The Spanish anti-smoking law is outdated 10 years after its last reform

• Smoking Health believes that the coronavirus pandemic has opened the way to expand the ban on smoking in the hospitality industry

• Fármacos Sanidad will finance smoking cessation treatments

Ten years have passed since Spain led the way against smoking with a law that served as a model for other countries. To this day, however, many of them have taken the lead and it can be said that "we have lagged behind the most developed Europe," says Rodrigo Córdoba García, doctor and delegate in Aragon of the National Committee for the Smoking Prevention (CNPT). "

." Despite the lagging position of our country, scientific societies put all their faith in the draft that is being prepared in the Ministry of Health to reform the legislation.

The Covid-19 pandemic has been a clear trigger. It involved the implementation of the ban on smoking on the terraces in order to avoid the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and now, some autonomies maintain it. "A modification of the law should be made that includes the

, to protect non-smokers and smokers as well," argues Francisco Rodríguez Lozano, president of the European Network for Smoking and Tobacco Prevention in Brussels (ENSP ).

In this sense, a couple of weeks ago, Pilar Campos, the deputy director general of Health Promotion and Public Health Surveillance, recognized that "an important path" had been opened in the fight against tobacco and opted to "take advantage" of the good social acceptance to expand the law. According to the annual survey of the Spanish Society of Family and Community Medicine (Semfyc), three out of four people would maintain the ban and the measure would be accepted by 40% of smokers. Indeed, everything indicates that the ban on smoking on the terraces will be a reality.

However, scientific societies call for a more extensive modification. They propose spaces without tobacco smoke or aerosols / vapors in the interior and exterior of the hotel industry, but also in sports areas, university campuses, security perimeters of at least 10 meters at the entrances to educational centers and hospitals, entrances to shopping centers, bus stops of buses, platforms of means of transport, beaches and other natural spaces, and outdoor swimming pools, queues, etc. In short, "it should be banned in all spaces where we consume nearby air", Rodríguez Lozano sentenced.

In addition, the draft should include other basic points. On the one hand, the

. There are countries where tobacco use is up to four times higher. In Australia, for example, "the pack costs around 21 euros and children do not smoke; in France, it costs about 12 euros and there young people do not smoke. In Spain, the price is around five euros and they start smoking at 13/14 years ", explains the ENSP expert, who adds that" if you do not start smoking when you are young, it is very rare to do it later. "

As he himself reasons, "it is not possible that there are countries with a price four times higher and neither that we still do not have

." Our neighbors France, the United Kingdom or Ireland already have it. Around the world, about 20 countries have this measure. The idea is to reduce the attractiveness of the product to minors, increase their perception of risk and ultimately discourage their consumption.

In addition, it would be essential that the reform of the anti-smoking law include the

, herbal products for smoking, heating tobacco products (PTC) and other novel products for the consumption of tobacco. "They are sold as reduced risk products to stop smoking and it is not true," says Rodríguez Lozano. "They are probably as dangerous as conventional tobacco [...] The World Health Organization (WHO) says that electronic cigarettes are not safe and it is better not to use them" and they do not help to stop smoking, the evidence does not endorses it.

In fact, an article recently published in the 'JAMA Network Open' magazine has found that "individuals who quit smoking and switched to e-cigarettes or other tobacco products actually increased their risk of relapsing to smoking during the following year by 8.5 percentage points compared to those who stopped using all tobacco products. " This was explained by the main author in his article.

On the other hand, apart from

, hotels, service stations and convenience stores, the CNPT (which includes 40 scientific societies) considers financing and access to be essential to

: "that smokers can access all pharmacological and behavioral therapies whose efficacy and safety to quit smoking have been scientifically proven", points out Córdoba García.

Another key chapter is

.

It is not a simple task, but "you have to try to put measures".

Advertising and promotion should be considered, for legal purposes, publications on social networks that promote consumption, display consumption in an incentive way, cite commercial brands of tobacco products or new forms of consumption, display said brands or their identifying logos, or display the products in any way that they can be identified, even when they are not being used or consumed.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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