SPAIN: Spaniards working on New Year's Day were driven onto the chilly streets to smoke as a ban on smoking in public places came into effect yesterday, but in Madrid's typical smoky bars the law was widely ignored.
Spain is Europe's second biggest per capita consumer of tobacco after Greece, according to market researchers Euromonitor, and until now many Spaniards still smoked at work.
From yesterday it became illegal to smoke in offices, hospitals, schools and shopping centres. Bars and restaurants of more than 100 square metres (1,076sq ft) must have no-smoking sections.
But bars smaller than that can choose whether to ban or allow smoking throughout, making the law much softer than similar legislation in other European countries.
And small, cramped bars - most typically with hams hanging from the ceiling and a layer of butts on the floor - dominate Spain's famously hectic nightlife.
"I'm not going to give up because they impose it on me," said an administrator at Madrid's Hospital Clinico, who declined to be named. "When they forbid something it makes you want to do it even more."
The law, aimed at cutting the number of smokers from a current one-third of the population, also bans tobacco advertising and raises the minimum age for buying cigarettes to 18 from 16.
However, some Spaniards are using the law to help them give up and pharmacies say they have ordered extra supplies of nicotine patches.
More than half of Spain considers smoking a right which should not be restricted, a recent survey by government pollsters CIS showed. That could be why 69 per cent think the new law is going to be hard to enforce even though 77 per cent back it, according to the same survey.
The government wants the law to cut smoking by 5 per cent in two years but some Spaniards are defiant, particularly those in the bar and restaurant industries, who oppose the law. Bar owners say the vast majority of small bars will remain smoker-friendly.
"This is a business. Do you want it to go to ruin? More smokers come here than non-smokers," said Antonio Pallare, manager of Madrid bar Cerveceria Davila. "Non-smokers should respect those who smoke," he said, adding he would have quit his job if the bar had gone smoke-free.