of the application of the new law, where smoking was forbidden in public places. In order not to be closed or fined, all restaurants and bars will have to comply with the new rules and the court already has few lawsuits from bar employees whose health is harmed from second hand smoking. Despite all this, smokers in Greece have increased in the past two decades and based on global surveys, the most women smokers per capita are in Greece.