Spain to ban smoking in bar terraces, beaches, bus stops

The Spanish government has introduced a bill to ban smoking at outdoor venues, including bar and restaurant terraces, beaches, bus stops, and stadiums. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s cabinet signed off on the plan.

The health ministry said that the reformed Tobacco Law intends to ‘reinforce protections on people’s health and to adapt the law to consumption patterns and to the tobacco product market’.

According to the health ministry data, over 50,000 people die each year in Spain from smoking-related causes, which is about 137 deaths per day.The preliminary draft of the reformed Tobacco Law would also treat electronic cigarettes (vapes), nicotine pouches, herbal products, shisha pipes, and other tobacco products as the same as conventional cigarettes. “This is about items whose consumption and market presence have grown substantially over recent years, especially among young people, and which, although they don’t always contain nicotine or tobacco, are linked to the act of smoking or inhaling, and which also increase the risk of smoking conventional tobacco,” the ministry said in a statement.

This bill would ban smoking in enclosed public spaces and in outdoor areas, including sports centres, children’s play areas, bus stops, public swimming pools, and university campuses.

If approved, it would also ban advertising, sponsoring, or promoting these tobacco products.

Health Minister Monica Garcia defended the draft law earlier this summer. “Restrictions are backed by scientific evidence, by international experience and by the recommendations from the European Union," she told SER Radio. She emphasized that it is a move to focus on health equity, recognising that everyone has the right not to be exposed to smoke involuntarily.

She added that this law intends to put Spain ‘back at the forefront of the fight against tobacco’. “We know that the reality has changed when it comes to tobacco and that there are new devices, such as vapes and tobacco-heating devices and nicotine pouches – and this law, for the first time, will regulate all these tobacco-related products, and it will regulate them in a clear and forceful way based on the scientific evidence,” she added.“The government can’t yield to pressure from the tobacco industry and deprive Spanish society of a measure that’s taken root successfully in neighbouring countries and which helps to stop people starting smoking as teenagers," the National Committee for the Prevention of Smoking (CNPT) said in a statement.(With inputs from Reuters)