According to the results of a new survey carried out by the Spanish Society of Family and Community Medicine (semFYC), 72% of people in Spain, including the Canary Islands, support banning smoking on hospitality venue terraces (bars and restaurants), 70% at bus stops, and 60% on beaches, which a total of 9,711 people across the country took part in.
The survey also highlighted that 19.2% of young people between the ages of 14 and 18 had smoked and that new tobacco devices, especially vaping and electronic cigarettes, attracted them more than conventional cigarettes.
The results show that a high percentage of respondents support a greater restriction on tobacco consumption in Spain, with a huge 90.9% of people, five percent more than the 85.6 % of last year, were in favour of expanding smoke-free zones.
70% of those surveyed said they would forbid smoking at bus stops, and more and more people would be in favour of banning smoking on beaches which increased by 6% to 60.7% of those surveyed. In addition, 81.7% of those surveyed would ban smoking around educational centres and 47.2% were against smoking inside cars.
The semFYC have verified that the survey included 70.6% non-smokers, of which 59.8% are ex-smokers and 29.4% are current smokers.
Regarding terraces at hospitality venues, 71.6% of those polled would prohibit the consumption of tobacco in these spaces, which included 84.9% of non-smokers and 71.2% of ex-smokers. However, even 28.2% of smokers said they would support this measure, a figure that rises to 40% when those who class themselves as ‘occasional’ smokers were added.
Young smokers:
Among those surveyed between the ages of 14 and 18 years old, 19.2% said they had smoked. In this age range, the highest consumption was attributed to new devices, especially electronic cigarettes or vapes.
Up to 20.8% of the adolescents surveyed consumed this type of product, 14.3% consumed hookah and 13.1% smoked conventional cigarettes. Around 7.5% used tobacco mixed with cannabis (joint).
In the age group between 19 and 24 years old, the proportion of smokers rose to 32.3%. Their type of tobacco consumption was reversed though so that the proportion of conventional cigarette smokers (19.1%) increased compared to those who use vapes (13.8%) and hookah (11.5%). The proportion of users of tobacco mixed with cannabis in this group remained at 6.7%.
