Spain's breath of fresh air in favor of passive-smokers

[Ferran]

Spain's breath of fresh air

From next year (2005) it will be illegal to smoke in the Spanish workplace. And with a new report putting the country at the bottom of the class when it comes to combating smoking, it seems the move is long overdue. Graham Keeley reports.


Under the law, public spaces would have to take non-smokers into account

For Lucile Valentine it is a constant annoyance.

"You are in a bar or a restaurant - and no-one ever asks if you would mind if they smoke," she says.

"I hate it, but in Spain it is something that you come up against all the time. And it can be a real issue. I had a real row with someone at work because I did not want to breath in her fumes. She was even smoking inside the toilet."

Valentine, a French market researcher, is typical of many foreigners who face the same problem in Spain, a country where smokers are seemingly everywhere and the habit is part of the culture.

In reality, according to United Nations research, about a third of the Spanish population smokes. However, rules stopping smoking in public are scarce.

But all this may be about to change.

Health Minister Elena Salgado announced in May that from next year it will be illegal to smoke in the work place.

To start things off, Salgado has decided to ban the weed in her own ministry.

It may take a lot more will - and cash - to make many employers comply with what is only part of an ambitious plan to bring Spain in line with the rest of Europe on this issue.

A survey published this week by the European Network Against Smoking found that among the 25 EU countries, Spain and Germany had made the slowest progress in combating the habit.

Researchers used six World bank indicators: taxing cigarettes, legislating to provide smoke-free public places and offices, enforcing warnings against smoking on packets and providing access to help groups to help people stop smoking and financing other schemes to combat the habit.

The study said despite progress in reducing the number of smokers – particularly among men- there is still a lot of work to be done.

"There is an urgent need to raise the investment in programmes to combat smoking," said Luk Joossens, study coordinator.

"One in every two smokers will die from smoking-related diseases."

The report says the EU should invest EUR 0.80-2.40 per person each year on anti-smoking measures.

But it said in the EU, only the UK spends more than one euro per capita to combat smoking.

Medical campaigns, education programmes, telephone help lines and restrictions on smoking in public areas are all measures which could help, said the report.

The Spanish government is planning to bring in measures next year to force companies to provide nons-smoking areas in offices and restaurants.

And, perhaps encouragingly, it appears there is the will to make this work.

Earlier this year, a survey found almost half of all Spaniards think more measures should be taken to stop smoking.

The survey, released on World Day Without Tobacco, said 46.2 percent of Spaniards wanted to increase restrictions on smoking.

The poll results came as it emerged at least 60,000 people in Spain have died from smoking in the past year.

However, at the same time, 70 percent of those asked said they had no problem with smoking in bars or restaurants.

The government's five-year plan against smoking will, for the first time, force most public places, from restaurants to public toilets, to take non-smokers into account.


There is a sizeable lobby in Spain that supports smoking

Private companies will have just six months to adapt to the new law which will force them to provide smoking rooms.

In many countries, where such law changes have already happened, the sight of hardened smokers huddled outside their buildings sharing a cigarette is a common one. And it would no doubt happen here too.

The new Socialist administration is more determined than the previous one to give non-smokers the right, in law, to breathe uncontaminated air.

This would mean that companies would face fines if they did not do enough to change their offices to give non-smokers a breather by creating smoking areas, common in many offices in other countries.

The fines would vary from EUR 3,000 to up to EUR 600,000.

Companies would be forced to provide separate ventilation for these special smoking areas and make sure they are away from communal parts of the building.

But the sweeping changes would not stop there. The rules will extend to health centres, libraries, exhibition halls, sports clubs, conference centres, theatres, cinemas, restaurants — and even lifts and telephone boxes.

The most telling changes will come in restaurants, hotels and bars, which will also be forced to provide non-smoking and smoking areas. The new regulations have strict guidelines on non-smoking in areas where food is prepared.

These establishments will have up to two years to change their spaces to conform with the new law. They will have to provide up to half their space for non-smokers.

The owners will also have a responsibility to ensure that the law works in practice. If the owner of a bar catches a customer lighting up in a non-smoking area, he or she must do something about it.

It will also be illegal to sell tobacco-related products in some shops, particularly to those under 18. This would go as far as outlawing the sale of chocolate cigarettes because they are thought to induce children to smoke.
In places where there are cigarette machines, the owners will have to ensure that children cannot use them. A hi-tech system is being prepared to ensure that children cannot buy cigarettes from these machines.

Quite what Spaniards themselves will make of this remains to be seen.

Many feel sympathy towards non-smokers and would not oppose these changes. But still there is a sizeable lobby that supports the habit.

Three years ago, the Catalan regional government tried to wean smokers off the weed — by paying them.

In a pilot study, people were offered cash to pay for nicotine patches and gum. Holidays to the Caribbean were offered as prizes for those who successfully kicked the habit.


Health Minister Elena Salgado

In Spanish 'tabaquismo' means addiction to smoking. It remains to be seen if a new word will enter the language to describe the anti-smoking movement.

Whether Spain will follow the examples of Ireland or Norway, where smoking in public is banned in bars, seems at this stage unlikely.

One example is telling, as any international travellers will know; smoking is permitted in many airports. In 1999, when Iberia tried to introduce a ban on smoking, pilots refused to comply and continued to light up in the cockpit.

It seems certain the proposed legislation may be watered down, but for the likes of Valentine, it will be a breath of fresh air.

Updated October 2004


Source: http://www.expatica.com/source/site_...thof+fresh+air

[Menydh]

Originally Posted by Kohler

From next year (2005) it will be illegal to smoke in the Spanish workplace.

It is a strategy to blame upcoming rises in unemployment on work place defections.