Spain Adopts Tough Anti-Smoking Law

The given law was proposed by the Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and his Socialist Party and was approved by 189-154 votes, also was turned down a Senate amendment which permitted casinos to have smoking areas.

From January 2, all bars, cafes and restaurant will be transformed into non-smoking areas, thus bringing Spain to conformity with the European Union’s toughest anti-smoking nations and other states that prohibit smoking in enclosed public places.

“We have to start to become more civilized and modern,” said a smoker. The given law will make Spain one of the toughest places than many other EU countries where is still allowed to have smoking sections. The given law will also ban smoking in outdoor places as playgrounds and the territory around schools and hospitals.

The previous anti-smoking law that was adopted in 2006, and targeted at eradication of smoking and smoking related diseases and deaths, banned smoking in workplaces. But many declared that that law was a failure because it permitted to the majority of bar and restaurant owners to decide whether to allow smoking or not, and almost all of them allowed it.

Bar and restaurant owners will not have that privilege and those who have smoking sections will have to get rid of them. Government officials forecast that thousands of lives that would have been lost because of secondhand smoke will be saved due to this new law.

“This is a very important step for protection of public health and the future generation,” stated Health Minister Leire Panjin. Owners of bar and cafes failed to gain an exception in the new law permitting them to create hermetically sealed smoking areas. However, hotels will be permitted to allocate 30 % of their rooms for smokers.

It was predicted that with the introduction of a new law, about 145,000 people will lose their jobs and it will cause 10% decrease in profit for bar and restaurant owners. But according to Health Ministry similar laws where implemented in Britain, France and Italy and didn’t affected considerably business.

Migel, smoking inside a cafe, stated that the new law is not good, because he doesn’t think that cafes and bars are public places. "These establishments are private businesses and their owners should have the right to choose to have or not smoking sections," he said.

Smokers will still be permitted to smoke on open-air terraces, which there are in many Spanish bars. Other exceptions are given to psychiatric institutions and jails.

In was estimated that approximately 1000 waiters die annually from breathing in secondhand smoke. Health officials hope that more lives will be saved because it will be difficult for smokers to find a place where smoking is allowed.