From the first day of the nonsmoking law, the 1142 line of the Health Ministry got on fire, because people were interested in receiving exact information on the new law. For the first three hours, the employees of the ministry had to answer to 1000 calls and until the end of the day – 10 000.

Most of the callers (69%) inquired information of how the law is applied in restaurants and bars and 31% were wondering about the measures, which will be applied at work. More than 90% of the callers were positive regarding the new law. Yesterday, the first 44 complaints came for violating the law.

Employees of the Health Ministry called 8000 restaurants and bars, in order to inform them of the new regulation and according to them the owners of every third place have decided either to put a smoking section or to announce it as “for smokers”.

From the first day it became evident that there not enough staff members to control the application of the law, to put fines, to approve of the bars and restaurants and their smoking sections, etc. As decided on a meeting of the communal employees, this happens because of the scarce information on the role of the communal police and of the Health Ministry employees, who are not clear on their responsibilities.

As the Health Ministry employees say, the ministry has sent thousands of indications to 212 municipalities but in the provinces no one knew what is allowed and what not, because restaurant and bar owners were not informed by the municipalities.

As a whole people were following the regulations. The good weather and the outside tables are helping the clients cope with the new law and the public workers had to resist their desire to light up a cigarette, because still there are no special smoking rooms made. The violating fines for individuals are between ?50 and ?500 and for owners between ?1000 and ?20 000.

The restaurant and bar owners in Mitilini (Lesbos) hid the ashtrays from their tables and 70% of the owners in Larissa announced that they want to continue allowing smoking but they do not have the necessary signs, even though they have expressed their need to the municipality.

In Thessaloniki only 5 restaurants and bars with area under 70 sq. m. expressed their willingness to forbid smoking. All other small bars and coffee shops (330) have filed an inquiry for signs, which will allow their customers to smoke freely.

In Facebook the nonsmokers and smokers groups raised against each other. The nonsmokers said that they do not want to see a cigarette even on a picture and the smokers put up a logo “I will smoke even after July 1^st. Always and everywhere,” which expresses with humor their “right” to smoke anytime and anywhere they want.