Manuel Franco
Head of International Relations at the Spanish Society of Public Health and Healthcare Administration (SESPAS), organiser of the 2026 European Public Health Conference (EUPHA), Ikerbasque Research Professor at the Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3) and professor and researcher at the universities of Alcalá and Johns Hopkins
I think the measure is necessary and very well drafted and designed, because it is not only saying what measures can be taken in our society to help prevent smoking - both not to start smoking and to avoid second-hand tobacco or environmental tobacco smoke - but it is also saying 'we are going to help people stop smoking'.
We know that tobacco has been designed for decades to be a highly addictive substance and that it is also big business for many. That is the tremendous thing about tobacco: we have known since the 1960s that it is a danger to our individual health and to the health of the population, and that there is big business behind it. Therefore, preventing people from starting to smoke and also helping those of us who are already hooked to quit smoking is fundamental. These two legs are one of the most important public health and disease prevention measures.
It also has a health equity component. We do not all smoke equally in our society, there are people who smoke more and others who smoke less. Those who smoke the most now are the people with the lowest socio-economic status, which is even more terrible because it means that the people who get sick the most are those who have the least money and the least access to treatment. Therefore, the equity dimension of this measure in Catalonia is very welcome.
And finally, it is very important to say that the situation of the terraces is very serious. Some time ago we demonstrated in an investigation that the limits for exposure to tobacco smoke were exceeded in the vast majority of terraces in Madrid. And that, in addition, terraces that are closed in winter are illegal.
Therefore, the example of Catalonia, where the city council of Barcelona has already succeeded in making beaches smoke-free, seems to me to be the way forward. Always helping people who are hooked [to tobacco] to give up this addiction from the point of view of primary care and the treatments that exist.