Malta and Hungary were the only two countries where the number of people who believed that cancer may result from passive smoking had gone down over the past two years, according to a recent Eurobarometer study entitled Attitudes of Europeans towards Tobacco.

According to the report, all the countries, apart from Hungary and Malta, recorded that a higher number of people believe that passive smoking may cause cancer. In the UK, the proportion of those who thought that cancer could be a result of passive smoking remained the same.

Malta, however, fared better in other aspects of the report, ranking third with 57 per cent of respondents saying they never smoked.

Portugal came first, with 64 per cent of people saying they never smoked, followed by Slovakia with 59 per cent.

Greece had one of the lowest percentages of people who never smoked, with only 41 per cent of respondents. The Netherlands had 40 per cent, and Denmark 39 per cent.

Malta had the lowest number of smokers who said they smoked regularly – 72 per cent.

The highest proportion was registered in Hungary, with 93 per cent of respondents who smoked saying they did so regularly, followed by Spain and Luxemburg with 91 per cent.

A huge majority of cigarette smokers – 96 per cent – said they smoked fewer than five cigarettes a day, while another 21 per cent said they smoked between 10 to 14 cigarettes daily.

Maltese smokers, along with Finnish and Swedish smokers, were the least likely to smoke every day. Sweden had the lowest percentage of smokers who smoked daily – 84 per cent – followed by Malta (86 per cent) and Finland (89 per cent).

All or nearly all smokers said they smoked every day in Hungary (100 per cent), and in Ireland and Italy (both at 98 per cent).

Malta and Germany were the two countries with the lowest percentage of smokers (nine per cent) who had used nicotine replacement therapy in their last attempt to give up smoking.

At least 26 per cent of European smokers had used nicotine replacement therapy (NCR) – which is most commonly used in attempts to give up the habit.

The UK had the highest number of respondents (54 per cent) who said they used NCR, followed by Austria (42 per cent) and Sweden (37 per cent).

The study found that 28 per cent of the citizens of the 15 older member states were more likely to try NCR, as opposed to 18 per cent of citizens in the new member states.

None of the respondents from Malta, along with Greece, Cyprus, Lithuania and Portugal, used alternative or traditional methods to stop smoking. The highest proportion of respondents who use alternative methods (10 per cent) were from Austria.

At least 19 per cent of Maltese respondents said that they were exposed to tobacco smoke for at least one hour a day.

Almost all the respondents from Malta, Sweden and Ireland (96 per cent each) support smoke-free offices and other indoor places of work. Austria had the lowest percentage, with 80 per cent of respondents saying they were in favour.