Smoking Ban

The news in the UK is talking about the smoking ban that starts in Spain today. Has anyone been out anywhere yet to see if this is being strictly enforced anywhere. I can't imagine it being stuck to like when the law changed in the UK a few years ago...........especially around the villages where most cave dwellers live.

Well, it is. I dashed into the Taberna in Castillejar for a quick coffee today, automatically lit up - and then realised no-one else was smoking & there were no ashtrays on the bar. When I drove out of the village past El Rincon, a couple of chairs had been taken down from the stack on the terrace, I assume by outcast smokers. Although I know there isn't one sane argument against a smoking ban I had hoped that the Spanish would show their subversive, anarchic side. But they seem to have capitulated without even a token protest. Time to move - but where to??

Drove to Malaga and back today - people were adhering to the ban at each stop.....no ash trays and folks wandering around car parks getting their fix! I must say, I was suprised to see the ban working.

Thank goodness for that!

Awesome!!! No need to change my shirt every time I leave a bar!!! No need to look at stained yellow teeth whilst eating my brekkie
Only kidding folks I am really suprised that its being upheld as its one of the things that I love about living here.....the Spanish ability to stick two fingers up at the rest of Europe and pretty much do as they please....health and safety PAH! Parking...anywhere you want PAH! So to see them not smoking is a real shock......although a pleasant one.

No smoking at Fermin´s bar in Los Olivos last night - hurray! Only trouble is it might encourage me to go out even more now I can breathe freely as well as drink freely - not so good for my liver!

I also think it will make people... especially foreigners who are used to a non smoking bar order more food, as they are not used to eating alongside smokers. Therefore possibly it will have a beneficial effect on the food being served?...............Oh we can live in hope.

I heard that a bar owner said he was quite happy for people to smoke if they wanted to as it's the smoker who gets fined and not the bar owner.

I'm sure that quite a few people will enjoy their drinking/dining experience more because of the lack of smoke but the downside is that they will soon have a lot less venues to choose from.
In the winter months especially, smokers will simply stay home rather freeze their bits off standing out in a freezing carpark.

It's no coincidence that pubs are closing by the score every single week in the UK.

I must admit to some astonishment that Spain has bowed to this pressure as their attitude to self responsibily is one of the things that attracted me to the country in the first place.

Possibly a contentious issue that but there is absolutely NO evidence that so-called passive smoking harms anyone. The World Health Organisation has admitted that they faked the statistics regarding this.
In fact the very statistics that they used to prove that smoking is harmful to your health are the very figures that demonstrate that 'passive smoking' is a myth!
Back in the day when smoking was not only socially acceptable but considered sophisticated and sexy in the movies, many more people smoked. They were the ones who apparently suffered all kinds of scary diseases whilst those who did not smoke tended not to develop those illnesses. How is that when there were many many more smokers blowing their noxious fumes into the pure air that passive smokers did not develop diseases in larger numbers?

As a small addendum - it is a medical fact that barbequed meat contains more carcinogens than cigarette smoke.

Surely thats all down to how burnt it is, so I cant see thats a valid fact. Anyway fab news for us non smokers!

In response to Englishman´s remarks; Bar owners I´ve chatted to about the ban have said they´ll get fined and I´ve read news items that give the same impression. I admit to not being very well read, so didn´t know that the WHO had gone back on their passive smoking survey results, but various organisations / publications still seem to be referring to the survey - eg Nursing Times, Cancer Research Org and claiming the passive smoking does cause health problems.
My own experience as an asthma sufferer is that an evening in a smoky bar, especially if I´m talking to smokers and therefore directly breathing in the smoke from their cigarettes causes me discomfort later that evening and the next morning, and I usually need to use my inhaler to help my breathing. My brother had much more severe asthma and later a fatal respiritory disease - later in life he couldn´t physically be in the company of people smoking. I have a friend who also has severe asthma and she has been hospitalised on occasion after being in the vicinity of tobacco smoke. I accept these are just personal experiences not statistics, but they seem real and true to me! Maybe asthma sufferers should stay home and let the smokers enjoy their freedom!

Miron, I honestly believe that it's easier for a smoker to refrain from smoking than it is for a non-smoker to avoid the second hand fumes. Most reasonable people, smokers or not have enough consideration for other people to refrain from any behaviour that causes avoidable discomfort to others.

