Cristina Ruiz Madrid
Madrid
Updated Wednesday, March 13, 2024-07:04
Smoking Health clarifies the new spaces in which smoking will be prohibited: Can it be done inside the car?
Health Tobacco alters the immune system even after quitting
Smoking The Government equalizes the regulation of heated tobacco to that of traditional cigarettes and prohibits products with flavorings
The requests of the
National Committee for the Prevention of Smoking (CNPT)
to the Ministry of Health seem to be being fulfilled.
If first, heated tobacco was finally regulated, although out of date,
equating it to traditional products
, now it is the turn of the
Comprehensive Plan for the Prevention and Control of Tobaccoism (PIT)
, which had been kept in a drawer for more than of two years.
This Thursday, the Public Health Commission (made up of the regional general directors of the branch) will analyze the draft of the
new and updated plan
, which is not a law, which includes some of the measures demanded by the CNPT to address tobacco consumption, which It causes the death of more than eight million people in the world each year, according to the WHO.
Francisco Pascual, president of the CNPT, points out that "the draft
does not differ too much from the initial text,
although it does contemplate some aspects of improvement."
Among them, Pascual highlights the updating of the bibliography with which "
the entire epidemiological issue is updated"
and also includes population groups "such as young people between 12 and 13 years old" that were not contemplated in the previous text.
The president of the CNPT trusts that the Public Health Commission will approve the document - "we know that the autonomies are for the work," he says - "and from there to the Interterritorial Council and the Council of Ministers", which will be the to
give the green light to the parliamentary processing
of a future law, since
the PIT "is just a road map
," Pascual clarifies, and adds: "Some parties said that they would apply certain measures when there was scientific evidence, because
there is the scientific evidence
in the articles. Another thing is that they are politically interested in other games."
MORE CONCRETION OF OPEN SPACES TO AVOID INTERPRETATIONS
He acknowledges that he
does miss
the fact that the draft has not been more specific, for example, "smoke-free spaces, because when we talk about the school environment, what does it mean? In the premises it is clear, but in the surrounding area? "And the people who are going to enter a hospital? Can they smoke at the fence, at the door?"
For this reason, he advocates that the future law clearly define what these spaces are, "and they should be terraces, sports spaces, bus stops... They will have to be
very well delimited so that no option is left for interpretations
," he points out.
One aspect of the draft that does raise more doubts is regulation in the
private sphere.
Specifically, the text talks about "emphasizing awareness about smoking in private spaces when living with someone else (both at home, in the car, etc.) and especially in the case of boys and girls and people with health problems."
Regarding this, the president of the CNPT believes that "it is very complicated and almost impossible to do; it is a utopia."
In his opinion it is more effective and important "to raise the price of tobacco, to establish plain packaging... It is a measure that will generate less controversy than that which establishes that smoking cannot be done at home. In the end we can all agree "except for the industry, of course, where we cannot have the cheapest tobacco in all of Europe."
The preliminary draft of the PIT, in which scientific societies and entities related to the field of smoking have participated, makes clear its commitment to reducing the prevalence of tobacco consumption and advancing actions "in the face of the challenge of emerging products."
DECREASE THE ATTRACTIVENESS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
The document, which consists of five goals and 22 objectives and largely rescues the previous plan, as Pascual has pointed out, advocates for the legislative expansion of spaces without tobacco smoke and without aerosols for electronic cigarettes and related products in "certain environments community and social outdoors and in certain private spaces, especially those with the presence of minors.
It is considered essential to be aware of
new forms of nicotine consumption
through electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco and to reduce their attractiveness, especially among the young population.
For this reason, the plan proposes to "equate its promotion and advertising to that of the most traditional forms of consumption" and regulate the sale and consumption of both devices that use liquids, cartridges or refills with nicotine and those that do not, since they are these The latter "the
gateway to tobacco consumption
and subsequent addiction" and those used most by young people.
NEW FORMS OF CONSUMPTION
Along with electronic cigarettes and vapers, which "are mentioned very in passing", in the opinion of the president of the CNPT, the document includes water pipes,
shishas
or hookahs as a new form of consumption, the use of which occurs mainly in leisure environments.
"This is a reality that needs to be regulated as it is a source of occasional consumption and a gateway to more regular consumption and addiction in successive stages and which presents additional risks to that of tobacco consumption," the text states.
Among other measures, the draft PIT proposes reviewing the amount of sanctions and promoting the establishment of fiscal measures, specifically the increase in tax rates on tobacco to increase its price and promote the creation of a new tax figure that establishes a specific tax for electronic cigarettes with nicotine.
In addition, it introduces plain packaging and the prohibition of additives that confer aromas in tobacco and related products.
The health action axis is one of those included in the draft, in addition to the regulatory, environmental and coordination aspects.
In this health axis, it is proposed to encourage
smokers
to give up the habit , and to do so
, it is suggested to include
smoking intervention in the hospital setting in the common portfolio of services of the SNS and to modify the inclusion criteria to access financed drugs.
Currently, public attention pays for a single annual attempt for consumers of at least 10 cigarettes a day who have tried to quit the habit in the last year.