Smoke Free Greece has joined 23 other public-health organisations from across Europe to form the European Tobacco Endgame Coalition. The coalition is committed to achieving a tobacco endgame — a society in which no one starts smoking — by 2040, and advocates for comprehensive legislative and public health measures to reach this goal.

Smoke Free Greece will coordinate the coalition’s engagement with Greek legislators and health authorities.

The 2025 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey results are out, and they show encouraging progress. Smoking rates among 15-year-olds in Greece have fallen to 8.3%, down from 11.2% in 2022 and 18.4% in 2014. Greece now ranks among the lower quartile of EU countries for adolescent tobacco use.

Registration is now open for the 15th Annual Panhellenic School Conference on Tobacco Prevention, taking place in Athens on 14 November 2025. Schools may register delegations of up to four students and one teacher supervisor. The deadline for early registration is 30 September 2025.

Registration is free of charge for all participating schools. Travel support grants are available for schools outside Attica.

The Greek Parliament voted last week to adopt updated plain packaging regulations for tobacco products, which will come into force in January 2026. The new regulations standardise packaging colour, require health warnings to cover 70% of both front and back faces, and ban all brand imagery.

Smoke Free Greece had advocated for these measures over a period of three years. We welcome the decision and will monitor implementation closely.

We have learned that amendments are being proposed to the Greek smoke-free legislation that would permit smoking in designated areas of outdoor hospitality venues. Smoke Free Greece strongly opposes these amendments.

The evidence is unequivocal: partial exemptions undermine compliance with smoking bans broadly and expose workers to second-hand smoke in their workplace. We urge all legislators to reject these amendments.

The Smoke Free Schools Programme provides a complete, teacher-ready curriculum consisting of six 45-minute sessions for students in grades 7 through 9. Sessions progress from understanding addiction biology through to media literacy, peer-pressure resistance skills, and personal action planning.

Schools that participated in the pilot showed a 19% lower rate of smoking initiation compared to matched control schools.

Effective tobacco prevention in schools depends on teachers who feel confident, informed, and supported. Smoke Free Greece runs two-day intensive teacher training workshops three times per year in Athens, Thessaloniki, and Patras, with online editions available for educators in more remote regions.

Over 1,200 teachers have completed the training since its launch.

The Smoke Free Neighbourhoods Initiative works in communities where smoking rates significantly exceed the national average. In partnership with local community centres, health centres, and municipal services, we run a combination of cessation clinics, public talks, and environmental activities.

The initiative has operated in 14 neighbourhoods across Athens and Thessaloniki.

Smoke Free Arts is an annual creative competition open to students aged 12 to 18 across Greece. Entrants submit original work — visual art, short film, or spoken word — exploring the theme of living tobacco-free.

Works shortlisted for the national final are exhibited at a public gallery event in Athens. Winners receive mentorship from professional artists and their work is featured in Smoke Free Greece communications for the following year.

The e-cigarette industry has successfully repositioned vaping as a safer alternative to smoking. But the evidence tells a more complicated story. A major 2023 meta-analysis found that adolescents who use e-cigarettes are 3.5 times more likely to take up conventional cigarettes within two years than those who have never vaped.

Aerosol from e-cigarettes contains ultrafine particles, heavy metals including lead and nickel, and flavouring compounds associated with severe obstructive lung disease.