I accept that smoking causes distress to many and would have no wish to inflict discomfort on anyone. My objection is that this should be my decision to make as a responsible adult. I don't think that it should be the place of governments to dictate our behaviour other than the obvious law breaking.

If I behaved in a boorish manner, whether by smoking, excessive drinking or simply by being obnoxious then I wouldn't be too surprised if others avoided my company.

How long will it be before the statisticians realise that alcohol is more dangerous and less socially acceptable than smoking?
How many smokers, after a few cigarettes, go home and beat their wives?
How often do smokers throw up in the street after one too many fags?
How often are date rape drugs slipped into somebody's cigarette?
How long before the governments decide to ban alcohol?

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out - because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the communists
and I did not speak out - because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out - because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me -
and by then there was no one left to speak out for me.
The German anti-Nazi activist, Pastor Martin Niemöller

My updated understanding is that both bar owner and smoker get fined.

Hi Yes English man you are correct on the BBQ issue ! The australians have the biggest rate of Bowel cancer due to the life style of the BBQ !! but i do agree not good smoking in bars ! for the people that do not !

Englishman - All I will say is this, I always cough for a couple of days after being in the company of smokers, my clothes always stink after time spent in a bar or restaurant in the company of smokers and it will be a real treat to eat out in the company of smokers who can't now, light up whilst I am still eating! (The last point is one of bad manners apart from anything else). In order to avoid smokers, I'd have to stay at home - where's the fairness in that? Why should I? Thing is, however much you see yourself as a 'responsible adult' (I don't know a single smoker who will refrain from smoking even when they know it affects my breathing), when it comes to your addiction, consideration for non smokers goes right out the window....or not, as it always seems to go straight for me!
Sue

Martin Niemoller´s quotation is always one to bear in mind, but I don´t think that the smoking ban is a human rights issue - I think the original thinking behind it was to make bars, restaurants etc safer places for the people who work there - so more of a health issue really. I hope they don´t ban alcohol anytime soon - tho I like bars so much I´d probably sit there with a glass of lemonade anyway!

Although I'm a smoker, I confess that it would never have occurred to me to use Pastor Niemoller in my defence! There isn't a single good argument for smoking, but spare a thought for those of us who are weak-willed and lack the moral fibre of the rest of you. It would have been nice if just a few bars had been allowed to remain smoky zones, then everyone could have had freedom of choice.

I heard the smoker gets a fine of 300 Euros and the bar gets 1300 Euros if anyone gets caught.

It will be fine in Summer - I am guessing you are fine outside the bar at tables? Till then nonsmokers gets left propping up the bar when smoking mates nip out for smokes.

Bars are nicer places to be in when they are not full of smoke esp if you have kids but it makes for a fractured night out socially IMO.

Smoking outside of an establishment is also banned.......including at tables. The Spanish ban is the most stringent of any European country.

Oh bloody hell!!

I might set up my car as a mobile smoking shed and drive round the bars - I can beep my horn like the veg man on his deliveries.

Sue, are you quite sure about not being allowed to smoke outside bars? I've searched & searched, but all I can find is a ban on outside smoking by childcare facilities, schools & hospitals. Do you have a source for the info? (You can doubtless detect the tone of mounting desperation . . . .)

I was watching a news item on Spanish Tv about the ban in other countries and it said the US was strictest with no smoking outside within so many metres of doors to bars etc. Which implies that it´s okay to smoke outside bars here?

Jenny, I got my info from John who runs Bar Martinez. We were discussing the impending ban on New Years Eve (great night incidentally!) and when I suggested he could erect a gazebo or similar for his customers, John said that he wouldn't be allowed and that he would get in to serious trouble if he did. I assume he was given the information by the Spanish authorities as he runs a business but I have looked online and am unable to find information to support this claim............so all may not be lost Jenny!

Phew! That's a couple of straws at which to clutch! 'Course, the sensible & intelligent thing to do at this point would be to admit defeat & kick the habit, but I think I'll wait until it's banned in my own home, which I'm sure will happen.

Update - it appears that smoking in 'an enclosed public area' will be banned - including a gazebo type structure presumably. This may mean then, that smoking can be permitted outside in a non enclosed area i.e. at outside tables.........this information is not official and has yet to be confirmed - watch this space!