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ARCHIVED - Law allows Murcia Region to ban smoking on all beaches
This is the first summer that Murcia city councils could implement a beach smoking ban
A decree passed on April 8 of this year relating to waste and contamination for a circular economy gives all municipal councils in Spain, including the Region of Murcia, the right to prohibit smoking on its beaches. So far, only a handful of Murcia’s beaches have a cigarette-free zone but the trend is gaining popularity across the country, Barcelona being the latest city to jump on the smoke-free bandwagon.
The law, which is also committed to “developing and supporting information campaigns to raise awareness about waste prevention and the abandonment of scattered garbage”, came into force in spring and this is its first summer, so the mayors of the Region would be well within their rights to modify the ordinances and ban tobacco products from the coastline altogether. At the moment, even where smoking is restricted, law-breakers aren’t fined if caught lighting up on their beach towels.
While an outright ban doesn’t seem likely in the short-term, local authorities believe that it’s important to establish smoke-free zones on the Region’s beaches, both for a matter “of health and also of respect.”
At the beginning of the summer, the WHO congratulated Spain for already having more than 500 beaches that are smoke-free.
Of these, a dozen are in the Region of Murcia: Mazarrón (Rihuete, Bahía Chica, El Castellar, La Reya and Nares), San Pedro del Pinatar (Villananitos, between the wall of the Lo Pagan Yacht Club and the facilities of the Chiringuito Bitákora), Los Alcázares (La Concha), Águilas (Las Higuericas), Cartagena (La Chapineta), San Javier (El Pescador, in La Ribera, and two spaces, in an accessible area, on the El Castillico beaches, in Santiago of the Ribera, and Mistral, in La Manga).
Just one cigarette butt left in the sand takes a full decade to decompose, and the Region has been promoting awareness campaign for a clean coastline for some time.
Image: Archive
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