The Spanish government has announced this week reforms which aim to prevent people from smoking in public and private work areas, teaching and sport centres and bars.
Until now, Spain has been one of Europe’s most «permissive» (in words of Elena Salgado, Spain’s Health Minister) countries in terms of the price of cigarettes and the availability of places where people can smoke. Until very recently, restaurants and bars were all-smoking zones, and it was quite usual to be attended in places like a bank or a public administration by someone with a cigarette dangling from his or her fingers.
Spain’s present government is determined to tackle the problem of tobacco addiction in Spain and announced this week measures aimed at reducing consumption. The government hopes to reach consensus with all the affected groups in terms of advertising, public spaces where smoking is allowed and the legal age at which teenagers are alllowed to buy cigarrettes – the Health Minister has already announced that fines imposed for selling tobacco to teenagers under the age-limit will be more severe than at present.
Ms Salgado, underlined last week that tobacco-addiction is the main cause of death in Spain, and the precentage of smokers in Spain is one of the highest in Europe. She said that government reforms would try to protect the rights of non-smokers and help smokers to give up the habit.
New anti-tobacco legislation in Spain is expected to be passed in 2006 and will include the following clauses:
- The sale of tobacco to people under 18 years throughout Spain will be illegal (in some autonomous communities the legal age is 16)
- The sale of tobacco will be forbidden in all health clinics, centres of education, culture and/or sport activities, and associations offering care and leisure to adolescents
- Smoking will be forbidden in all closed places of work in the private and public sectors
- Smoking will be forbidden in all health and education centers; sport facilities; centers offering advice and attention to citizens; centers offering help to teenagers under 18 and places where food is prepared, made or sold
- Smoking will be forbidden in all lifts, telephone booths, indoor cashpoints, public transport, bus stations, and all areas of public transport which are not open air (metro, indoor bus stations, railway stations, airports….
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According to the latest figures, tobacco causes 50,000 deaths in Spain each year, i.e. more than all deaths caused by AIDS, alcohol and road accidents together.
Having been a hotelier and restauranteur all my working life in England and for the past 10 years in the South of Spain, I am fully behind the new anti-smoking laws. I am more than happy to make my restaurant a no smoking area but, I have to say that quite a lot of my customers will be very unhappy. Over the past 3 years I have noticed a huge swing to no smoking. I am in a position where I can offer a smoking area on the terrace and I have a seperate bar area, which I am going to keep a smoking bar – I will be very pleased that, by law, I will be able to refuse the entry of jueveniles under 18 years of age, (especially those under 10 years of age), as, in my opinion they should be in bed anyway.
I do wonder how the Andalucian catering industry will cope with these laws as, every day I see waiters smoking and, even worse, chefs come out of the kitchen with a cigarette between their fingers – the communal ashtray is kept in the kitchen!!!! They think nothing of it and when approached, which I have been known to do, they just shrug their shoulders and walk away. I can’t wait to read about the fines imposed on the restaurants and staff in most of the Andalucian coastal restaurants, as for the past 10 years I have been disgusted by the attitude towards handling food and serving drinks in a lot of establishments in the South of Spain. I just hope and pray that it is not one of these Spanish laws that applies to every restaurant and bar, except Spanish owned properties. Time will tell.
I HAVE 4 RESTAURANTS ON THE COSTA DEL SOL & I HAVE BEEN TOLD THAT IF THE PREMISES IS MORE THAN 100 SQUARE MTS IN SIZE AN AREA CAN BE USED FOR SMOKING . CAN ANYONE ENLIGHTEN ME ON THIS. WE HAVE PRESUMED THAT IT IS STILL LEGAL TO SMOKE ON THE TERRACE OR IN THE CONSERVATORY. IN ONE OF OUR RESTAURANTS WE HAVE A BAR UPSTAIRS, I WONDER IF SMOKING WILL BE ALLOWED IN THIS BAR AS THERE IS NO FOOD SERVED. WE HAVE RECEIVED NO DETAILS WHATSOEVER FROM THE ANDALUCIAN GOVERNMENT AND TRUTHFULLY WE ARE IN THE DARK ABOUT THE RULES COMING INTO FORCE ON JANUARY 1ST.