Edirorial Ta NEA: Poison

It is an embarrassment for Greece that it took over a decade before there were faint indications of the prospect of definitively enforcing the ant-smoking law.

It does not do honour to Greece that the law was not enforced. It was one of many inactive laws in this country.

Everywhere else in the world the ant-smoking law is enforced without heavy smokers demanding the right to satisfy their desires.

The delay in enforcing the anti-smoking law does not do honour to our country because all of us – smokers and non-smokers – are aware of and recognise the deleterious effects of smoking on each of us individually and more generally on public health.

In that respect, the PM’s reminder that the enemy is not smokers and tobacco should be needless.

No effort to persuade should have been necessary to demonstrate the need to enforce this law in particular.

One would hope that this discussion will soon be a thing of the past.

One hopes that at long last all of us have understood the significance of not poisoning closed spaces with the harmful substances of tobacco.

Public opinion appears mature and ready. What is needed now is for professional restaurateurs and owners of entertainment clubs to prove that they do not put profit so much above the health of their customers and of their own.