Smokers present half a million signatures to Congress

Smokers present half a million signatures to Congress
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By h.b. - Sep 8, 2010 - 6:19 PM
The Government is preparing harsher anti-smoking legislation from January 1 2011

The petition being presented on Wednesday to Congress - EFE

The Club Fumadores por la Tolerancia, the Smokers Club for Tolerance, has presented 500,367 signatures in a petition against the new anti-tobacco law which the Government hopes to introduce on January 1 2011. They call for tolerance, coexistence and respect, and for the ‘intermediate measures’ currently in force to remain in place.

A group of some twenty protestors sung and danced as the signatures, placed inside 60 cigarette packets, were handed into the Congress of Deputies on Wednesday, presented by the club’s spokesman, Javier Blanco. He said that the signatures were complete with full name and DNI and had been collected by their ‘Prohibido Prohibir’ platform.

He said that the current legislation guaranteed already that 60% of the hostelry industry was free of smoke, and he highlighted the values of tolerance, coexistence and respect. He said only two countries in Europe had a total ban on smoking.

The new legislation being prepared by the Government is still to decide whether smoking clubs will be allowed, but will ban it in all closed public spaces, a decision which has been attacked by many in the hostelry business. Only hotels and hostels will be able to grant 30% of their rooms for the use of smoking guests, and these will have to be separate from the rest of the accommodation and separately ventilated. Doctors have said they want to see that percentage reduced to 15%.

Meanwhile the Basque Region is set to have a harsher anti-smoking policy than the rest of the country. The new law being promoted by the Socialist led administration of Patxi López envisages banning smoking on patios and terraces of academic centres and hospitals as well as in children’s parks. Also smoking will not be allowed when there are children in the car.

National Minister for Health, Trinidad Jiménez, has described the proposed Basque legislation as brave, and ‘an example for the rest of the country’.

Latest reports indicate that she will be banning smoking outside the doors of colleges and hospitals, but will stop short of banning smoking when there are children in the car.

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