Learn about the new features of the Anti-Smoking Plan that the Government approved this Friday

Canary Islands, among the five autonomous communities that decided to participate this Thursday in the acceptance of the Comprehensive Plan for the Prevention and Control of Smoking, EFE has revealed

April 5 2024 (19:20 WEST)
Tobacco cigarettes (Photo: Texels)
Tobacco cigarettes (Photo: Texels)

The Comprehensive Plan for the Prevention and Control of Smoking (PIT) 2024-2027 that the Government approved this Friday will bring various novelties for smokers in Spain. The keys to the anti-smoking plan promoted by the Ministry of Health, led by Minister Mónica García, are based on the health field, the regulatory and administrative level, and the search for environmental protection.

The Minister of Health, Mónica García, has said that, despite the refusal of some autonomous communities, the plan will go ahead: "Today this plan is approved, which had not been updated for 14 years, and it is done with ambition and without fear of dusting off a plan that will give our citizens more years of life, as well as quality of life." She made it clear this Friday that it is "a great day for individual and collective health."

This is what the new anti-smoking plan will be like

With regard to the regulatory level, other methods of nicotine consumption such as heated tobacco, vapers, hookahs, will also be subject to the rules, with the aim of preventing tobacco consumption, deepening research against smoking and awareness actions. On the other hand, it will prevent the habit of smoking from starting at an early age and will help people who want to quit smoking from the National Health System.

In addition, the new Plan includes the increase in the price of cigarette packs by increasing taxes and the increase in smoke-free spaces in our country. In relation to the places where smoking will be prohibited, the bus stops, beaches and terraces and other "spaces for collective use" stand out. The possibility of increasing the perimeter of spaces where smoking is already prohibited, such as schools and hospitals, is also being considered.

From the Ministry of Health, in the text in which the Plan is developed, the restriction of smoking in front of pregnant women and minors in a "private space" is replaced, and the prohibition of doing so in "places of collective use" is updated. A measure that leads to certain confusions, in matters of prohibiting smoking in private vehicles when there are children and pregnant women present.

In the case of the Canary Islands, it is one of the only five autonomous communities that decided to participate this Thursday in the acceptance of the Comprehensive Plan for the Prevention and Control of Smoking (PIT) 2024-2027. While the remaining twelve have avoided voting because they do not agree with the procedure used by the Ministry of Health to approve it. Thus, Catalonia, the Canary Islands, the Basque Country, Navarre and Asturias have been the only ones to transfer their position, sources from this department and the different councils have informed EFE. The rest have decided "not to cast their vote" because they "do not agree" with the procedure used. This Friday, the health ministers of the autonomous communities governed by the Popular Party have expressed their rejection of this plan.

The Government has chosen to approve the new Anti-Smoking Plan through a "cooperation agreement", which means that the communities can join its keys in a total or partial way, in the case of any discrepancy, they must detail with which ones they will differ.

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