ok, this will most likely cause a nice little discussion on the board but i just saw on the news that renfe (spanish national rail service) will prohibit smoking on ALL of their trains for trips under 5 hours long (effective as of feb. 2005).
with the latest no-smoking regulations it would seem that pretty soon one will only be able to smoke outside (if that) in spain.
just last week, a few spanish hospitals prohibited smoking in the hospital (in all areas). a few created 1 small smoking room for smoking employees and visitors. the kicker is that the smokers were bitching because the smoking room was very small and they said "we have to smell other people's smoke as well as our own, the room is full of smoke" :jeje: hellllloooooooo?
the news said that other hospitals are soon to follow with the no-smoking policy.
can you believe that in the year 2004 one can still smoke in a hospital
Here in Belgium, smoking is banned from trains,... but just Belgian trains, so people tend to say that, if they want to smoke in a train in Belgium, they have to get in Dutch, German or French trains (which go to Amsterdam, K�ln and Frankfurt, and Lille and Paris respectively).
Anyway, Brussels is quite tough on smoking prohibitions, at least at work places: you can see, as in the US and the UK, some people talking and smoking together in front of office building main doors. Sometimes I feel sorry for that,... but I suffered, for more than a year, in a less than 15 sq. metres office, working with two smokers: why did I have to smoke? My habit (not smoking) did not disturb them, but their did to me!!
But you never know if smoking can be useful: I know that some people use it to reduce their working hours, and I know a girl who usually smokes with one of EU Commissioners in front of their building :-S
Finally, there is yet a long way to go, when you know that, so far, smoking is allowed in all cafeterias at the European Parliament :-O
Posts: 399 | Location: Madrid | Registered: 05 July 2001
You all might be surprised that a confirmed smoker like me actually says :cheers: to the lawmakers!!!! I was very surprised to find that I could actually smoke on a train I took to Salamanca at the beginning of this year. Selfishly, I am pleased that RENFE may allow smoking on journeys over 5 hours, however I am sure that is just a sop for the smokers, and it will follow that all journeys will become non-smoking in the very near future!
________________________________________ Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional
I can't tell you how dismayed I was one day in the Reina Sofia, looking at a huge Anselm Keifer painting, and realizing the little group of people standing next to me were ALL puffing away...in an ART MUSEUM!
I thought: "gee, Toto. We're not in Kansas any more."
Posts: 385 | Location: a pueblo in Palencia, via Pittsburgh USA | Registered: 15 February 2003
"Smoking is Prohibited" reads the sign in Spanish. Next to this is an ashtry with a teenage Spanish girl puffing away!
Do you really think this is going to make the slightest difference to smoking Spaniards?!?
I'm a smoker, but I do make an effort to not inflict it on others, in Madrid it seems the non-smoker is the social outcast.
Smoking down the metro is of course common place despite the non-smoking signs and they even smoke on the escalators. Now, I don't know why I find this particularly wrong, perhaps that if you are stood behind them it is very unpleasent, but I do think there is an extra danger there too.
One night out, a crowded metro, a young guy drinking wwith his friends lights up on teh actual 'coche' itself! A crowded train and no one said a word!
My first lesson as a teacher and half of the students spark up in class!!! Not nice especially when you haev an almighty hangover!!
I can't see the smoking laws come into effect, partly due to the fact that most of the police and train workers smoke and have sympathy!
x
Posts: 38 | Location: La Mancha | Registered: 18 August 2004
Don Quixote, my son, maybe the reason you find smoking on the escalator so bad is that the Kings Cross Fire in London was caused by a cigarette on the escalator.
How come you are posting now you don't even bloody live in Spain? Missing the place? Or just missing me? Ha.
We had problems getting the no smoking laws enforced here in Arizona, USA. The way they finally got some rigid enforcement was to make the no smoking laws part of the fire code. So now fire marshalls go around and enforce the no smoking laws. The one that gets the citation is the business owner. The regular police force said they were to busy with more pressing calls than to take the time to investigate a call over somone smoking in a bar or restaurant. That one change has had a dramatic effect on the smoking in public problem. Even all the casinos and restaurants in Nevada are now smoke free.
When we were in Spain last year, we were amazed to still find cigarette vending machines. Those have been banned in most areas here now. I must say that I was surprised to read here that you can still smoke on a German train. Germany was one of the first to prohibit tobaco ads and insist that the tobaco ads on race cars be covered while racing in Germany. That has now hit our shores, and NASCAR no longer has the Winston Cup, it is now called the Nextell Cup. Getting that through congress, and getting his knob polished, is about the only things that Bill Clinton did in eight years of being President.
Give it time, old habit die hard. The Spaniards will catch on. I don't like the stench any more than the rest of you but be patient.
