Tito Drago

MADRID, Dec 21 2005 (IPS) – Spain has joined in a growing worldwide trend by adopting strict new legislation that will ban smoking in the workplace and other enclosed public spaces as of Jan. 1, while requiring bars and restaurants to offer non-smoking sections.
A survey carried out by the Centre for Sociological Research (CIS), a government agency, shortly after the Dec. 15 passage of the new law showed that 25.8 percent of respondents identified themselves as smokers, while another 26.7 percent said they had been regular smokers at some time in the past. Other studies have estimated the proportion of smokers in Spain at just over 30 percent of the population.

Nevertheless, 77.2 percent of the people interviewed in the CIS survey said they approved of the ban on smoking in the workplace, while approval jumped to 94.1 percent for the prohibition on smoking in hospitals, schools, government offices and enclosed sports and cultural venues.

Less than five percent of respondents expressed opposition to the new measures.

The most heated discussion in parliament involved a proposal put forward by the opposition right-wing Popular Party (PP), which pushed for the legislation to include state funding of medical treatment for people who want to quit smoking a provision that failed to gain majority support among the legislators.

Government financing for programmes to help smokers kick the habit had been strongly advocated by members of the medical community, including Dr. José Luis Álvarez-Sala, a medical school professor and head of the Pneumology Unit at the San Carlos Clinical Hospital in Madrid, as well as the president of the Spanish Society of Pneumology and Thoracic Surgery.
Álvarez-Sala stressed that smokers make a significant contribution to the state coffers, since roughly 60 percent of the price of a pack of cigarettes corresponds to taxes.

He also sardonically commented that because smokers die at a younger average age than non-smokers, they collect considerably less from government pension funds.

In addition, he pointed out that the World Health Organisation (WHO) views tobacco dependence as a disease that must be prevented and treated, because it causes many complications, shortens life expectancy and poses a high risk of mortality, while over 60 percent of smokers develop serious illnesses.

Some professional organisations have already adopted measures to assume responsibility for this funding themselves. As soon as the new law was approved, the Spanish General Council of Dentists resolved to pay for treatment for any of its 20,000 members 25 percent of whom are smokers who want to give up the habit.

Smokers who violate the ban on smoking in the workplace will be fined 30 euros (close to 40 dollars) for the first infraction and up to 600 euros (around 770 dollars) for repeat offenders. However, in the case of companies that allow workers to continue engaging in this now illegal conduct, the employers can be hit with fines of up to 10,000 euros (some 13,000 dollars).

Committees made up of representatives of both workers and employers will be established in workplaces to monitor compliance with the new legislation as of Jan. 1. Similar committees already exist to address issues like alcoholism, sexual harassment and other forms of workplace abuse.

While smoking will be completely prohibited in workplaces, hospitals, schools and enclosed public spaces like recreation and cultural centres, bars and restaurants over 100 square metres in size will have eight months to create smoking and non-smoking sections, with the former occupying no more than 30 percent of the total area. Smaller establishments will have to decide on whether to allow smoking or become completely smoke-free.

Hotel, bar and restaurant owners have been generally supportive of the law, although they consider it somewhat hasty, since the measure will need to be implemented within a relatively short deadline and will cost the sector an estimated 1.6 billion euros (some two billion dollars) in all, they maintain.

The tobacco companies reacted to the impending anti-smoking legislation by waging major advertising campaigns aimed at capturing new customers and slashing the prices of some cigarettes by almost half. This year they have already managed to increase the market for low-priced Virginia tobacco cigarettes, sales of which have risen by around 50 percent.

Spanish Health Minister Elena Salgado observed that this powerful industry, alarmed by the imminent implementation of the new law, wants to get as many young people hooked on smoking as possible, and that this was the motive behind the price cuts and increased advertising.

For its part, the National Committee to Prevent Smoking, headed by Rodrigo Córdoba, publicly called on the government to triple or quadruple the taxes paid by companies that sell and distribute tobacco products.

Córdoba said that this would be a means of fighting back against a major factor in the spread of the smoking epidemic, namely low cigarette prices.