The new anti-smoking law has not yet reached Congress and has already opened a battle between public health and several of the sectors directly affected by its restrictions. Hospitality, the tobacco industry, and vaping companies have come out en masse against the prohibition of smoking on terraces and the equalization of new devices with conventional cigarettes.
The Council of Ministers approved the final draft this Tuesday, which expands smoke-free spaces to beaches, collective swimming pools, sports facilities, concerts, and other open venues. It also prohibits smoking or vaping for minors and creates 15-meter perimeters around hospitals, schools, universities, public buildings, and playgrounds.
The new limitations are not yet applied. The text must now pass through Congress and the Senate, where employer associations hope to introduce changes and where the Government will need agreements beyond the parties that make up the coalition.
Hoteliers stand firm on terraces
Hostelería de España, which represents more than 300,000 bars, restaurants, cafes, and leisure venues, considers that the general ban on terraces lacks sufficient justification and will have consequences on the operation of establishments.
Its president, José Luis Álvarez Almeida, argues that there is currently a reasonable coexistence between smokers and non-smokers in outdoor spaces. The employers' association believes that prohibiting consumption next to tables will displace customers to sidewalks and the vicinity of establishments, without necessarily reducing the number of cigarettes.
Business owners also fear that workers will end up taking on surveillance tasks. The rule will require preventing consumption within the affected areas, although it will be necessary to specify during processing who should intervene when a customer violates the prohibition and how sanctions will be applied.
"What is needed is more awareness, more education, and more judgment," Álvarez Almeida defended. The organization asks parties to study the effect on employment, business activity, tourism competitiveness, and customer experience before supporting the current wording.
The hospitality sector also maintains that Spain would be among the European countries with the most restrictive regulation for terraces. France has kept these spaces out of some of its latest prohibitions, and business associations use this comparison to warn of a possible disadvantage compared to other tourist destinations.
The industry questions that all products receive the same treatment
The Tobacco Board has focused its criticism on the regulatory equalization between traditional cigarettes, heated tobacco, vapes and other related products. Its position is based on the existence of differences between combustion devices and those that work without burning tobacco.
The sector demands differentiated regulation according to the characteristics and risk of each product, especially for alternatives used by adult smokers who are trying to quit conventional cigarettes. The Union of Vaping Promoters and Entrepreneurs believes that applying the same restrictions can deter some consumers from options it presents as less harmful.
Health maintains a different criterion. The department of Mónica García argues that vapes can also generate addiction, expose third parties to harmful substances, and facilitate the initiation of consumption among adolescents. The reform even includes nicotine-free devices because they reproduce the habit of smoking and can contribute to normalizing it.
The clash will reach Congress with the review of European legislation still open. The Tobacco Board asks to wait for the future community framework to avoid contradictory regulations or successive modifications, and questions that the Government has concluded the project without requesting an opinion from the Council of State, which the employers' association considers mandatory.
This objection is part of the sector's arguments and will presumably be used during the parliamentary debate. It will be up to the legal services of the Cortes and, where appropriate, the courts to determine whether the procedure followed affects the validity of the norm.
Extremadura warns of the impact on the countryside
The business opposition also extends to the producing areas. Extremadura concentrates more than 95% of the tobacco leaf cultivated in Spain and houses a good part of the farms, cooperatives, and primary processing companies linked to this activity.
The Interprofessional Tobacco Organization of Spain and Asaja Extremadura demand that the law include a specific evaluation of the economic impact in La Vera, Campo Arañuelo, and the rest of the producing regions. Both organizations argue that thousands of families depend directly or indirectly on the crop.
Asaja fears that regulatory tightening will reduce companies' interest in buying Extremaduran tobacco and accelerate the abandonment of farms. The interprofessional assures that it shares public health objectives but demands more dialogue with farmers, processors, and rural territories before definitively approving the text.
The reform primarily regulates consumption, advertising, and sales, without prohibiting cultivation. The sector understands, however, that a sustained reduction in the market can end up affecting the entire production chain, from plantations to tobacconists.
Healthcare professionals support smoke-free spaces
In contrast to business rejection, respiratory medicine professionals and smoking prevention organizations consider it appropriate to extend protection. They recall that environmental smoke can aggravate asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and other pathologies, even when exposure occurs in crowded open spaces.
Healthcare support is especially concentrated on terraces, access points to hospitals and schools, and places frequented by children. A pregnant person, a patient with a respiratory illness, or a family with minors will have the right to use these spaces without being exposed to smoke from nearby tables, according to the approach defended by the Ministry of Health.
There is also support for the regulation of vapes among adolescents. Their flavors, designs, and presence on social media have increased consumption among young people who had never smoked conventional cigarettes, a trend that the Government intends to curb by restricting advertising, availability, and places of use.
The most demanding healthcare organizations, however, consider that the project still falls short. Generic packaging for cigarette packs has been excluded from the approved version, and the ban on disposable vapes is postponed until procedures with the European Commission are completed.
The PP reserves its position and the vote remains open
The political response remains less defined than the business one. The Popular Party has not advanced the direction of its vote and will wait to study the complete wording, although it shares the objective of strengthening the protection of minors and maintains reservations about the impact of certain prohibitions in the hospitality industry.
Junts has not set a definitive position either. Their votes could be relevant if the Government fails to gather a sufficient majority with its usual partners, especially when the amendments on terraces, sale of vapes, and surveillance powers begin to be debated.
The project will begin its parliamentary journey after the summer and may undergo changes before the final vote. Until then, smoking and vaping will continue to be allowed on open terraces under the same current conditions, because the Council of Ministers' agreement does not yet activate any of the new prohibitions.
Business associations will use the coming months to seek support among groups and reduce the measures they consider most harmful. Health will try to preserve the core of a reform it presents as the next great advance against smoking since smoke disappeared from inside bars and restaurants.
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