Tag: Spain

Smoker loses custody battle
A Spanish father has lost custody of his children after the provincial court of Cordoba ruled that his addiction to tobacco was toxic to his children’s health, according to a Euronews story.
The father had been sharing custody of his children, aged 10 and 13, with his ex-wife since his divorce in 2017.
The children had complained that they had to share an ‘environment full of smoke’ in their father’s house, according to the judgement seen by Euronews.
‘In this situation and wanting to avoid a health risk for the minors, it is evident that the father’s way of living puts in danger the health of his children in an irresponsible way. He ignores everything else except his addiction.’
The judgement added that it wasn’t logical for the children to be in a place that would present a risk to the public.
In Spain, a 2011 anti-tobacco law banned smoking in enclosed public spaces and accesses to hospitals, schools, children’s playgrounds, and smoking rooms in airports.
At the time, it was considered one of the most restrictive tobacco laws, but it stopped short of outlawing smoking in the presence of minors in private places, such as vehicles or homes.
February 7, 2019
Hookahs side-step law
The smoke that was eradicated from many public establishments in Spain is being reintroduced through hookahs, according to a story in El Pais.
People are allowed to smoke hookahs inside as long as they do not smoke tobacco but nicotine-free alternatives, such as Shiazo.
The legal loophole is being exploited by bars and cafés, some of which surreptitiously also offer tobacco to smoke.
As soon as tobacco was involved, however, it was against the law, said a spokesman for the Civil Guard, which carried out two raids in 2017, in Valencia and Malaga, to combat the practice.
“It is happening all over Spain,” says Carlos Plaja, who took part in the Malaga operation, which saw 124 complaints filed and 91 venues inspected. “They hide the packets [of tobacco] in stools and false ceilings. And when they are inspected, they only show products that are nicotine free and permissible.”
Penalties relating to the anti-tobacco laws are in the hands of the regional authorities. However, most are hazy when it comes to data on hookah use and infringement. The only region with any relevant data is Catalonia, where seven establishments have been fined so far this year.
Meanwhile, Civil Guard sources in Valencia recognize that there are too many establishments involved to police them properly.
The Tobacco Department of the Spanish Family and Community Medicine Society says there is an increasing number of people smoking both cigarettes and pipes in Spain, though data on the use of pipes is scarce. EDADES, the most recent survey on drug consumption carried out by the Health Ministry, failed to include it, recording only that cigarette smoking among young people had risen by 5 percent.
While hookahs can be smoked in indoor public places, given that no tobacco is involved, electronic cigarettes cannot because the law considers them to comprise a tobacco product.
Meanwhile, Seville is hosting an international hookah fair in June. The organizers have chosen Seville because they claim that the Spanish market is one of the biggest in the world. Among the main participants will be companies from the US and Brazil that specialize in tobacco for water pipes.
December 28, 2018
Smoking rate increased
The incidence of smoking among Spaniards aged 15-64 last year, at 34.0 percent, was higher than it was before the introduction of a tobacco-smoking ban in 2005, 32.8 percent, according to a story in El Pais.
But, at the same time, cigarette sales have fallen: from 4.6 billion packs in 2005 to 2.2 billion packs in 2017.
These figures are from the drug-consumption survey EDADES, which was carried out by the Health Ministry.
Apparently, the survey’s methodology means that, assuming the country’s population has remained roughly stable during the period under review, it is not known if the changes in the incidence of smoking and the sales volume are due to individual smokers consuming fewer cigarettes per year or choosing to roll their own cigarettes.
The 2005 law banned tobacco smoking in the workplace but allowed it in smaller bars and restaurants.
But that law was extended in 2010 to cover smoking in all closed public places.
The Health Minister María Luisa Carcedo and Azucena Martí, the government delegate for the National Plan on Drugs, presented the results of the survey on Tuesday, but they were unable to explain the rise in the incidence of smoking.
Carcedo said that more work needed to be done to ensure the current laws were being enforced.
She did not rule out or confirm whether the government was planning to ban smoking in cars or homes with minors present, but she said these issues would be complex given that the places in question were private.
The health minister did, however, announce that the government would launch a special campaign to stop young people from taking up smoking. According to the biannual survey, the number of young smokers has risen five percentage points during the past two years.
December 12, 2018
Spain to host THR summit
What is being billed as Spain’s first tobacco harm reduction scientific congress is due to be held in Barcelona, on September 19.
The congress, which already has 13 expert speakers lined up, is being organized by
ANESVAP (the Spanish Association of Users of Personal Vaporisers) and MOVE (the Medical Organization Supporting Vaping and Electronic Cigarettes).
In a press note, these organizations said they had been fighting hard during the past years to present the latest scientific evidence on the use of personal vaporisers to health and medical professionals in Spain, and to the wider society.
Some had listened, they said, and a few had accepted that tobacco harm reduction (THR) policies could be helpful in respect of public health.
Nevertheless, those supporting THR in Spain were still very few.
ANESVAP and MOVE said that they were therefore organising the first ever conference on THR in Spain.
Presentations from leading international experts in the field, would provide evidence about the place of THR in reducing smoking and its consequences, they added.
Registration for the Tobacco Harm Reduction Summit Spain is available at: http://thrsummitspain.org/.
August 3, 2018
A question of fraud
A Spanish member of the European Parliament wants to know how much is being ‘lost’ to tobacco smuggling.
In a preamble to questions posed to the Commission, José Ignacio Salafranca Sánchez-Neyra said tobacco smuggling was one of the leading types of fraud causing huge losses to the EU budget.
