New European Directive on tobacco

The EU’s new tobacco policy statement, ostensibly designed to promote public health, will have the opposite effect: far from reducing the toll of “tobacco,” millions will be condemned to ongoing addiction to smoking, half of whom will die as a direct result.

The new Tobacco Products Directive, voted through by 560 votes to 92, noted that smoking remains the principal preventable cause of death killing around 700,000 people every year. The region is number one worldwide in the devastating effects of smoking — with this exception:

In Sweden, the only EU country where snus is not banned, only 16 percent of men smoke. This fact has been validated since those statistics began to be accumulated after World War II. The Swedish male population consumes more nicotine in the form of snus than from cigarettes — and they have the lowest rate of smoking-related disease and death in Europe to show for it.

Packets of ten and flavoured cigarettes are set to be banned by the EU in a drive to crack down on smoking.

Member states yesterday voted to scrap them in less than three years, on the grounds they are attractive to young people taking up the habit.

But menthol-flavoured cigarettes – also popular with youngsters - would not be phased out for another eight years after lobbying by tobacco firms. Over one million people in the UK smoke menthol cigarettes. Banning menthol cigarettes will not stop them smoking, this measure will simply increase the black market. This silly idea really shows that the EU has gone menthol.’

All cigarettes would have to carry larger warnings about the health risks of tobacco, covering 65 per cent of the packet by 2016, compared to around 40 per cent currently.