EU proposes ban on flavoured heated tobacco products

The European Commission proposed on Wednesday to ban the sale in the EU of flavoured heated tobacco products after a big rise in their consumption.

“By removing flavoured heated tobacco from the market we are taking yet another step towards realising our vision under Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan to create a “Tobacco Free Generation” with less than 5 per cent of the population using tobacco by 2040,” EU health commissioner Stella Kyriakides said in a statement.

The proposed ban would be in force if EU governments and EU lawmakers do not oppose it. Even if approved EU-wide, governments will have months to adapt their legislation to the possible change before it is effective on their territories.

The move comes after the Commission estimated a 10 per cent rise in the sales volumes of heated tobacco products in half a dozen EU countries, helping heated tobacco products to exceed 2.5 per cent of total sales of tobacco products in the EU, the EU executive said.

Heated tobacco is an alternative to smoking which uses real tobacco. That is different from e-cigarettes which contain no tobacco and use liquids.

Philip Morris International has the biggest share of the heated tobacco market, according to the University of Bath.