With that in mind, he asked the Commission:
1) Whether it was taking any measures, in conjunction with member states, to curb this illegal practice.
2) And whether it had any figures/percentages for the amounts lost to fraud; and if so, what were the figures for 2017.
These questions are due to be answered by the Commission in writing.
August 2, 2018
Health improvements noted
The Spanish vapers’ association, Anesvap, has published research results that confirm what other studies have shown: that vaping does not act as a gateway to smoking for young adults, that vaping is not as addictive as smoking, and that vaping dramatically reduces smoking rates, according to a story by Diane Caruana published on vapingpost.com.
The research suggests that 99.6 percent of vapers in Spain are adults and that the average age is 38.5 years. They comprise about 80 percent men and 20 percent women.
The average nicotine concentration vapers use when they first start vaping is 11.42 mg/ml, while the overall average concentration is 4.04 mg/ml.
More than 85 percent of the study subjects stated that the wide array of flavors available were important in enticing them to switch from smoking to vaping, a finding that is in line with what many public health experts have been saying in response to e-liquid flavour bans.
Ninety percent of respondents said that they started vaping in a bid to improve their health, and more than 92 percent of those said they had detected improvements in their health.
July 12, 2017
Tobacco under scrutiny
Spain’s anti-trust watchdog is investigating tobacco companies for alleged non-competitive practices in the manufacturing, distribution and commercialization of their products in the country, according to a Reuters story quoting the watchdog.
Altadis, British American Tobacco Espana, Compania de Distribucion Integral Logista, JT International Iberia, and Philip Morris Spain were all being looked at as part of the investigation, the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC) said.
The CNMC made surprise inspections of the companies’ offices in February and March.
The investigation could take up to 18 months to be fully resolved, the CNMC said.
If the CNMC finds the companies have been colluding, it could levy fines of up to 10 percent of their revenues in the year proceeding the ruling.
PM and the Imperial Brands’ affiliates, Altadis and Logista were quoted as saying that they were co-operating with the investigation.
BAT and JT International were said to have been not immediately available for comment.
June 21, 2017
Leaf agreement signed
Japan Tobacco International has signed an agreement with the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture under which the company is committed to continue to purchase leaf tobacco from Extremadura.
The three-year agreement was signed by Minister Isabel García Tejerina and Vassilis Vovos, JTI’s president of its Western Europe region, in the presence of the President of Extremadura, Guillermo Fernández Vara.
The signing ceremony took place yesterday in the headquarters of the ministry in Madrid.
The tobacco sector is said to sustain more than 61,000 direct and indirect jobs in Spain.
And tobacco is a strategic crop for the region of Extremadura where it provides an income for more than 20,000 families.
“This memorandum of understanding reaffirms our long-term support to the innovative local tobacco growing sector and the quality of the leaf which meets our worldwide standards”, said Vovos during the signing ceremony.
In a statement posted on its website, JTI said it owned the biggest tobacco manufacturing plant in Spain where it produced its global brands Camel and Winston.
‘The company employs more than 750 professionals in its state-of-the-art factory and commercial offices,’ the statement said.
‘JTI’s leading HR practices are widely recognized and the company recently won the Top Employer 2017 award for Spain as well as for Europe.
‘JTI is committed to the local communities where it operates and in Spain, the company supports social and cultural projects through partnerships with Prado Museum and Teatro Real among others.’
February 22, 2017
Tabacalera makes a comeback
The Imperial Tobacco group has restored the Tabacalera name for its new premium cigar division in Spain, according to a Cinco Dias story.
The move was said to be in line with Imperial’s strategy of reorganising some of its legal entities in Spain.
The reorganisation process was said to have been started last year.
April 15, 2013
PMI, Spanish tobacco renew relationship
Philip Morris International is strengthening its long-term commitment to the future of tobacco growing in Spain by renewing its Framework Collaboration Agreement with the Spanish Ministry for Agriculture, Food and the Environment for the next three years, the company said last week.
“As part of the new Agreement signed today in Madrid and subject to the agreed terms, PMI will buy 33 percent more of the Spanish tobacco crop in 2013 compared to 2012,” the company said in a note posted on its website yesterday. “In 2014 and 2015 PMI will increase its tobacco purchases by an annual rate of approximately 5 percent.”
The new agreement was signed by Spain’s Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Environment Miguel Arias Cañete, and Spaniard Drago Azinovic Gamo, president of PMI’s EU region.
“We are pleased with this agreement, which reaffirms the support of the Spanish government, the regional government of Extremadura and PMI for the continued, sustainable growth of quality tobacco leaf in Spain,” said Drago Azinovic.
“Despite the increasingly competitive and continually changing business environment, PMI remains committed to the future of this sector and the jobs it creates in Spain.
“It is for this reason that, along with the entire tobacco sector, we are especially concerned about the impact the extreme proposals in the proposed European Tobacco Products Directive currently being debated in Brussels.
“This directive could very negatively affect the entire sector that in our country generates 56,000 jobs and approximately 6 percent of the Spanish government’s total tax revenue.”
The agreement is said to reaffirm the commitment that PMI, the government of Extremadura and the Spanish Ministry for Agriculture and Environment have made to focus on efforts to improve the quality of Spanish tobacco and make it more competitive, “particularly against the backdrop of an increasingly challenging economic and regulatory environment.”
“It also includes provisions that will enhance the environmental sustainability of tobacco growing areas by encouraging good agricultural practices,” the note said. “To assist in putting these practices into place, PMI will offer tobacco growers’ associations and others involved in the growing and processing of tobacco, training sessions on good agricultural practices over the next three years.”
April 9, 2013