Spain has no state law prohibiting smoking on the beach. Although the environmental damage caused by cigarette butts in these natural areas has been proven, wherever they occur plastic waste by far the most common, the decision remains in the hands of each municipality. Nowadays more and more people hang the no smoking sign on the coast.
With more or less luck in control, and with legislation with different intensity of sanctions, Spain breaks this year a record of sandbars that prohibit tobacco. 700 of the 3,500 that the country has, 20%, have activated this ban.
The association Nofumadores began to quantify how many beaches in Spain could be considered smoke-free in 2014. They then published the first fifteen on a map. This year, ten years later, the figure is infinitely higher. Even an inland community is making its debut in this register this year: for the first time, the river beach of Las Moreras, in Valladolid, has also placed a no-smoking sign.
But not in all places there is a compliance check of this ban. “Despite the exponential increase in the number of smokeless sandbanks, the measure is largely cosmetic and educational, since there are no fines,” judges the president of the aforementioned association, Raquel Ferández.
This declaration has important exceptions. Barcelona, Lloret de Mar and the Canary Islands municipalities do have a municipal regulation based on the Waste and Contaminated Soil Act, to establish a sanctions regime. Along with these areas, Cantabria already became the first autonomous community in 2022 to declare all its beaches smoke-free, 87 in total, and created an autonomous law that made it the first region with its own legislation in this area.
Uneven heat
Galicia also has the Galician network of Praias sen Fume, which has 242 places, 25% of all the beaches counted in Galicia. According to the aforementioned association, A Coruña has a ban on cigarettes on most of its beaches – 108 in total – due to the “great concern caused by the polluting impact they have on the fishing industry.”
As for the Canary Islands, there are, at least formally, fines established in the legislation in a sanction regime based on the aforementioned waste law. In total, there are 67 beaches where smoking is prohibited.
In Andalusia there are 57 in total, a number that has grown little in the last ten years. Cádiz and Málaga are the ones with the most spaces declared 'smoke-free'.
The association leading this initiative to create tobacco-free beaches denounces that the Valencian Community has suffered a setback in the fight against tobacco. pollution for cigarette butts in the municipalities that saw a change of government in favor of the PP in the last elections. “We demand that the new companies from Valencia, Alicante, Villajoyosa, Elche, Benicarló, Castellón de la Plana and Teulada rejoin this civic and environmental initiative,” asks Fernández Megina. In 2023, there were 85 kilometers of coastline where smoking and vaping were formally prohibited and this summer there will be 66.
An environmental problem
Nofumadores has already collected 369,000 signatures on the Change.org platform asking the government to approve a national law declaring all beaches free of tobacco and vaping, and especially of their waste, following the example of other neighboring countries such as France.
For the time being, Health has just approved the draft law that will allow the future expansion of smoke-free areas, including areas where people can enjoy themselves outdoors, such as terraces and beaches. For the time being, the draft of this text does not give details on what these places will be. It only specifies that they must be “common or social areas”. The draft is now in preliminary consultation and accusations can be received until August 15 medical associationscitizens and all types of NGOs. After this date, the drafting of the text will begin and will be submitted to the Council of Ministers for approval.
In the case of beaches, the request for a ban is not only about the health of passive smokers, but also about the environmental damage caused by cigarette butts. The filters are made of cellulose acetate, a poorly biodegradable plastic that, after fragmentation, turns into microplasticsScience has been able to demonstrate on numerous occasions that these eventually accumulate in the organisms of humans and animals.
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