Spain approves tobacco law

Spain approved a law aimed at cutting smoking in public places yesterday, but bar owners plan to exploit a loophole to make sure their bars remain havens for Spain's millions of smokers.

In Spain until recently it was not unusual to see doctors smoking in their surgeries, but now the government has made it obligatory for restaurants and bars over 100 square metres to set up non-smoking sections next year.

Smaller venues have to choose whether to ban or allow smoking on their premises and many owners of small bars, which dominate Spanish night life, say they have never even considered opting for a ban.

"If I want my business to work then I'd better let people come in and smoke," Alfredo Amarilla, owner of Taberna de Conspiradores in the popular La Latina district, said.

He said most of his regulars smoked.

The manager of El Tomas, in the same area, agreed.

"We want people to keep smoking and drinking... The way people think in this country is 'I won't go to a bar where I can't smoke'," José Barcena said, speaking soon after the new law won final approval from parliament.

The law in Spain, where the government says a third of the population smokes every day and 50,000 die from tobacco each year, is much softer than legislation in countries such as the US, Ireland and Italy.