{"id":26588,"date":"2025-09-18T09:15:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T09:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/?p=26588"},"modified":"2025-09-18T09:15:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T09:15:20","slug":"spain-to-ban-vaping-and-smoking-on-beaches-bar-terraces-and-stadiums","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/post\/spain-to-ban-vaping-and-smoking-on-beaches-bar-terraces-and-stadiums\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain to ban vaping and smoking on beaches, bar terraces and stadiums"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Spain is preparing a sweeping outdoor ban on both smoking and vaping. The draft law would outlaw their use on bar and restaurant terraces, beaches, stadiums, bus stops, children\u2019s play areas and sports centres.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vapes, heated tobacco, shisha and nicotine pouches would all be treated the same as cigarettes – despite the far higher health risks posed by smoking. The legislation also bans single-use vapes and prohibits sales to minors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Health minister M\u00f3nica Garc\u00eda G\u00f3mez said the bill aims to put Spain \u201cback at the forefront of the fight against tobacco.\u201d She added: \u201cWe\u2019ll always put public health ahead of private interests. Everyone has a right to breathe clean air.. and live longer and better lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tobacco kills 140 Spaniards a day<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

According to Garc\u00eda G\u00f3mez, tobacco kills 50,000 people a year in Spain, or \u201c140 people a day.\u201d But the law makes no distinction between deadly cigarettes and far less harmful alternatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indoor smoking was banned in 2010, but almost a quarter of Spanish adults still use tobacco, among the highest rates in Europe. The hospitality sector has criticised the new proposal, since terraces remain popular with smokers year-round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spain\u2019s approach goes further than France\u2019s July crackdown, which banned smoking in parks, beaches and bus stops but exempted vapes and bar terraces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bill still requires parliamentary approval and could be amended. It does not include plain packaging or higher tobacco taxes, with cigarettes still selling for under \u20ac6 a pack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vape crackdown draws sharp criticism <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Spain\u2019s vaping crackdown has already stirred up sharp criticism from industry observers and other European governments<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sweden, for example, has submitted a detailed opinion<\/a> to the European Commission arguing that Spain\u2019s proposed restrictions on nicotine pouches – including flavour bans and a tight cap of 0.99 mg per pouch – violate EU internal market rules and amount to unjustified trade barriers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karl Fagerstr\u00f6m, the clinical psychologist who created the widely used nicotine dependence test, went further, warning that Spain has made \u201cno progress in the fight against smoking<\/a>\u201d and should instead follow Sweden\u2019s harm reduction model. He said Spain\u2019s prohibitive strategy is likely to \u201ckeep the number of smokers high\u201d and that the new laws could do \u201cmore harm than good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Haypp, a nicotine-pouch retailer, has echoed these concerns, warning that the measures undermine harm reduction and eliminate almost all current pouch products from the market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public health analysts have also criticised Spain\u2019s plan<\/a> for treating all vaping products the same as cigarettes and ignoring scientific evidence that non-combustible alternatives pose much lower risks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opponents also claim that the flavour bans and nicotine limits are disproportionate, risking unintended consequences such as pushing people back to combustible tobacco or encouraging illicit and dangerous markets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spain is preparing a sweeping outdoor ban on both smoking and vaping. The draft law would outlaw their use on bar and restaurant terraces, beaches, stadiums, bus stops, children\u2019s play areas and sports centres. Vapes, heated tobacco, shisha and nicotine pouches would…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":990005,"featured_media":26589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[257],"tags":[327,186,331,333],"slider":[],"class_list":["post-26588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-france","tag-nicotine","tag-spain","tag-sweden"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/990005"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26588"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26595,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26588\/revisions\/26595"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26588"},{"taxonomy":"slider","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/slider?post=26588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}