[Compliance with antismoking laws in official institutions]

The prevention of nicotine addiction involves a wide range of measures, including writing laws to preserve public health by protecting nonsmokers from smoke and discouraging smokers from consumption. Also important are campaigns to educate both parties (smokers and nonsmokers) about the negative effects of tobacco. The main antismoking law in Spain is the Health and Consumer Ministry's Royal Decree 192/1988 limiting the sale and use of tobacco with the aim of protecting public health. Other regulations have since been enacted by public administrations to complement that law. Research finding published in recent years have been the basis for major legal changes leading in two directions; toward standardizing laws existing in different countries and toward increasing restrictions on the advertising and sale of tobacco. Various scientific and social groups have demanded that current laws be made stricter. Little has been done, however, to assess the degree of vigilance and compliance, and consequently the efficacy, of current legislation. The aim of this study was to determine the level of compliance with the law in governmental institutions in Salamanca. We visited 30 centers and saw that while notices prohibiting smoking were visible in 80%, the number of smokers was high: 43% among workers (none of whom was in educational or medical centers) and 37% among the public. No posters warning of the dangers of tobacco were seen in any of the centers visited. It appears necessary to further restrict the sale and use of tobacco in public places, to enforce compliance with existing regulations and to increase the amount of information on the toxic effects of tobacco in order to gain the cooperation of both smokers and nonsmokers toward achieving smoke-free environments.