EU ban on flavoured heated tobacco products comes into force

The European Commission (EC) said on November 23 that it welcomes today’s entry into force of the ban on flavoured heated tobacco products.

This ban responds to the significant increase of sales of these tobacco products across the EU, the EC said.

It would help achieve the goal set out in Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan to create a “tobacco-free Generation”, where less than five per cent of the population uses tobacco by 2040.

The EC statement quoted Stella Kyriakides, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, as saying: “Tobacco causes 90 per cent of lung cancers. It is essential to take a firm stand to reduce tobacco consumption, especially as we are witnessing a continuous introduction of new products on the market.

“Thanks to the ban, our citizens, and in particular young people, will be better protected from the harmful effects of these products. This brings us one step closer to a ‘tobacco-free generation’,” Kyriakides said.

EU countries now have eight months to transpose the Delegated Directive into their national legislation.

The new rules will become fully applicable as from October 23 2023, after the end of a three-month transition period to exhaust the current stock of flavoured heated tobacco products, the EC said.

Source: SofiaGlobe