Posts: 29 | Location: Phoenix USA | Registered: 13 September 2004
Booklady, sorry you misunderstood me! I agree with you totally about the trains! It was just that I was so surprised that I was actually going to be allowed to smoke on such a relatively short journey!! But you can�t smoke willynilly - you do have to book into a smoking carriage, which of course I did, but the fumes even got to me
________________________________________ Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional
I don't think smokers ought to be banished to the outdoors and treated like pariahs. I don't think cigarette machines ought to be outlawed. This is legislating morality in a way. I think lawmakers and society ought to let economics take care of the problem. If enough people get cancer and die (or are pressured into quitting) there will be fewer smokers buying the cigarettes, and it won't pay to have the machines/smoking carriages/smoking lounges any more. Smoking is a choice. Smokers need to be thoughtful of those around them -- non-smokers, children, artwork. And non-smokers need to not be too righteous and evangelical about their choices. I don't smoke, but I think USA has gone off the deep end on this crusade. This is a lesson I learned in Spain. Rebekah (who has asthma, but is tolerant.)
Posts: 385 | Location: a pueblo in Palencia, via Pittsburgh USA | Registered: 15 February 2003
There was a group of expats a bit along from me. English I think, although I wasn't close enough to hear what they were saying, to hear their accents. One of the girls wandered over to one of the three security guards on the platform. Her friends were all giggling. She had a cigarette in her hand, held in that way, you know, elbow bent, fag next to her mouth, and she chatted to the security guard about when the last train was. None of the three guards cared that she was in the metro, smoking. Not sure why the girl was talking to the guard - it LOOKED like she was trying to prove a point: that, as the "Don" has said, the railway workers don't care if people smoke.
Are any of you guys who were there that night mm-ers? Do you want to tell us exactly what happened? (I feel like a CrimewatchUK presenter). You all went to Via Lactea later, I saw you there.
i do not agree. it is not legistlating morality but is rather health legislation.
Cervantes, it is true that the security guards in the metro do not care if people smoke, that has always bothered me.
when i see people smoking on the metro platforms, i always say something and nicely ask them to put the cig out. unfortunately, the vast majority of them tell me off and say they can smoke if they want to and then we get into an argument.
often times they say that smoking is only prohibited on the metro cars which is not true, it is prohibited in the entire metro network.
smokers get VERY defensive and can get downright NASTY when you confront them about their smoking, even in a place where they know it is not allowed. i chalk it up the fact that the metro security guards do not say anythign to the smokers to their laziness and general dicontentment with their jobs. the smoker is most likely going to argue with them and perhaps get violent about it and tfor the pittance of a salary the guards get, it is just not worth it to them.
there is also a huge LACK of no smoking signs on the metro platforms, the only ones are at the turnstyle entrances so the smokers often respond that they do not see any no smoking signs when you confront them about it on the platforms.
as if they did not know that they are not allowed to smoke there.
why should i have to argue with a smoker about the fact that they are smoking in a place where it is prohibited, it is an assenine concept.
one night when ena and i were taking the metro to go out, we got on and it was packed. there were like older people on the metro car with us and we noticed the stench of a cigar. we looked around and saw that one of them was smoking a CIGAR ena asked him to put it out (by asking him if he knew it was not allowed) and he responded that he did not know. bullshit!!! the guy was like 70 yrs old. he quickly put it out but i was shocked that nobody else on the metro car said anything.
It bothers me a LOT when I see people smoking on the Metro, and yes it probably has a lot to do with the Kings Cross Disaster too. I also saw people smoking on the Cercanias platforms, but when I questioned them they said that they didn�t count!!!
I am basically a "law abiding" Brit and will not smoke where I know it is prohibited. I have just spent a few weeks in Ireland where you cannot smoke in any public workspace, bar, club, restaurant etc.
The only place I have broken the smoking law is in Spanish airports!!!!!! I reckon their a/c systems should be able to cope with that!!!!!
________________________________________ Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional
And non-smokers need to not be too righteous and evangelical about their choices
That would be true if for the one scientifically proven fact that second-hand smoke causes cancer.
Smokers do not any more right to jeopardize a person's health by smoking in public areas than drivers have the right to drive down the sidewalks jeopardizing people's safety.
If they want to go cause themselves emphysema, lung cancer, etc., fine that's their choice. But they have absolutely no right to inflict that choice on others.
Posts: 289 | Location: Madrid via DC via Mexico via ... | Registered: 01 August 2003
- rent or buy a cell phone from me for your stay in spain, more info at 
- already have a cell phone, get a spanish SIM card for it at 
But you can�t smoke willynilly - you do have to book into a smoking carriage, which of course I did, but the fumes even got to me 
