10´000 euro fine for smoking...

By Staff Reporter THE Balearic Secretary General for Health, Jose Martinez Olmos, said yesterday he considered that there could be “specific circumstances” why some bars and restaurants could not comply with the controversial new anti-smoking laws. This law requires all establishments of more than 100 square metres to physically separate their smoking and non smoking areas. All businesses were given until this week to comply with the new legislation. He said that businesses could be fined up to 10'000 euros for failing to follow the new laws. According to Martinez Olmos, the regional governments are those who are charged with overseeing the implementation of this law, and when they find irregularities proceedings must be opened to determine what penalty to impose. Nevertheless, he said that regional citizens could protest to their regional government and they would have to investigate. “I don't think it will be necessary to resort to this type of action because I hope that all businesses comply with the Law. Certainly it will give us a lesson as to how to apply the law in workplaces”, he said. After eight months of the Law being in force, it is being noted that people are following the law in their workplaces, “which we thought was going to be difficult”, according to the secretary general of Health. He highlighted that “the majority of premises of more than 100 square metres which have not completed the work have declared their bar to be a ´no smoking´ area.