Alex Trelinski
SMOKERS in the Balaeric Islands can once again legally enjoy a cigarette on a bar or restaurant terrace after all Covid-19 health restrictions ended on Wednesday.
Tuesday’s decision by the Council of Ministers to curtail all measures included the strongly publicised end of wearing masks in healthcare situations.
But Wednesday’s ending of Covid restrictions includes the scrapping of non-smoking rules introduced in 2020 in the Balearic Islands.
In practice, the ban was largely ignored, especially after the main wave of the pandemic disappeared, with little enforcement from law authorities.
A customer at a bar in Mallorca’s Palma, Maria Ramis, said: “It’s about time as it didn’t make sense for this to continue and you’d stand up smoking right next to an end of row of tables.”
The prohibition also mandated a two-metre space between a smoker and anybody else walking on a pavement, which again never seemed to be enforced.
The president of the Spanish Association Against Cancer(AECC), Jose Reyes, said: “Keeping terraces smoke-free has been positive, well-accepted, and not generated conflict.”
He once again reiterated a call for a national anti-smoking law to protect the health of non-smokers which Reyes says accounts for 70% of the population.
READ MORE:
- Smoking ban on bar and restaurant terraces stays for now in Spain’s Costa Blanca and Valencia areas
- Smoking in bar terraces will be allowed again in Baleares
- STUB IT OUT: Spaniards in favour of stricter smoking bans including on Spain’s bar and restaurant terraces
