As reported by a premier news channel, nearly 600,000 Spaniards gave up smoking in 2011, thanks to the legal ban on smoking in public places.

Referring to local reports, Xinhua says the no-smoking law, enforced early in 2011, made tobacco use in bars, eateries, hospital grounds, and kids’ playgrounds a legal offence.

With a significant 17% drop in cigarette sales in 2011, the number of quitters has increased to 600,000, according to the National Committee for the Prevention of Tobacco (CNPT), the Xinhua News Agency notes.

Smoking-related figures present a rather sordid picture in Spain as an estimated number of 53,000 people succumb to nicotine addiction each year with 153 deaths per every 24 hours, the CNPT report unveils. Xinhua learns that even secondhand smoke accounts for 3,200 lives annually in Spain.

Another promising part of the report reads there has been a significant drop in the number of teen smokers in the country over the past 7 years. The total number of underage smokers came down from 21.5% in 2004 to 12.3% in 2011, informs the Chinese news source.

Lauding the positive health impact of the stop smoking policy, CNPT President Francisco Rodriguez Lozano resonates with confidence that the law will continue to benefit public health in the days ahead, Xinhua notes, adding that high-ranking health officials from the Spanish government say they won’t make any amendment to the law in near future.