Force of Habit

Generations of Spaniards grew up, lived and died smoking cigarettes at a time when its harmful effects were unknown and it looked glamorous. Now, legal restrictions on smoking in public spaces and the general awareness about its health risks are changing the atmosphere in the country that first brought tobacco from America to Europe 500 years ago.

By Ryan Bramlett

Joaquín died at age eighty-seven with one lung, his breathing aided by the large oxygen bottle he kept with him on a wheeled cart. “He wanted to seem older,” said his widow, Rosario, explaining why he began to smoke at just twelve years old. Igniting cigarillos with his characteristic metal lighter, Joaquín puffed through an era before cigarette smoke had been definitively linked with its host of 25 diseases.

Instead, the habit was a sign of maturity and even luxury. Celebrity endorsements by Marlene Dietrich and James Dean, glorified the image. Assertions like “More Doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette,” from a 1946 Camel advertisement, reassured an unknowing public. However, in 1957, a BBC article reported that the medical research council found “the link between smoking and lung cancer is one of ‘direct cause and effect.”’

Despite growing evidence, Joaquín continued to smoke until his doctors prohibited it. “It didn’t matter to him,” Rosario explained, smiling. “He liked it and he died smoking.” A clean glass ashtray still rested on the kitchen table. With a more serious expression, she added: “But the last part of his life was impossible.”

In present times, tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in Spain. Approximately 54,000 Spaniards die from smoking-related health issues every year—about 1,000 people each week. In 2003, Spain’s globalized public health care system paid around 3,919 million Euros to treat six of the most common diseases associated with tobacco consumption. In response to this “chronic and addictive illness”, the first version of the Spanish Anti-tobacco Law took effect at the beginning of 2006. This legislation banned smoking in many public places where it had previously been commonplace. For example, tobacco consumption in the workplace or in Spanish cultural centers was forbidden. However, restaurants, bars and other “places of leisure” smaller than one hundred square meters were excluded from this restriction. While some businesses were required to establish “smoking” and “non-smoking” sections, the law has been described as ineffective. In fact, it is estimated that of the 350,000 such places, only 40,000 have established smoking sections or prohibited it altogether.

At a crowded bar near Plaza de la Alfalfa, a thick veil of smoke haloed the decorative Christmas lights tacked to the walls. The bartender zipped back and forth from one customer to another with a glowing cigarette placed loosely between her lips. Through gaps in the circulating crowd, the colorful backlit buttons of the tobacco machine were awaiting their customers. In this bar, which is included in the eighty percent of “places of leisure” that are under the size limit, the only hint of the Anti-tobacco law is the warning sticker placed on the dispenser. When asked about working in a location so full of second-hand smoke, the bartender replied simply: “I don’t care at all.”

Among smokers, this seems to be a common sentiment. Kaitlin, an exchange student from New York, where smoking in closed public spaces is strictly prohibited, was equally unconcerned. “I’m a smoker too, so being around it doesn’t really bother me much,” she explained. What about non-smokers who often find themselves in this atmosphere? Pedro, a patron of the bar, answered: “It bothers me because I don’t have a choice. Most of the people around my age smoke.” When asked if he ever avoided places in particular due to the amount of ambient smoke, he replied: “I just deal with it, there’s not much of a choice.”

The owner of a bustling pizza restaurant near Calle Feria however, took advantage of the anti-tobacco law. His is one of the minority of businesses where smoking has been prohibited in the restaurant’s interior. Inside, something seemed strangely absent at the bar as the smell of hot pizza wafted from the kitchen. “I don’t smoke,” he said, “and it’s a matter of the atmosphere, there are families and kids who come here. People can smoke outside on the patio if the want to.”

Soon, this sort of atmosphere could be obligatory. The new anti-tobacco law, scheduled to take effect in 2010, will likely prohibit smoking in all closed public spaces. This version seeks to compensate for the “decaffeinated” measures of the 2006 legislation. According to the minister of Health, Trinidad Jiménez, the first law served as an “evaluation phase.” The second version comes at a time when “we are ready to amplify the application and terms of the first.”

For the owners and patrons of bars and restaurants in Seville, this will mean a drastic change in their environment. According to Antonio, a bartender at Bodega de La Gitana, the shift would be welcome. “I’m not a smoker and it seems perfect to me. I don’t want to work in a smoky environment but I don’t have any other option.”

The owner of a popular bar and tapas restaurant in Plaza de la Alfalfa provided similar perspective. “I don’t smoke,” he explained, “but to me it doesn’t matter much. The problem is the perspective that comes with the law. It’s as if smokers were criminals and this I don’t like. We live in a democratic country!” And if they take out the cigarette vending machine? “The bar will continue profiting with or without tobacco.”

Manuel Fernández Vicario, the Union president of Estanqueros, or tobacco shops, suggests that such measures will have an economic impact. In his opinion, to limit the consumption or sale of tobacco could “destroy a part of the economy.” Either way, Trinidad Jiménez is attempting to expedite the arrival of the new anti-tobacco law in order to coincide with the European Union’s goal of being primarily smoke-free by the year 2012. More than a matter of economics, the importance of the law for the minister is “protection of the health of our citizens.”

Joaquín’s 75 years as a smoker provide a multifaceted perspective on this issue. Although he eventually died from health complications due to smoking, his eighty-seven years far surpass the life expectancy of a regular user. While his medical costs were paid by the state, the taxes on his tobacco likely surpassed the expense. Joaquín formed the habit during an era when its image was glamorous and mature. Over the last half decade however, this image has become tarnished with its dangers. On the brink of 2010’s new Anti-tobacco law, it seems that cigarettes will be pushed outside. But, in a country where thirty percent of the population above the age of sixteen are smokers, the effectiveness is yet to be seen. As one bar employee pointed out, his cigarette smoldering in the ashtray, “you can take smoking out of the business, but you can’t take it out of the smoker.”

Tobacco in Seville at a Glance

“Only the devil could give a man the power to produce smoke from his mouth.”

This declaration made by a tribunal of the Spanish Inquisition, condemned Europe’s first smoker to seven years imprisonment. Rodrigo de Jerez returned from The New World with Columbus’ crew. Having observed the Indian’s practice of inhaling the smoke of a native dry leaf through cane stalks, he carried some back with him on the Niña. Upon his release, the habit had already begun to take hold. By 1570 Spanish conquistadors were importing tobacco from America as a luxury item for the upper class. Those unable to afford the rolled tobacco would often collect the stubs of discarded puros, dismantle them and re-roll the remaining leaves into small cigarillos. Thus the cigarette was born. One hundred years after Columbus’s voyage, the plant was being cultivated in Central and South-East Asia, Northern Africa, and parts of Western Europe. Construction of the Royal Tobacco Factory in Seville began in 1728 and production started 30 years later. During the better part of the XIX century, its principally female gipsy work force crossed the Guadalquivir each morning to reach the factory, passing the very spot in which Jerez was condemned to imprisonment. Carmen, the character created by Prosper Merimee in 1845, was inspired in these cigarreras whose hands rolled tobacco all day. The factory continued production until 1950, when tobacco fabrication was moved to the Los Remedios neighborhood and the original building was converted into the University of Seville’s headquarters.