A third of Europeans is smoke slave

With an average of 14.4 cigarettes a day, smokers in Europe are the 29% of the citizens. Ahead of the 2010 No Tobacco Day (Monday 31st May) the EU Commission published the results of a Eurobarometer survey and reaffirmed its efforts against tobacco, that causes illness for 14 million people and death to 650 000 people every year. The survey shows that the strong majority of EU citizens are in favor of more stringent control measures against tobacco, they desire restaurants “smoke free” and considers appropriate warnings presented on the packages, even though only four Member States currently use this measure. Tobacco addiction is much more widespread in the south of the old continent where there are the highest percentage of smokers: over 40% of the people in Greece, 39% in Bulgaria and 38% in Hungary. Reading this data, the target set by the EU Council of a “Smoke-free Europe by 2012″ seems very far to be reached