Smoking in restaurants and bars will be almost impossible, but only in 2023, according to a decree signed by the Assistant Secretaries of State and Health and Tourism.
The new law that defines new requirements for new smoking rooms is published today, already months late, but will only come into force next year to allow establishments to carry out the necessary adaptations and invest in any new equipment.
From January 1st 2023 onwards, only restaurants and bars, nightclubs and other establishments that have at least a 100 square metre area dedicated to customers and a ceiling height of at least three metres will be able to have smoking rooms.
In addition, smoking spaces must not exceed 20% of the area dedicated to customers and must be separated by an antechamber measuring at least four square meters, properly ventilated, and with automatic sliding doors.
The decree, signed by the Assistant Secretaries of State and Health and Tourism, Commerce and Services, defines that ventilation in the smoking rooms must be ensured by the installation of “inflation and extraction equipment ” and “the flow of fresh outside air to be insufflated has to correspond to a minimum of 10 air changes per hour”.
As for the ventilation systems maintenance plan, this will have to be validated by an engineer or a technical engineer, specialising in air conditioning engineering, guaranteeing “a ventilation efficiency of at least 80%”.
