“Smoking in bars also influences inactivity, normalizing the habit and linking it to leisure”

“We must go deeper into the strategy against tobacco, reviewing and improving the legislation that has not improved non-consumption outcomes for a long time,” says Ignacio Rosell, an expert in preventive medicine and public health.

The professor at the University of Valladolid also points out, regarding the possible prohibition of smoking on the terraces of hospitality establishments, that “it is a shame that after the pandemic, the opportunity was lost to maintain the ban in these areas as it happened during Covid ” Because the population was already accustomed to it and it was a good health opportunity. He also says that “There are several basic reasons for banning smoking on rooftops. On the one hand, to protect passive smokers, on the other hand to protect workers, waiters and, moreover, allowing it means normalizing it. Create. Give a charitable image of tobacco that is also related to leisure and comfortable moments. “The message is not good.”

For this expert, “It would be great if the Ministry of Health restarted this scheme, had the will and courage to implement it because the law proved to be effective. And then there are other measures “such as the one proposed in New Zealand, which Gradually banned smoking by raising the age for purchasing cigarettes.” However he later decided to cancel such a measure. France has also tightened the rules “and raised the price of packs to 13 euros.”

Rosell also points out that, “In Castilla y León, since the Drug Commissioner is in the Family Department and not in the Health Department, although we have a lot to say to public health, it is not the same. Even When it comes to making laws.

It also analyzes “the multiple interests of the industry in maintaining consumption and the strength of the many pressure groups that sometimes even finance actions aimed at maintaining the habit. There are many competing interests; “we Interested, but I don’t know if it doesn’t pay off given the huge health costs of smoking.”