The European Commission, amazed by the excessively positive performance of sales of electronic heating tobacco systems, set out to ban them in their flavoured form. Heating tobacco showed a vertically upward trend in sales from 2018 to 2020 with an increase of about 2,000% from 924 million pieces in 2018 to 19.7 billion in 2020, and the European Commission set out to ban their different flavours to curb tobacco consumption and reinforce their commitment to combat cancer that it signed in February.
Within the EU alone, heating tobacco increased by 10% in more than 5 countries and now accounts for 2.5% to 3.33% of tobacco products containing tobacco sold within the EU.
The proposed directive prohibiting the sale of aromatic tobacco sticks within the EU member states enters for approval of the 27 member states and by the European Parliament and if approved each EU country has 8 months to incorporate the directive into the law and 3 more months of transitional period for adaptation.
Greek Health Commissioner of the E.C., Stella Kyriakides, said: “By removing flavoured heated tobacco from the market, we are taking a further step towards realising our vision under Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan to create a ‘smoke-free generation’ with less than 5% of the population using tobacco by 2040. We want to make smoking as little attractive as possible to protect the health of our citizens and save lives. Stronger actions to reduce tobacco consumption, stricter enforcement and monitoring of new developments to address the endless flow of new products entering the market – particularly important for the protection of younger people – are key to this. Prevention will always be better than cure”, foreshadowing her preference for the ban she proposes.
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