Cigarette smoke issue

[Roberts2019]

Hello,

we currently live in Malaga Spain, it is unfortunate that we can not enjoy the outdoor seating's of all the nice Restaurants/Cafes/Bars that Malaga offers due to Cigarette Smoking. 9 out of 10 are smokers... so if we sit outside of a restaurant all tables around you filled with people smoking and you suffocate.

So I was wondering if its the same in Crete?

Thank you

[Kilkis]

All cafés and tavernas have a no smoking area. In summer, when it is hot, the no smoking area is inside while in winter, when it is cold and wet, the no smoking area is outside. Sorry but Greece is probably just as bad as Spain. I know some tavernas where they tell people to stop smoking inside if there are young children in the room but otherwise people just smoke where and when they want. IN general many laws are treated as advisory.

Warwick

[paul g]

also, ciggies are damn cheap here.

[filippos]

It seems to me that in most tavernas, winter and summer, the smoking area is wherever smokers happen to be sitting. Many tavernas and cafés still put ashtrays on all tables but if there is an absence thereof staff will provide one if asked.

[DJ]

I've been travelling to Crete and other parts of Greece for 34 years and I always used to joke that I went to Greece because "it was the law, you had to smoke". I loved getting off the plane and being able to smoke immediately on entering the terminal building at Heraklion (of course, for the first few years you could smoke on the plane - how on earth did non smokers survive ?)
Then I gave up smoking 11 years ago and, wow, I immediately hated the smell and effect of smoking. How can you suddenly change from loving a smoky bar or taverna, to hating it and actually coughing ?
I sympathise with the poster from Malaga !

[filippos]

... Then I gave up smoking 11 years ago and, wow, I immediately hated the smell and effect of smoking. ...

After about six failed attempts per year I quit smoking (from 40+ daily) 31years ago. The first three days were horrendous but day four it was like turning off a tap and I haven't smoked since and other people smoking has never bothered me since until the fug is so low I can't see across the room. Even here that is very rare. I do object if someone is blowing smoke directly into my face but that's more a question of bad manners than smoke.

[moved 2 crete]

I understand from advice from many years ago that lifelong nonsmokers are more tolerant of passive smoking than those who have smoked many years then given up, how many agree with these sentiments, I personally gave up on doctors advice some 40 years ago from a habit that was 60 a day and 100 a day at weekends, senior service and woodbines, glad I did, still here at 80..

[bobscott]

I understand from advice from many years ago that lifelong nonsmokers are more tolerant of passive smoking than those who have smoked many years then given up, how many agree with these sentiments, I personally gave up on doctors advice some 40 years ago from a habit that was 60 a day and 100 a day at weekends, senior service and woodbines, glad I did, still here at 80..

Well they do say that reformed smokers are the least tolerant and I confess that after giving up on 40+ a day, pipe and cigars some 46 years ago, I don't welcome the smoke very much. More for what it does to my clothes being in a smokey atmosphere than actually inhaling it passively. Takes all sorts, I guess. Bob.

[Joan]

I would add two things to the discussion so far.

i) Inhaling smoke is a real problem for asthmatics like myself. If we’re eating indoors and someone is smoking on our table or very nearby, it takes three full days for my lung function (as confirmed by my peak flow meter) to return to normal afterwards. So the price for me is wheezing and feeling under par for three days. The effect is less marked outdoors, but it’s still there.

ii) Fortunately, things are definitely improving overall in respect of anti-social smoking in Crete. The younger generation – for reasons both of health and economics – are so much better than their parents and grandparents are/were. We’ve been coming to Crete for nearly 30 years, and we eat out a lot. There is no doubt that we experience less smoking nowadays, more people not smoking at all, more people going outside to smoke etc.

I am optimistic that things will continue to improve.

Joan

[Clio]

I think the problem is that addicted smokers, however nice, educated, and informed about passive smoking can be completely oblivious to it when they are in the process of giving offence.

I’ve recently been laid low by a particularly nasty bug, and my dear friend G, (who doesn’t read this forum) has been wonderful in looking after me. Bringing food, prescriptions, gossip, and assiduously nipping out to the balcony for her fag fix, even in torrential rain.

But when I was feeling better and fancied tottering out, first time in some days,she helped me down the stairs, linked me down the road, found me a nice sheltered sunny outdoors spot at the cafeneio and got the drinks in. Then lit up and within seconds was wafting smoke across at me as she continued the tale – with gestures which kept bringing the cigarette nearer to me – of shenanigans at the carnival party. My coughing fit just didn’t register – she’d heard me doing that for days. My moving my chair away had her asking if I was cold and we should move indoors. She’d have been absolutely mortified if I’d told her that her smoking was really distressing me, so I kept quiet and tried not to inhale.

I understand only too well how this happens because, Reader, once upon a time I was that smoker.

[Roberts2019]

I would add two things to the discussion so far.

i) Inhaling smoke is a real problem for asthmatics like myself. If we’re eating indoors and someone is smoking on our table or very nearby, it takes three full days for my lung function (as confirmed by my peak flow meter) to return to normal afterwards. So the price for me is wheezing and feeling under par for three days. The effect is less marked outdoors, but it’s still there.

ii) Fortunately, things are definitely improving overall in respect of anti-social smoking in Crete. The younger generation – for reasons both of health and economics – are so much better than their parents and grandparents are/were. We’ve been coming to Crete for nearly 30 years, and we eat out a lot. There is no doubt that we experience less smoking nowadays, more people not smoking at all, more people going outside to smoke etc.

I am optimistic that things will continue to improve.

Joan

Hi Joan,
Tha is the problem for us, My husband has Asthma it takes him 2 weeks for his lungs to come back to normal, he even puts on a surgical type mask so if we want to sit in a outdoor restauranst which we never do here in spain .... Thanks

[Eleni13]

Friends who are heavy smokers in spite of being, in one case, a cancer sufferer,do not seem to register the fact that they are causing acute discomfort to others. In fact they probably do know, but choose to ignore it on the grounds that we are outside. Or nearly. What does one do in this case?

[George]

As an ex smoker who now vapes it's interesting to look at things from both sides as it were. My wife still smokes and at our hotel in Crete I would accompany my wife outside when she went for a smoke, whereas you can vape indoors. The owners of the hotel smoked indoors naturally enough. I get people complaining about the vapour - when it clearly is not smoke, but some people want to have a dig at someone for whatever reason. At times my wife's smoke will waft over my face which I find very irritating, yet I don't complain as I did the same myself for many years. Smokers are seen as fair game by many people nowadays, and while there are undoubtedly some who have genuine concerns, there are others who seem intent on making a fuss over nothing. I love football, and at our home games all the smokers have to go outside at half time for a fag, that is, leave one empty space for another. In Crete at the OFI games my daughter was handed fireworks on the way in to the stadium for the display, and of course everyone smokes freely. In Germany everyone can smoke freely inside the stadiums and it begs the question about peoples attitudes. Are there no asthmatic fans in Greece, Germany or other European countries who allow smoking within stadiums? Live and let live, but have a bit respect for other people and everything will turn out fine - life's too short for anything else.

[mouche]

Excactly, have a bit respect for other people by NOT smoking!

[TweetTweet]

I tend to feel rather ill/sick when I see people drinking things like coca cola, diet cola - all the very health damaging *soft drinks* (mostly laced with faked sugars such as aspartame.