The mayor of València, María Catalá, announced this Tuesday that the City Council that she presides will study the creation of smoke-free spaces in some squares, parks and gardens in the city. Catalá made these statements during a visit to the new headquarters in Valencia of the Spanish Association against Cancer (AECC).
Some statements that two months after the Valencian Government lifted the ban on smoking on terraces that remained from the pandemic. A decision that generated criticism from the opposition and rejection by the Society of Family Medicine, which noted that allowing smoking on bar terraces is a “mistake” and “a clear setback” in terms of public health. Despite this, the Valencian Government defended that the change served to adapt regional regulations to state regulations.
During the visit, in which the president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, and the president of the Spanish Association against Cancer of Valencia, Tomás Trénor, also participated, the mayor of València stated that “the City Council takes the example of the Spanish Association against Cancer, that the square that borders this headquarters has been considered a smoke-free space since it is an area that has a children’s playground.
In this sense, Catalá added that “I have committed to them to study that in the rest of the city, not only in this square, but in more squares of the city, where there are environments that should generate healthy habits, where there is a playground or an exercise area for older people, it is established in some way that is a smoke-free environment and free of people who generate these habits.
Asked about this, Carlos Mazón has reiterated that his Government has chosen that the same rules as in the rest of the autonomies be met in the Valencian Community.
