Spanish government moves to ban smoking on bar terraces

The Spanish government has approved a draft tobacco law that would ban smoking and vaping on bar and restaurant terraces, prohibit minors from using vapes and related products, and end the sale of single-use electronic cigarettes.

The legislation, which was signed off by the cabinet on Tuesday morning, is intended to “reinforce protections on people’s health and to adapt the law to consumption patterns and to the tobacco-product market”, according to the health ministry.

Under the proposed law, electronic cigarettes, nicotine pouches, herbal products, shisha pipes and devices used to heat tobacco and other substances would be treated the same as conventional cigarettes.

Their use would be banned in enclosed public spaces and in outdoor areas such as bar terraces, stadiums, sports centres, children’s play areas, bus stops and educational facilities. The legislation also includes a ban on advertising, sponsoring or promoting any of the above products.

“This is about items whose consumption and market presence has grown substantially over recent years – especially among young people – and which, although they don’t always contain nicotine or tobacco, are linked to the act of smoking or inhaling, and which also increase the risk of smoking conventional tobacco,” the ministry said in a statement.

The health minister, Mónica García Gómez, said the draft law was intended to put Spain “back at the forefront of the fight against tobacco”, as it had been when it banned smoking in the workplace in 2005 and smoking in bars and restaurants in 2010.

“We know that tobacco claims the lives of 140 people a day in our country, which is 50,000 people a year,” she said. “I also want to stress that 30% of cancer tumours are linked to the factors that come from tobacco use … We know that the reality has changed when it comes to tobacco and that there are new devices, such as vapes and tobacco-heating devices and nicotine pouches – and this law, for the first time, will regulate all these tobacco-related products, and it will regulate them in a clear and forceful way based on the scientific evidence.”

However, the draft legislation does not include a proposal for generic, plain packaging for cigarettes – an idea that was eventually dropped after reported disagreements within the socialist-led coalition government – nor for price hikes in a country where a pack of 20 cigarettes costs less than €6 (£5.20).

Although the health ministry is hoping to amend the bill to include plain packaging as it progresses through parliament, anti-tobacco campaigners have criticised its absence from the proposed law.

“The government can’t yield to pressure from the tobacco industry and deprive Spanish society of a measure that’s taken root successfully in neighbouring countries and which helps to stop people starting smoking as teenagers,” the National Committee for the Prevention of Smoking (CNPT) said in a statement.

“Plain packaging, which is already in use in more than 40 countries, eliminates design and marketing from packets, thus reducing the lure and attractions of tobacco.”

According to figures from the health ministry, 28.9% of men and 22.6% of women smoke on a daily basis in Spain.