Smoking in sport: amateur pilotaris

Valencian handball/Valencian Pilota (Pelota valenciana) has been and is a sport that has maintained
deep historical links with tobacco. The consumption of cigarettes, and in particular of caliqueños
cigars in the trinquets [pelota court], has been a very widespread behavior among its spectators
and practitioners. This situation changes radically from Law 28/2005, of December 26, the first
anti-smoking law to be enacted in Spain. After describing the close and paradoxical relationship
between tobacco and the Valencian Pilota, this article analyzes the current smoking habit based
on two objectives: on the one hand, to compare the incidence of tobacco consumption between
amateur Valencian pilotaris [players] and the general population; on the other, to analyze tobacco
addiction and examine the sociodemographic or sports practice variables to which it is associated
applied to a representative sample of 325 amateur players, have been exploited. From the results
obtained, it should be noted that 15.4% consume tobacco daily, a lower number than that of the
general population. Sex, age, educational level, marital status and employment status are variables
with which smoking is related, just as it is associated with sports, both with the frequency with
which Valencian handball is practiced like practicing other sports. The conclusions point out the
lower addiction in women, in the youngest, among those who have completed university studies
and those who practice Valencian handball more frequently.