The town hall has announced that the ‘accessible’ areas at Levante and Poniente beaches – known as the ‘Playas Accesibles’ sections – have been turned into no-smoking zones.
Councillor for beaches Mónica Gómez explained that these accessible beach zones have services which allow people with disabilities to enjoy the sand and the sea ‘without barriers’.
The town hall has signed an agreement with the AECC cancer charity to carry out the initiative.
She noted that smoking kills around 60,000 people a year in Spain.
“It is therefore a responsibility of the authorities to watch out for the health and wellbeing of the people,” she said.
The initiative will ‘create an environment free of harmful cigarette smoke,” she added, noting that it is dangerous not only for the smokers themselves, but also for those close to them.
She said the town hall has put up signs indicating that it is ‘a health initiative to prevent cancer’.
The town hall is ‘studying extending the scheme to other municipal spaces’.
