On 2 January 2011, Spain introduced a smoking ban. Now, that is no mean feat in a European country like Spain where many Spaniards and foreigners alike love to smoke. Cigarettes, cigars and tobacco are known to be cheap (although they are beginning to creep up in price) and many Spaniards and visitors to the country have, for many years, been allowed to smoke pretty much anywhere. Certainly in 1999, smokers were still puffing away in supermarkets and clothes shops but this has since been phased out.

The new law prohibits smoking in bars, restaurants and outdoor areas such as playgrounds and the grounds of schools and hospitals. A previous partial ban, which came into force in 2006, forced businesses over 100 square meters to set up separate smoking areas. Smaller establishments could choose whether they wanted to be smoke-free or not. And many chose ‘not’.

If you are reading this article it means that you have already thought about stopping smoking. The first step in quitting a habit or in changing your life is to take a firm determination or a vow to yourself that you are going to do something. However, in order to take this first step you have to be convinced that it is the right thing to do. If you need some more reasons why it is time to do something about your smoking habit, here are five things to consider:

1. You can live longer if you stop smoking now

There is a lot of misinformation out there regarding cigarette butt litter. The biggest myth is that cigarette filters are biodegradable. In fact, cigarette butts are biodegradable in the sense that most people think of the word. The acetate (plastic) filters can take 10 years to decompose. Smokers may not realize that their actions have such a lasting, negative impact on the environment.

What happens after that butt gets casually flicked onto the street, nature trail, or beach? Typically wind and rain carry the cigarette into the water supply, where the toxic chemicals the cigarette filter was designed to trap leak out into aquatic ecosystems, threatening the quality of the water and many aquatic lifeforms. Cigarette butts may seem small, but with several trillion butts littered every year, the toxic chemicals add up!

Lets not forget that South Africa has recently passed a new smoking law. Inconvenienced by the new law, and lack of public ashtrays, in many cases the immediate reaction of smokers is to dispose of cigarette butts on the floor of property owners. The increasing volumes of improperly disposed of cigarette butts is both unattractive and unhygienic and is a problem faced in public spaces, entrances to office blocks, restaurants, bars, pubs, shopping centres and city streets.