The Spanish government has approved a draft bill to amend its anti-tobacco laws, which, if passed by Parliament, will expand smoke-free areas, equate vapes and other e-products to traditional tobacco, and ban single-use e-cigarettes. The bill is part of the Comprehensive Plan for the Prevention and Control of Smoking 2024-2027.
Key Proposed Measures
The draft bill includes several major changes:
Expanded Smoke-Free Areas: Smoking and vaping would be banned in many outdoor public spaces:
Bar and restaurant terraces
Beaches and public swimming pools
Sports facilities and outdoor entertainment venues (e.g., concerts, festivals)
Public transport stops and shelters
Within a 15-metre perimeter of public buildings, healthcare centers, schools, and playgrounds.
In professional and work vehicles.
Regulation of Vapes and E-Cigarettes: E-cigarettes, vapes (with and without nicotine), heated tobacco products, and herbal-based products (like shishas) would be subject to the same restrictions as conventional tobacco.
Ban on Disposable Vapes: The sale and supply of single-use e-cigarettes would be prohibited, due to both environmental concerns and their appeal to young people.
Advertising Restrictions: There would be a total ban on all forms of advertising, promotion, and sponsorship of tobacco and related products across all media, including digital platforms and social media.
Youth Protection: The law would ban the consumption of all tobacco and related products by minors, allowing for fines to be imposed directly on parents or guardians of underage offenders.
Fines: Penalties for violations would vary based on severity, with fines ranging from €100 for minor infringements (smoking in a prohibited space) up to €600,000 for very serious offenses (illegal advertising)
And this week, the Nofumadores association called for the reform of the Tobacco Law being worked on by the Ministry of Health to include explicit protection against second-hand smoke entering homes through windows, terraces and ventilation ducts, equating it with other harmful and unhealthy activities regulated in neighbourhood communities.
In addition, Nofumadores has demanded that owners of homes where smoking takes place be required by law to declare this when selling the property, following California’s approval of regulations recognising that toxic residues from tobacco and vaping become embedded in walls, furniture, dust and ventilation systems and remain there for years, according to a statement issued by the association.
“California demonstrates that third-hand smoke and smoke from neighbours is an environmental risk that must be recognised and regulated. However, in Spain, there is not even protection from second-hand smoke coming from other people’s homes, which in some way violates the inviolability of other homes where that smoke is not generated. Spain cannot continue to ignore thousands of families forced to live locked up to protect their health,” said the president of Nofumadores.org, Raquel Fernández Megina.
Nofumadores has highlighted a citizens’ initiative promoted by the association, “For the freedom to open your window or balcony and breathe smoke-free air”, which has already gathered more than 25,000 signatures and seeks to raise awareness of this situation. In fact, the ‘numerous’ enquiries from neighbours affected by this problem have led the association to create the Platform for People Affected by Second-hand Smoke at Home (PACTHA).
Various testimonies report that children and elderly people find it impossible to go out onto their terraces because their neighbours’ tobacco smoke invades these spaces, a situation that also prevents them from ventilating their homes or getting fresh air in their own homes. Nofumadores has therefore stressed that Spain lacks regulations to protect people from second-hand smoke inside their own homes, as this is not covered by the current Anti-Smoking Law or the proposed reform of the law, despite the fact that the ENDGAME Tobacco Declaration in Spain 2030 explicitly calls for legal protection against smoke coming from windows, balconies and courtyards.
It has asked the Ministry of Health to include the right to live in a healthy environment at home as a priority in the reform of the law. ‘The current situation forces many families to live exposed to second-hand smoke that enters their homes through windows, doors or ventilation ducts. The experience in California shows that other regulations are possible and that protecting the right to breathe clean air at home is a matter of public health, coexistence and freedom,’ concluded Fernández Megina.