EU proposes new anti-smoking legislation

The European Commission Wednesday proposed new legislation and strengthened rules on how tobacco products can be manufactured, presented, and sold in an effort to making smoking less attractive. The proposal is a substantial revision of the current EU law and proposes new and strengthened rules on tobacco products. The new legislation proposes to prohibit tobacco products with strong characterising flavours, EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy, Tonio Borg, told a news conference. "Cigarettes that taste like chocolate or like vanilla mask the harsh taste of tobacco and make it easier for young people to take up smoking," he said. "Secondly, we propose mandatory, large, pictorial health warnings on cigarette packages and Roll Your Own tobacco. These warnings should cover 75 percent of the front and the back of the packages and should be complemented by further health warnings on the side of the packages," said Borg. He noted that every year, tobacco kills almost 700,000 citizens in Europe. Treating smoking related diseases cost EUR 25 billion every year and smoking-related productivity losses amount to over EUR eight billion a year, he added.