It seems like a century has passed, but it was only a little over a decade ago, in 2011, that we stopped living with tobacco smoke in bars, clubs or restaurants. At the beginning of that year, the law that modified the 2005 standard came into force to ban tobacco in all public places leisure, without distinction between smoking and smoke-free spaces.
The hostelry He experienced the rule as a real drama: it was going to be the end of many bars. The truth is that, after a few months when a drop in sales was noticed, absolutely nothing happened.
But it seems that history is repeating itself. Although it has been announced since 2021, it seems that this will be the year in which the Government will implement a new regulation that, among other things, will prohibit smoking on the terraces of bars and restaurants, the last stronghold in the hospitality industry for smokers.
“Those in charge are the top Taliban, against absolutely everything, who want to decide how we have to live, how we have to die, and, with all due respect, let me live as I want as long as it doesn't bother you,” he said. assured the president of Hospitality of Spain, José Luis Yzuel, in statements to Efeagro.
“They want us to live with a model that is not the one that people have,” he continued. “It will create tensions with clientsit makes us play police again.”
A preliminary draft
The ministry has already prepared a draft of the new Comprehensive Smoking Prevention and Control Plan 2024-2027 which will be taken to the Public Health Commission today.
In addition to advocating for the expansion of smoke-free spaces – not only bar terraces, but also other “outdoor community and social spaces” – the measure provides for a new price increase of tobacco as well as equating the measures already present for cigarettes to other forms of tobacco consumption: electronic cigarettes, heated tobacco, water pipes, shishas or hookahs.
In addition to the hoteliers, the Interprofessional Tobacco Organization in Spain (Oitab), the Union of Tobacconists' Associations of Spain, the Union of Vaping Promoters and Entrepreneurs (UPEV) and the Union of Tobacconists' Associations have publicly complained about the measure. of Spain, which ensures that neither plain packaging nor “disproportionate” increases price are used to fight against smoking. Most scientific studies do not say the same.
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