Costa Blanca Group in Call to Stop all Smoking at Home During Lockdown

A campaign group has called for smoking to be banned at home in order protect children and other passive smokers during the current emergency lockdown measures.

“Los Derechos se Respten”(Respect Rights), based in Elche, has written to Spain´s health minister, Salvador Illa asking for an immediate ban on the use of tobacco and vaping products indoors.

Group coordinator, Joaquín Marcos, says in his letter that a number of studies have shown that smoke could pass on Covid-19 to a non-smoker.

Marcos added:-”Health experts a few weeks ago called on people to quit smoking, due to the damage caused to the respiratory system, which is extremely vulnerable to the coronavirus”.

The letter also features a reference to Stanton Glantz, who is part of the Centre for Research and Education for Tobacco Control at the University of California, who said that “the effects of using E-cigarettes also hindered the lungs in rejecting infections.”

Another quote came from Serge Smedja, secretary general of SOS Médecins:-“the coronavirus can pass from one respiratory system to another through smoke, which would happen when a passive smoker inhales cigarette smoke from someone else”.

The “Respect Rights· letter asks for the health minister to take the views of experts seriously, especially when it comes to young children and teenagers.

They conclude that with hospitals under so much strain at the moment, a home smoking ban would at least reduce some of the pressure on the Spanish health system.