Spain‘s Balearic Islands will have 28 smoke-free beaches this year after they joined the program ‘Smoke-free beaches, healthy beaches 2023’, promoted by the Directorate General of Public Health and Participation. As in previous years and coinciding with the start of the tourist season, the Directorate General of Public Health and Participation, in collaboration with the Directorate General of Waste and Environmental Education and the municipalities of the Islands, has promoted the campaign with the aim of increasing smoke-free environments, especially in outdoor spaces.
One of the goals is to create a network of healthy beaches, understanding the Balearic coast as a recreational space for the enjoyment of outdoor activities which have direct health benefit on people. Tobacco consumption is one of the leading causes of disease and preventable death worldwide. Campaign organizers argue that exposure to smoke from tobacco products has been shown to cause health problems similar to those caused by tobacco use.
Tobacco waste contains more than 7,000 toxic chemicals that poison the environment. Cigarette butts are the most commonly found waste among marine litter. This campaign, which began in 2019 with two beaches in the municipalities of Sant Lluís and Santanyí, has started this year with nine more beaches and has thus reached a total of 28. These new beaches are on the island of Ibiza and in Mallorca.
In Mallorca, Pollença has incorporated this year the beaches of Formentor, Albercutx, Cala Barques and Cala Molins. As a novelty of this year’s campaign and to facilitate its identification and dissemination, the adhering municipalities will be able to place a four-meter banner on each smoke-free beach, as well as having QR in the informative stickers, which will link with the diptychs of previous campaigns, thus reducing the use of paper. The smoke-free beaches of the municipalities are expected to become a space of coexistence in which responsibility and individual civility are fostered to in turn generate a healthier environment for families.
From the tourist point of view, smoke-free beaches are increasingly valued as a family tourism attraction. On the website of the program, all the beaches are listed so that the citizens know which ones they are. The municipalities that want to join must make the request to the General Directorate of Public Health and Participation through the mentioned website and disseminate it from the page of the council.
According to a study done by the European Environment Agency in 2018, cigarette butts and their constituent filters are the most commonly found products on European beaches. Their constituent elements, such as nicotine and benzene, contaminate soil and aquatic habitats, and filters can be easily swallowed by animals. The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has made environmental issues a central factor in his policy. His government hopes to make the country carbon neutral by 2050.
