Smoking will be prohibited on the beaches of the province of Barcelona

Prohibiting tobacco along the more than 60 kilometers of beach in the province of Barcelona. This is the purpose pursued by the Diputación de Barcelona, which aims for the example of cities like the Catalan capital ---where sanctions for smoking on the beach have been applied since 2022--- to be replicated and for smoke-free beaches to be achieved in the 25 coastal municipalities of the Barcelona coastline, from Garraf to Maresme. For now, a total of fifteen municipalities have an approved regulation or one in the process of approval to prohibit tobacco before 2026.

Although the prohibition of smoking on beaches is a municipal competence and, therefore, it is the City Councils that must promote the corresponding regulations, the Diputación has made available to the 25 local administrations a model ordinance, prepared by a technical working group formed by 14 representatives of the coastal municipalities. The institution will also provide graphic material to inform and signal smoke-free areas. Following the example of municipalities such as Calella, El Masnou, or Barcelona, which have prohibited tobacco on all their beaches for two summers, seven municipalities will begin to ban smoke from their coasts this summer, but without yet applying sanctions. Specifically, these will be the towns of Premià de Mar, Vilassar de Mar, Cubelles, Sant Andreu de Llavaneres, Sant Vicenç de Montalt, Sant Pol de Mar, and Vilanova i la Geltrú, a city that already applied the regulation only to a part of its beaches.

The rest of the municipalities, although they adhere to the campaign of the Diputación de Barcelona and will put up informative posters this summer, will process the ordinances before the end of 2026. Thus, cities like Sitges, Caldes d'Estrac, or Pineda de Mar, which already prohibit tobacco on some of their beaches, will extend the regulation to their entire coastline by next year. The objective of the campaign is for this summer to serve to educate and raise awareness among the population, but without yet sanctioning. Fines, the amount of which will have to be decided in each municipality ---in Barcelona the fine for smoking on the beach is 30 euros---, will begin to be applied generally from 2026, although some cities could apply sanctions this year.

"We want increasingly healthy, sustainable, and clean beaches, and to achieve this, brave decisions are needed," said the president of the Barcelona Provincial Council and mayor of Sant Boi de Llobregat, Lluïsa Moret. With this campaign, the twenty municipalities not only want to benefit passive smokers, who breathe tobacco while on the beach, but also the environment, by eliminating cigarette butts and dirt generated by tobacco.

"The sandy area is increasingly smaller due to climate change, a fact that increases discomfort for passive smokers," lamented Josep Ramon Mut, deputy of Public Health for the Provincial Council. Mut highlighted that this campaign is unprecedented in Spain as a whole, since, although specific actions have been carried out in areas such as Galicia or the Balearic Islands, it is the first time there has been supramunicipal work in 25 coastal cities.

The mayor of Premià de Mar, Rafa Navarro, assured that the measure "is very favorable, despite the controversy it may bring associated." The City Council still has to define how these sanctions will be applied, although the intention of the consistory is to approve a joint political commitment from all parties in the next municipal plenary session to develop the ordinance and define the fines "without them becoming a persecution," according to Navarro.