‘SMOKE-FREE’ flags were raised on Calpe’s main beaches on Tuesday to symbolise the start of a recently-introduced smoking ban.

The rule applies to all beaches and coves in the Alicante province municipality but two smoking zones have been created for visitors craving a cigarette.

They will be at La Fossa beach by the Plaza Mediterran and at Arenal-Bol, in front of the Plaza Colon.

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Smokers will have to use reusable ashtrays available from tourist information points to avoid cigarette butts being thrown into the sand.

Around 15% of waste collected from beaches comes from butts which also pose a danger to marine fauna.

Calpe’s environment councillor, Pere Moll, said that butts are one of the main pollutants of marine eco-systems as ‘just one butt contaminates 500 litres of seawater’.

The flag-raising ceremony was about reminding residents and the many tourist that visit Calpe about the new regulations.

It completes an initiative started last year when smoke-free spaces were set up at the municipality’s three main beaches at La Fossa, Arenal-Bol, and Cantal Roig.

The council hopes the move will be a further step towards a cleaner, healthier and more sustainable coastline.

Health councillor, Itziar Doval, stressed the importance of protecting the welfare of beachgoers.

“We want to have an environment where everybody can enjoy the beach without putting their health at risk,” stated Doval.

Calpe has followed in the footsteps of Villajoyosa which launched a beach smoking ban this year, while L’Alfas del Pi has done the same for its main Albir beach.

TWO doctors have been convicted of reckless homicide after an eight-year-old boy from Petrer in Alicante province died from peritonitis in 2020.

The youngster named Aitor went to the ER five times in four days at the Petrer Health Centre and Elda Hospital.

Alicante’s Criminal Court found the medics to be grossly negligent and guilty of malpractice.

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The Petrer health centre doctor was given a one-year jail term and banned from practising medicine for three years.

The pediatrician at Elda General Hospital received a two-year prison sentence and a six-month ban.

The Alicante judge also awarded compensation worth around €145,000 to Aitor’s relatives which will be paid by insurers Berkshire Hathaway on behalf of the Valencian Health Ministry.

The verdicts and sentences can be appealed.

Aitor died in October 2020 as a result of complications arising from acute appendicitis that, according to the court, were not detected and that his death could have been avoided if the medical response had been different.

Errors, the court said, included not taking ultrasound and blood tests in addition to measuring blood pressure and his heart during a series of ER visits.

The court ruling stated: “The doctors did not diagnose acute appendicitis in the minor, which led to an infection in the digestive tract originating in the cecum and which evolved into peritonitis with complications that led to his death.”

The trial heard from forensic doctors and also an independent medical expert.

Another witness told the court what she saw in the Elda Hospital ER.

“When I arrived I saw the boy in a wheelchair, who was writhing in pain.”

“The child was sick, sick, he was holding his abdomen and complaining,” she continued.

ALICANTE province has experienced the hottest start to June since modern records began in 1950.

And there is no imminent prospect of temperatures falling soon- according to the Spanish Meteorological Agency (Aemet).

“No significant short terms changes are expected with the likelihood the heat will continue for next few days,” the forecaster said.

The unseasonably high temperatures are down to a mass of warm air wafting in from Northern Africa.

Values normally seen in July and August have appeared weeks early with the highest temperatures in inland areas of Alicante province with muggy and humid weather on the coast.

Highs over the last fortnight have been 5C above the average of the years between 1991 and 2020.

The humid oppressive evenings have also started ahead of schedule of temperatures not falling below 21C- something that is very rare for early June.

Night-time lows are expected to remain above average for large portions of the rest of the month- as high as 3C above normal.

Aemet says this down to the ‘surface temperature of the western Mediterranean, which on average is at values close to 23ºC with areas exceeding 24C, which are more than 2C above normal’.

Climate change is said to be the cause of summers getting longer, according to University of Alicante weather expert, Jorge Olcina.

Speaking to the Todo Alicante news portal, he said: “The summer is increasingly extending towards June and September and is related to seawater temperatures and just air temperature rises.”

“This new context of climate change is one of the hallmarks of Alicante province’s new climate and one of the challenges it faces,” Olcina added.