New ban in Spain means UK tourists face law change at pool and on balconies
Holidaymakers have been warned over the clampdown on smoking.
UK tourists face a SMOKING BAN in Spain - with lighting up around the pool, in outdoor clubs and even on sunny terraces and balconies outlawed. European Union holidaymakers have been warned over the clampdown on smoking.
The measure has been approved by Spain's Ministry of Health this week. And the move aims to expand smoke-free zones to include terraces, bus stops, work vehicles, university campuses, public swimming pools and open-air nightclubs.
Spain's Minister of Health Mónica García told El Pais she was pushing for the bill so that "Spain can once again be at the forefront of anti-tobacco policies."
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She said: "I hope we don't give in to the lobbies that are exerting significant pressure, as they always have. And the tobacco lobby is doing its job. But ours is to defend the health of the population, of the citizens."
The mayor of L'Alfas Vincente Arques said: "This measure is part of the council's policy to position ourselves as a benchmark for healthy international tourism."
According to recent data from the survey on drug use in the Balearics, 34.5 per cent of students aged 14 to 18 say they have smoked tobacco at some time in their lives; 6.9 percent have smoked daily in the last month.
For this reason, the councillor has valued every step “to raise awareness among young people about the dangers of tobacco, to work on prevention and to promote healthy lifestyles is ground gained”.
One Brit wrote on social media: "This morning I had just sat down at a table of a restaurant terrace. At the adjacent table . an obese woman suddenly started smoking and her exhaled smoke went all over me. I had ordered a coffee. But I left."
"As a lot of police smoke I can't really see this ban being enforced that much outside bars and nightclubs," a second fumed.
A third said: "Like the law that was in place before then, that this government decided to overturn, because you know, it was the other lot's idea."