The Council of Ministers has approved the National Plan for the Prevention and Control of Smoking 2024-2027, which has received the greatest social consensus and the support of scientific societies and whose main objective, as highlighted by the Ministry of Health, is to “reduce the prevalence of tobacco and related product consumption and minimize environmental exposure to their emissions.”
This Plan has been prepared with the technical participation of all the autonomous communities and aims to prevent young people from taking up the habit of smoking, in addition to helping all smokers who wish to quit smoking and taking care of the air we breathe.
The prevalence of tobacco consumption in Spain has progressively decreased in recent decades and stands at 22.1%, according to the 2020 European Health Survey. The most significant decreases in prevalence have occurred in years in which there have been adopted measures aimed at preventing smoking, such as modifications to the legislative framework that entail an expansion of smoke-free spaces, tax pressure or restrictions on tobacco advertising and promotion. Decreases in prevalence are also observed at times when specific programs are established for the cessation of consumption.
The latest data available from the Ministry indicates that tobacco is responsible for around 50,000 deaths a year. Furthermore, its consumption is associated with the appearance of 35 diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer, cardiovascular diseases or diabetes.
The main new features incorporated in the plan are, among others:
- Equate the regulation of electronic cigarettes and related tobacco products (with and without nicotine) to the regulation of traditional tobacco.
- Increase smoke-free spaces to protect the right to breathe. The more smoke-free space, the less space for diseases associated with smoking.
- Ban on single-use tobacco-related devices.
- Promote research on smoking and its impact on health, reinforcing evidence on the effect of new nicotine delivery devices.
- Propose the incorporation into the pharmaceutical benefits of the National Health System of those medications that, based on scientific evidence and economic efficiency, are suitable for the treatment of tobacco addiction.
- Collaborate with Local Entities to promote the development of municipal ordinances prohibiting the throwing of cigarette butts on public roads and natural spaces.
A large part of the measures will be materialized through the legislative modification that the Government has committed to carry out in the current legislature and that will affect Law 28/2005 and Royal Decree 579/2017, basic regulations on smoking. . The Government of Spain estimates that by the end of the year a good part of them will have reached a successful conclusion.
Source: Ministry of Health
