by In transposition of a European directive, the Council of Ministers approved this Tuesday a royal decree that equates the heated tobacco to conventional cigarettes, so these devices will have to carry warnings that they are harmful to health. The regulations also prohibit products that contain aromas.
The royal decree, which will come into force within three months after its publication in the BOE, exclusively affects electronic cigarettes that heat tobacco and not vaporizers, very popular despite the fact that doctors warn that they are also harmful to health. In Spain, the best-selling heated tobacco is from the brand. IQOSby Phillip Morris.
The European directive – which Spain is going to transpose belatedly – was motivated because at the beginning hardly any heated tobacco was sold, but in recent years there has been an increase of more than 10% in marketing in five member states and a volume of sale which exceeds the total sales of tobacco-related products in the EU by 2.5%. Given this, the European Commission has decided to eliminate the exceptions that favored this product and has equated it with conventional cigarettes.
The warnings
The packaging must carry the following message: “Tobacco smoke contains more than 70 carcinogenic substances”, and a series of photographs showing the harmful consequences of smoking, such as those that appear on cigarette packages. Additionally, heated tobacco products containing flavorings in its components, such as filters, cigarette papers, containers or capsules, or any other technique that allows modifying the smell or flavor of tobacco products or intensifying the smoke. In addition, filters, papers and capsules may not contain tobacco or nicotine.
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Spanish doctors support the initiative but remember that is not sufficient, because it does not affect the majority of vapers and “inventions that the industry has been generating through flavors and flavorings, which mask a reality, because they also contain products with toxicity, which favor the transition to traditional tobacco,” according to the warning. doctor Francisco Pascual, president of the National Committee for the Prevention of Smoking (CNPT). In fact, the new Minister of Health, Mónica García, has announced that she intends to recover the plan intended to toughen the tobacco lawwhich specialists consider obsolete, among other reasons to include “nicotine releasers in the law” and thus “protect health and minors.”
The health plan
After learning of the first study on addictions in children under 12 and 13 years of age, published in December by the Government Delegation for the National Plan on Drugs, which reveals that one in four kids in this age group has tried electronic cigarettes and that consumption increases with age, García pointed out that he will regulate vapers because “they are the smoking antechamber“. The industry, on the contrary, maintains that they help to quit smoking or to help habitual smokers reduce their consumption of traditional tobacco. It is a measure, therefore, that generates controversy, like the intention of Health to prohibit smoking on terraces , which the hospitality sector rejects.
