[Smoking. Analysis of the scientific production in the SEPAR smoking area in 2009]. / Tabaquismo. Análisis de la producción científica en el Area de Tabaquismo de la SEPAR en el año 2009.

The SEPAR Smoking Area was started in the year 1995. Its main aims were to increase awareness of the problem of smoking among the members of our scientific society, to improve their scientific knowledge on this problem, to help in diagnostic and therapeutic interventions in smokers, and finally, to promote interventions for the prevention and treatment of smoking by the health and political administrations. Nowadays, it is the most dynamic areas of SEPAR and has more than 400 members. Throughout the year 2009, the health professionals of the SEPAR smoking area have carried out intense research work that has led to a reasonable scientific production that has covered different aspects of the discipline of smoking. The most impressive studies were those that tried to determine the impact that Law 28/2005 has had in the prevalence of smoking in Spain, the studies that assessed the scientific productivity of the area members and the numerous articles that published the results from different smoking units that are led by Spanish pneumologists.

Study of the impact of laws regulating tobacco consumption on the prevalence of passive smoking in Spain.

BACKGROUND: In 2005, the Spanish parliament passed the Spanish anti-smoking law. This legislation restricted tobacco smoking in public places, including recreation venues (bars and restaurants), but smoking was not completely prohibited in bars and restaurants. The law was enforced in January 2006. With the objective of analysing the impact that this law has had on the general Spanish population, the Spanish Society of Pulmonology and Thoracic Surgery (SEPAR) designed and implemented a survey of a representative sample of the general Spanish population on two separate occasions: in 2005 and in 2007 (12 months after the ban came into effect). METHODS: Two epidemiological, observational and cross-sectional surveys were performed among a random and representative sample of the general Spanish population, using the Computer-Assisted Telephone Interview system. RESULTS: In the first survey, a total of 6533 subjects were interviewed, of whom 3907 (59.8%) were non-smokers and in the second, a total of 3289 subjects were interviewed, of whom 2174 (65.9%) were non-smokers. The overall prevalence of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) decreased from 49.5% in 2005 to 37.9% in 2007 (22% reduction). The greatest reduction in prevalence of ETS exposure was in workplaces (from 25.8% to 11%, a decrease of 58.8%). Smaller reductions occurred in the home (from 29.5% to 21.4%, a decrease of 27%) and in recreation venues (from 37.4% to 31.8%, a decrease of 8%). CONCLUSIONS: Implementation of the smoking ban resulted in a significant decrease in exposure to ETS.