IN BRIEF : Olympic Panel Bans Tobacco Sales

Organizers of the 1992 Summer Olympics will try to make the games as smoke-free as possible through a ban on the sale of tobacco products and the use of designated smoking areas, a spokesman for the Barcelona Olympics Organizing Committee said today.

Pedro Palacios said the committee had approved a resolution similar to one adopted by the organizing committee of the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. “The idea is to use the occasion of the games to publicize the dangers of tobacco,” Palacios said. “The committee will try to guarantee that the games are smoke-free by doing away with the sale of tobacco products in competition venues and by designating smoking and nonsmoking areas.”

According to a Spanish Health Ministry study, cigarette smoking has increased more in Spain than in any other European country in the last year.