On Thursday, regional health authorities will let Spain's health minister know whether they agree or not with the proposal to ban smoking on bar and restaurant terraces.
The minister, Mónica García, hopes that approval can be given on Friday, but the meeting of the Interterritorial Council for the National Health System on Thursday is expected to be a tense gathering that will not result in agreement.
Certain regions, the Balearics included, are against prohibition, preferring a voluntary scheme to make terraces smoke-free spaces. Balearic proposals therefore contemplate "attractive tax incentives" and quality badges that would identify smoke-free bars and restaurants.
The regions have all made submissions, the director-general for public health in the Balearics, Elena Esteban, saying: "One of our priority submissions has not been taken into account, which is the voluntariness of smoke-free spaces."
The Balearic government's proposals are in line with those of restaurant associations on the island and are contrary to those of the Balearic delegation for the Spanish Association against Cancer, which wants a ban.
Minister García insisted on Wednesday that the Spanish government's intention is to reform different laws to eliminate tobacco from places "where scientific evidence says that there are people who consume second-hand smoke, and which is harmful". "There are European and global studies that say that 94% of nicotine and toxic residues are being breathed in on terraces, so we want to expand smoke-free spaces."
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Seems to be a lot of pro-smoking downthumbers disliking previous comments here. Perhaps non-smokers should not frequent bars and restaurants that don’t introduce voluntary bans? Restaurants will soon adopt the ban when their incomes go over a cliff. That’s democracy in action!
People die from passive smoking, as well as those who smoke.
Mike Lammers'It looks like they want to take all human pleasures away' Yeah because lung cancer is such fun! If you want it carry on, but you don't have the right to inflict it on the rest of us.
Mike LammersUnfortunately you're obfuscating what is a very clear situation which is that smoking in close proximity to non-smokers is anti-social, unhealthy and unpleasant. Smokers are more than welcome to fill their houses with smoke and nicotine just don't send it my way. The law already bans people from hitting others, stealing their possessions and abusing them and smoking in public is one such additional abuse.
I'm not a smoker but 'banning' in general becomes a sport .It looks like they want to take all human pleasures away s under the so called health law. Europe declares to be democratic but at the end the democracy is far away. - no smoking in football grounds, sugar tax for soft drinks, ongoing lowering speed on roads and large amounts of cameras so called for the safety, right wing parties who win on votes are not recognized as such and government is created by a mix of parties which lost votes , new laws for farmers incl taking away a part of their land ( so called for nature and fauna ) Next will be no more meat , fish , beer but only salat and insects on the menu. And all this started and speeded up with the hilarious laws during the pandemic
It's 2024. People know that smoking cigarettes is a real danger to their health but it's a free choice and some choose to ignore all the vast medical evidence. That's up to them. What is not their choice to make is for those around them when smoking to experience the secondary smoke pollution from their cigarettes, especially when relaxing over a meal or drinks. That's highly intrusive and dangerous to their health. So smoking in public and in particular in close proximity to non-smokers such as in terraces has to be banned. Let smokers smoke in their own homes but not near me or my family.