Kimberley Mannion
THE majority of Spaniards want to see stricter laws on smoking in public places.
Some 85% of Spanish people want to see smoking bans extended, with 72% saying smoking should be prohibited on bar and restaurant terraces.
According to a survey by the Spanish Society of Family and Community Medicine (semFYC).
Some 56.8% would restrict smoking in all open public spaces, 54% on beaches, 43.6% in private cars, and 24.2% in the street.
The findings were presented during No Smoke week, which raised awareness of the dangers of smoking, a habit which causes the death of 52,000 people in Spain per year.
Coordinator of No Smoke week, Susana Morena, is also in favour of extending these rules to new smoking alternatives like vaping, on which she comments that young people have the ‘false perception that they ‘are not as bad’.
Maria Fernandez, President of semFYC, said: “If Covid is to continue being a public health problem, the number one enemy, meaning tobacco, cannot be left to the side.”
The question of smoking on terraces in Spain has been debated for some time, and some local and regional governments have taken steps to limit smoking in public places, with lighting up on the beach in Barcelona banned from July.
READ MORE:
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- Covid-19 restrictions to end in Spain’s Costa Blanca except for indoor masks and smoking ban on outside terraces
- Fines handed out on day one of smoking ban in Spain’s Malaga
