Why do Spanish Students Smoke more than U.S. Students?

Tobacco is the number one cause for preventable deaths in the world. To combat this dilemma, on January 2nd, 2011, Spain passed one of the most comprehensive tobacco legislations in Europe that banned smoking in all public spaces. However, in a country where smoking has played an integral role in the culture, can such a strict law actually be successful?

This question is what led to me to fly from the United States to Barcelona, where I conducted interviews and surveys with over 250 public university students to understand if and how their perceptions and practices of smoking have changed. What is interesting to note is how easy it was for me to spot smokers on university campuses. Even the professors knew that I could find smokers outside by the stairs. Having grown up in the United States, I was shocked by this. At my school in the U.S., you can find someone smoking outside, but it is not as common. Usually, the person is alone and just sneaked outside to soothe their nicotine craving. On the other hand, in Barcelona, it was normal to find groups of students socially smoking together outside on the grass. Out of the 250 students I encountered, around 40% of them were smokers. In 2009, WHO reported that the number of people 15 years and older who smoked daily in Spain was 28%, whereas in the United States, was 15%.

Why is smoking more prevalent amongst students in Barcelona? One reason may be the education. Since I was 10, I have been enrolled in programs by my school such as D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) and health education classes which were mandatory until I was 18. I have been inculcated with the knowledge that smoking is bad. When I shared this fact with Spanish university students, they were surprised. They told me they had one day when they were 13 when the teacher explained the perils of smoking. When I continued to tell them that there are over 4,000 chemicals in a cigarette such as rat poison and nail polish remover<, they screamed. This was the first time they had heard anything about this.

In the U.S., almost every student knows about how dangerous smoking can be prior to trying their first cigarette. Spain has taken a great step towards the elimination of tobacco by implementing a comprehensive smoke-free law, but the next step should include strengthening the health education system and beginning to teach students about drugs before they are teenagers.