Are there countries where smoking outdoors is already banned?
2 metres distance! The Spanish were the first country in Europe to ban smoking outdoors last autumn. Where a distance of two metres could not be guaranteed, neither smoking nor vaping was allowed. This is because the smoke or vapour could contain particularly large numbers of infectious droplets that endanger non-smokers. But it is not only about the passive victims. For people who smoke cigarettes have an increased risk of contracting Covid-19 particularly severely. And smokers probably also get infected more easily because they are constantly fiddling with their mouths. So it should also be about protecting smokers from themselves. At least that's what Spain's epidemiologists and lung specialists wanted to achieve with the ban. Politicians implemented this wish even then.
Now these measures are to be tightened as well?
The Spanish Ministry of Health will now submit a proposal to the Comunidades (federal states) to ban smoking on the outdoor terraces of hotels and restaurants throughout the national territory, regardless of whether they can maintain the two metres as a safety distance. At the moment, it is only a draft.
Public health sources have said that this proposal is not expected to be discussed at the Public Health Commission meeting and that the draft is a working document like many others, open and still subject to technical review.
The draft proposes the measure "with the dual objective of acting on smoking as a risk factor for covid-19 infection and contagion, together with the need to contribute to the control of the development of the disease in Spain".
In its letter, the health department indicates that there are currently six municipalities (Balearic Islands, Canary Islands, Cantabria, Valencia, Asturias and Aragon) that, according to new evidence, "have advanced in the measures and thus prohibit the consumption of different tobacco products on outdoor terraces", regardless of the observance of two metres as an interpersonal safety distance.
Furthermore, the Spanish Health Department states that other municipalities are currently considering, have made recommendations or are in favour of implementing this measure.
Isn't all this just blind actionism?
The responsibility of politics in the Corona crisis is not a small one, and it sometimes turns into despair. The Spanish government also has its problems at the moment. And what is the crisis-tested Spanish government doing? It is blindly, if not dangerously, locking up smokers.
Those who have been banned from smoking outdoors continue to smoke - at home.
How hypocritical this outdoor smoking ban is is obvious. First, because there is no scientific evidence whatsoever that outdoor smoke is more contagious than a non-smoker's breath. That is not to say that such a link has been ruled out. But there is no study on this question. And as long as that is the case, the alleged risk is pure speculation. And secondly, even a medical student knows that a smoker does not simply stop smoking when it is now forbidden outside the pub. He continues to smoke where he is still allowed to. In this case: at home.
What happens if we ban smoking outside completely?
The danger involved should actually also be clear to the medical experts who came up with the ban. For while smoke as well as fine and larger droplets drift in the fresh air, the risk of infection increases indoors. If addicts are now forced into this risky environment, perhaps with friends who would otherwise have kept one company outside the pub, or with family whom the smoker would otherwise have spared by going outside - then you definitely increase the risk for all these people.
So policymakers would be well advised to listen to science. But only if the advice of science is scientific. In this case, it is not.
We would like to know what you think about this: are you for or against such a ban? Would such a ban, as is currently being planned in Spain, also be conceivable in Germany or France?
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See you next week!
Your Powerfiller-Smoking-Team