The Spanish Medical Association (OMC) has drawn up a document, approved by its General Assembly and agreed with other health organisations, with 20 measures aimed at promoting smoking control and making progress in its regulation in Spain.
Recently, the Ministry of Health announced that it was working on a Comprehensive Plan for the Prevention and Control of Smoking, which will include promoting tax measures to increase the price of tobacco, since Spain is among the countries with the lowest prices in Europe, and raising prices would also be considered a dissuasive measure to curb consumption among young people.
In line with this work and inspired by the Comprehensive Plan for the Prevention and Control of Smoking 2021-2025 (PIPCT), the association representing the medical profession has drawn up a document containing 20 steps to be taken to tackle and control smoking in Spain, an epidemic that is associated with 8 million deaths worldwide every year.
Among the measures, in addition to raising taxes on the product to the average tax rate in Western Europe, the following stand out: legislative unification of all tobacco products with nicotine delivery systems, both natural and synthetic; requiring generic packaging of all tobacco and nicotine products and banning flavours added to tobacco and nicotine delivery systems, as well as smoking in shared public spaces such as restaurant terraces, beaches, queues, etc.
The document also stresses the importance of legislating that any health centre with more than 10 doctors should have a person responsible for combating smoking, and those with more than 30 doctors should have a specialised or exclusive smoking unit.
These measures also focus on consolidating the drugs authorised by the Spanish Medicines and Health Products Agency for the treatment of smoking and nicotine replacement therapy in the basic portfolio of the National Health System.