Although the degree of non-compliance is high, since last August outdoor smoking is prohibited if you do not keep a distance of two meters with the rest of the people. De facto, this measure forces users of bar terraces to move away from the tables to have a cigarette, something that most communities has expressly prohibited in specific legislation.
The measure, which was approved to stop the coronavirus, is still in force, and from the Ministry of Health they are considering keeping it in forceNot to stop the pandemic, but as an additional measure to fight against smoking and the harmful effects that inhalation of tobacco smoke has on non-smokers.
This was stated by the Deputy Director General of Health Promotion and Public Health Surveillance, Pilar Campos, during his speech at the XI Congress of the National Committee for the Prevention of Smoking (CNPT). As Efe collects, Campos stressed that “it is necessary to take advantage” of the good acceptance that the prohibition of smoking tobacco and related products in the hotel industry has had among citizens to update the 2010 law.
This law, which provoked a strong rejection of the Hospitality Industry, definitively prohibited smoking inside any public establishment. Since then, the terraces have been the last bastion of smokers in bars. Until the covid-19 arrived.
A new Anti-Smoking Law
The former Minister of Health, Salvador Illa, announced a reform of the anti-smoking law that was parked due to the pandemic, but it seems that its successor, Carolina Darias, is already working on it.
According to Celeste López in La Vanguardia, the Ministry of Health is already working on the modification of the anti-smoking law to, among other things, expand smoke-free spaces, both terraces and access to public buildings and football stadiums.
For the moment, the legal reform It is a draft that is being debated internally at a technical level and with the rest of the political parties in order to seek alliances for its approval.
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