T E N E R I F E ’ S O N LY Issue 685
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W E E K LY N E W S PA P E R
07 January 2011 - 13 January 2011
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It’s such a drag! Anti-Smoking Law leaves bars and restaurants feeling floored TENERIFE’S bar owners and restaurateurs are already struggling to cope with the tough new AntiSmoking Law, which came into force on Sunday 2nd January. It is said to be the most stringent in Europe, and has left them feeling “defenceless”. That’s because the owners are held responsible if a customer decides to light up inside, even though they have no legal powers to stop them, and can’t even order them out of the premises. Should a person inside a bar light up and the bar is reported, the owner faces a fine of anything up to 600,000 euros. The new law forbids smoking in any indoor public place except for prisons, psychiatric hospitals, sports stadia, bullrings - and a maximum of 30% of hotel rooms. Also, no smoking is permitted in children’s parks or outside health centres, nor in the playgrounds or other outside areas of educational centres attended by under-18s. But people in the hostelry industry over here and in Spain as a whole - mainly those in restaurants, bars and café-bars - anticipate losing a huge amount of business because around half of their customers are smokers. They also say they need some way of “looking after” customers’ drinks and food while they nip outside for a cigarette, given the risk of beverages being spiked. In addition to loss of business, they say they are now faced with a massive legal burden that they consider impossible to comply with.
In fact, within two days of the new law being introduced, consumer group FACUA had received 700 complaints from people failing to comply. Many bar and restaurant owners say they have had to ask customers to stop smoking, but in most cases they say they lit up out of habit and stubbed their cigarettes out apologetically. The majority of the complaints relate to hospitals and health centres, which have failed to remove ashtrays from outside their doors. There are also cases emerging of bars which refuse to
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enforce the Government’s new legislation. One local bar owner was overheard telling a customer: “I’m English and so are my customers, and I’m turning a blind eye to the ban. It’s ridiculous.” Another couple running a bar in Las Americas plan to install heaters on their terrace outside so that their regulars can smoke. Fernando Tegedor, who runs a bar in Castellón is defending his “private business” and has ignored the law. He says that if any of his customers are bothered by the smoke, he will make a table available for
them on the terrace. “It’s either that or we are ruined,” said anxious Fernando, who has already received a denuncia from the police. He claims that 90% of his clients are smokers, and that his takings fell by 80% on the first day of the prohibition. He has also made a call for other bars and restaurants across the country to boycott the law. ‘If we unite, one by one and another and another, they cannot do anything’, he told Canal 9 TV. A bar owner in Cáceres, who needed 16 stitches in a wound to his forehead after a fight
broke out when he tried to stop a client from smoking, believes there will be plenty more altercations over the contentious issue. Conversely, drinkers who can’t stand the smell and annoyance of smoke were happy to sit outside. Now, they say, they are being harassed by all the fumes. Yet some are more than happy with the new law. Pharmacists are reporting that already, more smokers are asking for the products to help them give up the weed, and manufacturers of outside terrace-heaters say they have
sold out at after an unexpected rush in sales. More than 300 people were reported in the first 24 hours for failing to comply with the law, and there is a feeling that several bars will be forced to close unless the owners can find a solution soon. The danger signs have already been spelled out in the UK, where more than 50 pubs a week have closed since the no-smoking ban, which came into force in July 2007. See the legal viewpoint from our Lawyer on pg 10.