Vaping on 38 beaches across Barcelona and the Balearic islands now carries a whopping €2,000 fine.
A recent rule change means vaping is banned on 10 beaches in Barcelona and 28 in the Spanish-owned Balearic islands
Meanwhile, smoking is illegal on 700 of the country’s beaches and on the terraces of public restaurants.
In October, the Spanish government announced it will ban disposable vapes and all flavours except tobacco as part of a major overhaul of its smoking and vaping laws.
The tough new measures are part of an ‘Anti-Tobacco Plan,’ which the government says aims to limit products that cause a risk to young people’s health and are a ‘gateway’ to smoking.
Expanding bans on vaping
The plan contains measures to expand the number of places where smoking is banned and put vapers on the same footing as conventional smokers.
There is also a recommendation that smoking should not be allowed in vehicles carrying children or pregnant women.
In Spain, more than a half a million people vape, according to Knowledge-Action-Change’s recent Global State of Harm Reduction report. This equates to around 1.3 percent of the adult population, and is only about a quarter of France’s vaping rate.
However, Spain’s smoking rate is fairly high, at almost 28 percent of the adult population – more than 11 million people. More than 57,000 people in Spain die from smoking-related disease annually.
Public consultation
Spain’s proposal to ban disposable and flavoured vapes was put out to a short public consultation in November.
The plan also aims to regulate the labelling of vapes that do not contain nicotine. These vapes would be required to carry a label listing all ingredients, and health warnings indicating that their consumption is harmful to health.
Their packaging would need to include a leaflet with information on contraindications (situations where the product should not be used) and possible negative side effects.
The decree also would mandate that vapes must be unbreakable and leak-free, and deliver a constant dose of nicotine.
Concerns over black market
However, there is concern among anti-smoking campaigners and vape advocates that the proposed legislation will lead to a surge in unregulated black market products, and potentially higher smoking rates.
A ban on flavours in Spain is also likely to influence the direction of European Union (EU) vape policy when an updated Tobacco Products Directive is debated and voted on later this year.
If more EU countries adopt flavour bans, EU regulators – who have expressed their desire to stamp vaping out – will be even keener for rules that synchronise regulations across the bloc.
Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Lithuania, the Netherlands, and Slovenia have already adopted flavor restrictions. Spain, if it passes the decree, would become the largest EU country with a flavour ban.
