The total ban on smoking in bars, restaurants and leisure venues in 2010 will provoke the closure of 35,000 to 40,000 businesses or around 10 per cent of the total in Spain and the direct loss of 100,000 jobs, says Gaietà Farràs, vice President of the Spanish hospitality and Restaurant federation (FEHR).

The vice president also pointed out that a law to prohibit tobacco in all public places would penalize around 70,000 businesses including bars, restaurants and nightclubs which refurbished their premises around 4 years ago to adapt to changes in the law at the time – which obliged owners to separate smoking zones. The changes at the time represented an investment of 1,500 million Euros.

Farràs also stated that the new measure announced by Trinidad Jiménez, to tighten the anti-smoking laws in Spain to reduce the number of smokers was based on figures which are “of little objectivity” and “not credible (Via Original Source)