tenerife smoke free public spaces

Tenerife declares 150 smoke-free public spaces

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Tenerife to designate more than 150 smoke-free and vape-free public spaces

Tenerife is to designate more than 150 public spaces across all 31 municipalities on the island as smoke and vape-free, including at least three per municipality and the stops on tram lines 1 and 2. The network will prioritise squares, busy areas, surroundings of schools and the vicinity of health centres, as announced at a press conference on Monday by the Cabildo de Tenerife’s councillor for Education for Prevention, Juan Acosta Méndez.

Advisory spaces, not punishable zones

Acosta stressed that these are recommended spaces rather than areas subject to sanctions, and underlined that the aim is to raise the profile of the institution’s commitment to public health and to make it easier for the public to choose smoke and vapour-free environments. “Prevention cannot be confined to a doctor’s surgery, a classroom or a one-off campaign,” said the councillor, who argued that it is also built in everyday spaces, “where people wait, study, work and live together”.

Acosta said the initiative is intended in particular to protect young people, and noted that the signage is designed to help denormalise the consumption of tobacco and vapes.

Cancer association welcomes the move

For his part, the president of the Spanish Association Against Cancer in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Andrés Orozco Muñoz, argued that the initiative will allow municipalities to introduce guidelines that steer people away from “what is undoubtedly the biggest trigger of cancer: tobacco”. “Smoking kills, that is an absolute reality,” said Orozco, who noted that the initiative is not intended to stop a person from smoking, but to prevent them from smoking next to us.

All 27 tram stops to be included

The Cabildo’s councillor for Mobility, Eulalia García, explained that the operator will designate all tram stops on lines 1 and 2, a total of 27, as smoke and vape-free spaces. García highlighted that the tram records close to 25 million passengers a year and that more than 90,000 people pass through its stops every day, among them young people, older people, workers and students. “It is a way of continuing to protect our passengers,” said the councillor, who stressed that public transport is also “a very powerful channel for information, awareness-raising and consciousness-building”.

The initiative will later be extended to the island’s bus stops, García revealed.

Signage to be rolled out before the end of the year

The campaign organisers said all 31 town halls have already given their approval and that it will be the municipalities themselves that determine the specific spaces where the signage will be installed. Implementation will begin shortly and is expected to be fully rolled out before the end of the year; in the case of the tram stops, the signage will begin to go up this Tuesday.

The spaces will be advisory in nature and will not involve any new sanctions, the councillor clarified, explaining that the campaign is not intended to criminalise smokers but to offer information based on scientific data.

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