Passive smokers increase despite anti-tobacco laws

BarcelonaAfter smoking was banned indoors in bars, restaurants, and workplaces in 2005, the number of passive smokers dropped from 49.5% to 37.9% in 2007. And when this ban was extended five years later to nightlife venues, playgrounds, and healthcare centers, this overall percentage fell by half, to 21.3% in 2011. But now, fifteen years later, this decline has stalled and exposure to smoke has even increased. This was confirmed this Tuesday by the journal Tobacco Control from the BMJ, which published an article by the Spanish Society of Pneumology and Thoracic Surgery (SEPAR) that compares surveys from 2005, 2007, 2011, and 2024 and finds that more and more non-smokers feel exposed to environmental tobacco smoke, as well as to aerosols from electronic nicotine devices, that is to say, vapers.

According to this organization of specialists, there have been no major changes in state-level anti-smoking legislation for fifteen years. For example, the regulatory reform that planned to ban smoking on terraces has remained paralyzed in parliamentary processing following the early elections. The study says that in 2024 the percentage of people who considered themselves passive smokers rebounded for the first time since these laws have existed, to 23.8%. And, precisely, the terraces of bars and restaurants are the main risk spaces.

"It seemed interesting" to review the situation and know what the current exposure to tobacco smoke is, said the director of the SEPAR Smoking Research Program and co-author of the study, Juan Antonio Riesco, in a press conference. According to the results of this new study, between 2011 and 2024, the number of passive smokers in common closed spaces (home, work, schools, and indoor leisure) has risen to 23.8%. And if terraces are included in the overall count, the figure skyrockets to 54.9%. Therefore, more than half of non-smoking adults breathe tobacco smoke when they are on a terrace because, as they are outdoor spaces, they are not subject to legislative restrictions.

The Spanish government, however, asserts that daily tobacco consumption in Spain has decreased to 15.4% of the population aged 15 and over, the lowest level in the entire historical series. The percentage has been reduced by more than half since 1993, when it stood at 32.1%, according to the 2025 Spanish Health Survey (ESdE 2025), prepared by the Ministry of Health and the National Statistics Institute (INE).

Attention to young people

For the first author of the study, Carlos Jiménez-Ruiz, a pulmonologist and president of SEPAR between 2018 and 2021, these data reflect that anti-smoking laws "achieved a significant reduction in smoking in all areas" but, currently, "the passivity in compliance with the law, the lack of updating of the regulations and the emergence of new ways of smoking are relaxing people's attitude towards this habit.

Furthermore, the report highlights the impact of new forms of smoking (vapes and heated tobacco) on young people who perceive these products as less harmful even though their consumption generates the same addiction and respiratory diseases as conventional tobacco. In addition, these products are the gateway to tobacco, as people who use them are up to four times more likely to switch to conventional cigarettes.

In view of these data, the authors recommend extending the smoking ban to terraces and school environments, equating vapes and electronic devices with classic tobacco, raising taxes on these products, strengthening inspection and financing treatments to quit smoking. Regarding the possible clash between bans and individual freedom, Jiménez-Ruiz is clear: "Smoking is a chronic addictive disease that kills more than a thousand people a week and 56,000 every year and is the leading cause of death. Freedom has nothing to do with disease".