President of Hospitality on the warpath over smoking ban on terraces

Smoking spreads covid-19 up to 8 meters away, SEPAR

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The President of Hospitality and hoteliers are on the warpath over the new proposed smoking ban on terraces in Spain.

The President of Hospitality and hoteliers are on the warpath over the new proposed smoking ban on terraces, as well as other areas, in Spain.

The president of Hospitality of Spain Jose Luis Yzuel says that the measures that The Ministry of Health propose are “Unpresentable and regrettable. They demonise us again.”

Yzuel has woken up to the news that the Ministry of Health is preparing an ambitious new anti-smoking law that contemplates, among other measures, increasing smoke-free spaces including the prohibition of smoking on the terraces of bars and restaurants.

He explains that when on a terrace if someone lights a cigarette and another client complains, one of the two “changes place and there is no problem.”

The Aragonese businessman believes that it makes no sense to ban smoking on terraces and wonders “Is it that a man will not be able to smoke on a terrace but if he sits on a bench half a metre away, he will be able to? It’s stupid” he says.

Currently there are seven autonomous communities (Aragon, Asturias, Baleares, Canarias, Cantabria, Comunidad Valenciana and La Rioja) that have adopted the measure ‘Terrazas Sin Humo’ as a tool against covid-19.

Yzuel, who chairs an organisation that represents the bars, cafes, restaurants and pubs of Spain, believes that there will be hoteliers who voluntarily join campaigns against tobacco and do not allow smoking on the terraces of their businesses.

The hotelier complains of the pressure of the anti-smoking movements and of scientific societies such as the Spanish Society of Pneumology, but insists that “do not start with us, that they do not put us in the trigger, that they do not confront us. Smoking outdoors does not bother anyone. That they make companies and citizens aware, but that they do not oblige.”


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Written by

Laura Kemp

Originally from UK, Laura is based in Axarquia and is a writer for the Euro Weekly News covering news and features. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com.

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