Plaza de España - Sevilla - source Wikipedia commons
Sevilla's Plaza de España, built in 1928, and its Parque de María Luisa, two of the city's most popular places with tourists, will soon be 'smoke-free' zones.
The regional government, led by mayor Antonio Muñoz, has just pushed through a petition by Spain's leading cancer charity , the Asociación Española Contra el Cáncer (AECC), to declare these areas 'smoke-free zones'. No precise time frame has been established for the new law to be enforced, but it is expected to come into effect fairly swiftly.
The initiative forms part of the AECC's 'Espacios Sin Humo' - 'Smoke-Free Zones' - project launched in May this year to combat the effects of tobacco by, amongst other things, pushing for changes in the law so that smoking becomes prohibited in both public and private outdoor spaces.
The Spanish Association Against Cancer is asking for smoking to be banned in at least one emblematic tourist site in every city. Some of the best known are the Retiro park in Madrid; the Parque de la Ciutadella in Barcelona; Calle Larios in Málaga; the Jardines del Triunfo in Granada; and the José Antonio Labordeta park in Zaragoza. All these sites are listed on the AECC's website, and the association is asking for citizens' signatures to support "liberating" tobacco smoke from their cities.
Sevilla's Plaza de España and María Luisa Park join other famous tourist sites to be declared 'smoke-free zones' by their local authorities, for example the Plaza de Santa María which gives access to Burgos Cathedral; Ávila's city wall; the Parque Campo Grande in Valladolid; the Alcázar in Segovia; and the Parque de Cabárceno in Cantabria.
Pressure to provide these 'smoke-free zones' is just one aspect of the AECC's manifesto. The organisation is seeking much wider reaches for the laws against tobacco, saying that "during the coronavirus pandemic people became very sensitive about smoking in outdoor terraces and seating areas", but more than two years after the Covid interruption, "things have become much more relaxed". Some regions, like Catalonia and the Balearic Islands, for example, have maintained the anti-smoking laws in leisure venues, but others, like Castilla y León or Aragón, have, according to the Association, lifted restrictions.
Many local and regional authorities have claimed that there is no actual law that currently supports their banning of smoking in public, open-air spaces, and for this reason the AECC is demanding that the anti-tobacco laws be extended. Specifically, they are demanding that "smoking is prohibited in shared spaces, especially where many children are present". Some of the places where they would like to see a complete smoking ban enforced are in outside restaurant seating areas, sports stadiums, beaches and bus stops.
The initiative launched by the AECC aims to protect people from the "more than 70 carcinogenic substances" that tobacco contains, but it's not the only statistic they are highlighting:
- 78% of the Spanish population doesn't smoke
- 30% of cases of more than 15 types of cancer are caused by tobacco, and 30% of deaths from cancer
- 5,000 people die every year from tobacco-related illnesses "without having ever lit a cigarette in their lives"
- children who regularly inhale tobacco smoke are twice as likely to develop lung cancer
- cigarette butts continue to generate toxic substances for 24 hours after being extinguished
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