Cristina Ruiz Madrid

Madrid

Updated Tuesday,16January2024 - 13:25

  • 34.6 per cent of 12- and 13-year-olds have used alcohol and 25 per cent have used e-cigarettes
  • New anti-smoking law "Electronic cigarettes, with and without nicotine, should be equated to classic fuels and that they cannot be sold anywhere"

The Council of Ministers has approved the decree that ends the exceptions enjoyed by heated tobacco products and puts them on an equal footing with conventional tobacco. The Government thus transposes Delegated Directive 2022/2100, which modifies a previous one, almost six months late, since the deadline set in the European standard to apply its content in Spain was met on July 23.

The new team of the Ministry of Health takes a step forward in this regulation, which remained in a drawer with the two previous ministers. José Manuel Miñones and Carolina Darias. The first announced its approval, which never came, at a press conference; As for Darias, the reasons for the law not being approved lie in political interests when she stood as a candidate for the municipal elections to the City Council of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, a position she now holds.

In any case, the royal decree, which is a starting point in the crusade initiated by the ministry in the prevention of smoking, will not come into force until three months after its publication in the Official State Gazette. The text, according to the Ministry of Health, "prohibits the sale of heated tobacco that contains flavourings and requires that the labelling include warnings that it is harmful to health", as it appears in the rest of conventional products.

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In addition, the "prohibition on the marketing of tobacco products with a characteristic aroma or containing flavourings in their components (such as filters, rolling papers, containers or capsules), or any other technique that allows the odour or taste of tobacco products, or the intensification of smoke to heated tobacco products, is extended". Filters, papers and capsules also "may not contain tobacco or nicotine."

Until now, heated tobacco products were exempt from including an information message and health warnings, an exception that is now being withdrawn so they will be obliged to include both issues. Therefore, the packaging units and outer packaging of heated tobacco products must include the message that "tobacco smoke contains more than 70 carcinogens" in addition to the images that already appear on conventional cigarette packets.