Arriving in Germany, visitors are immediately confronted with the social acceptability of smoking. Even in the international airport at Frankfurt, one of the first German airports to ban smoking, authorities re-established “restricted” but open smoking areas, so that passengers are continuously exposed to environmental tobacco smoke. On most German trains, visitors will find bistros with crowds of smokers. Although smoking in public is not allowed for people aged under 16 years, nobody pays attention to the restriction—typically, parents do not interfere when their children smoke as many parents are smokers themselves. Like Japan, Germany has vending machines on almost every corner. With 80 million inhabitants, Germany has more than 800 000 vending machines, one machine for every 30 smokers with free access for adults and children day and night.

In 1998, 37% of men and 28% of women aged 18–79 smoked.1 Smoking commences in Germany on average at 13.7 years, 13.6 for boys and 13.7 for girls. By the age of 16, 44% are regular smokers; sex specific information is not available.2 As smoking is being initiated at a young age, the teenage market is obviously critical to the tobacco industry.