A Dutch court yesterday upheld an appeal by anti-cigarette campaigners by disallowing a tobacco-smoking-ban exemption that had allowed separate smoking areas to be set up in cafés and bars, according to a MedicalXpress story.
A general ban on smoking in restaurants, pubs and bars was introduced in the Netherlands in 2008, but, under the exemption, cafes smaller than 70 square metres (753 square feet) were allowed to set aside areas for smokers behind floor-to-ceiling glass partitions.
These areas had to be less-attractively decorated than the rest of the café, and no food or drink could be served inside.
Even so, more than 25 percent of small cafés in the Netherlands include such spaces.
But the court in The Hague found that such spaces were ‘in conflict’ with the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which the Netherlands signed and which entered into force in 2005.
‘The tobacco laws banning smoking also cover smoking rooms, the court ruled, adding therefore the exception to the legislation was ‘invalid’.
Clean Air Netherlands (CAN), which had appealed after losing an earlier case in 2016, said it was ‘happy and satisfied’ with yesterday’s ruling.
It said its mission was to strive for a smoke-free society by discouraging tobacco use. ‘Smoking-rooms do not belong with this; therefore this is a small step in the right direction,’ it said in a note on its website.
It was not clear when or if the smoking-rooms would be closed, because there could be a further appeal, Dutch media was reported as saying.
The court threw out CAN’s claim that the ban covered all indoor public smoking spaces, saying it had not provided sufficient evidence.
Category: Regulation
Dutch reinforce ban
Czechs rethink ban
Eighty-six deputies from eight parties in the Czech Republic’s lower house have put their signatures to a proposal to loosen a ban on tobacco smoking at Czech pubs, restaurants and some other facilities, according to a Radio Prague story.
The ban was introduced last year.
The amendment, proposed by Marek Benda of the Civic Democrats, envisages the creation within these venues of separate smoking areas with their own ventilation systems.
Benda’s proposal would allow bars with an area of 80 square meters or smaller to decide themselves whether to allow smoking or not.
The smoking ban came in at the end of May, bringing the Czech Republic into line with many other EU states.Considering plain packs
The Turkish government is considering introducing standardized packaging for tobacco products, according to a story in The Hurriyet Daily News quoting the Health Minister Ahmet Demircan.
Demircan did not elaborate but said that details of the planned measures would be unveiled in coming days.
“Cigarette packages should not be easily accessible and they should not make smoking appealing,” he said.
“Packages should not serve as advertisement materials. We have to take necessary measures to prevent this.”
More than 26 million people are said to have called the ‘172 helpline to quit smoking’ that was launched by the Health Ministry in 2010 and some 70 percent of those people stopped smoking, according to the minister.
But in November 2017 he said that while the proportion of tobacco users aged 15 and above had dropped to 26.8 percent in 2012, the rate had increased to 32.5 percent in 2014.
The latest proposed measures follow on from the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) long-standing anti-smoking crusade, which began with a smoking ban in enclosed public places in 2009.
“You don’t have freedom to commit suicide, so you don’t have freedom to expose yourselves to terminal diseases …,” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who is known for his strong anti-smoking views, said in 2016.
“There can be no such freedom as the freedom to smoke … The state must protect its citizens against tobacco, alcohol and drugs, just as it is obliged to protect them against crimes like theft and terrorism.”Vaping controls sought
Anti-smoking groups, said to be alarmed by the rising use of electronic cigarettes in Myanmar, want the authorities to control the sale of these devices.
According to a story in the Myanmar Times, the People’s Health Foundation (PHF) and its partner organizations are planning to submit their proposals to the relevant ministries.
The PHF is concerned that electronic cigarettes are not covered by the current tobacco law.
Among the suggestions that are likely to be forwarded to the government are that the government should control e-cigarette imports, and that these devices should not be sold to anyone under the age of 21.
“We expect our proposals on electronic cigarettes to be submitted to the ministries in February,” said Dr Than Sein, PHF’s president.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Non-Communicable Disease unit of the Department of Public Health was quoted as saying that “electronic cigarettes are harmful to public health as they contain chemical ingredients like nicotine”.
According to a 2014 survey of Myanmar, about 43.8 percent of men and 8.4 percent of women are smokers, while 62.2 percent of men and 16 percent of women are tobacco users.Gambling on smoking
A Macau Health Bureau (MHB) investigation conducted between 2015 and 2017 has revealed that tobacco consumption in the city decreased by 12.2 percent among those aged over 15, according to a story in The Macau Business.
There was no indication of the consumption levels in 2015 and 2017, but the story indicated that the current incidences of tobacco consumption among males and females stood at 23.2 percent and 2.7 percent respectively.
The MHB indicated that the government intended to strengthen the promotion of non-smoking through ‘timely increases in tobacco taxes’ to bring them closer to those recommended by the World Health Organization.
In 2015, the Macau government increased cigarette taxes to MOP1.5 per unit, which meant that taxes increased from 33 percent to 70 percent of the retail price.
At the same time, it reduced the number of cigarettes that a person could bring into Macau from 100 to 19.
Meanwhile, from the beginning of January, the city has enforced a revised version of legislation brought in in 2011. The revised rules ban advertising and tobacco promotions, and prohibit smoking in enclosed public spaces and within 10 meters of bus stop signs and taxi stands. Fines for smoking in the banned areas have been increased from MOP600 to MOP1,500.
The MHB said that the number of fines handed out for smoking infractions during January, at 510, were down by 20.4 percent on those handed out during January 2017. Almost 64 percent of the fines were handed to tourists.
Some 71 inspections conducted in casinos by the MHB and the Gaming Inspection and Co-ordination Bureau resulted in 108 infractions being discovered in January, 284 percent more than in the same month of last year.Tracking an export ban
A German member of the EU parliament has asked the Commission what measures it is taking to prevent its track-and-trace system creating a de facto ban on the export of tobacco products from EU countries to certain other countries.
In a preamble to three questions, Werner Langen said that on December 15, 2017, the Commission had adopted an implementing act introducing an EU-wide track-and-trace system for tobacco products.
The system was intended to cover also products manufactured for markets outside the EU, he said, before asking:
1) ‘Is the inclusion of goods for export within the scope of the track-and-trace system compatible with EU legislation, and how does the Commission therefore view the fact that, in principle, it lacks the power to regulate product specifications for markets outside the European internal market?
2) How does the Commission intend to get around the resulting de facto export ban in third countries such as Australia that, owing to strict packaging and labelling regulations, will not allow track-and-trace coding?
3) ‘What specific measures will the Commission take to prevent this de facto ban?’E-cig review welcomed
The UK Vaping Industry Association has described a Public Health England (PHE) evidence review as another ringing endorsement for the positive public health opportunity that vaping represents.
The PHE electronic-cigarette evidence review, which was made public yesterday, was undertaken by leading independent tobacco experts and provides an update on PHE’s 2015 review.
It covers e-cigarette use among young people and adults, public attitudes, the impact on quitting smoking, an update on risks to health and the role of nicotine. It also reviews heated tobacco products.
The reviews key findings are:
* E-cigarettes could be contributing to at least 20,000 successful new quits per year and possibly many more;
* E-cigarette use is associated with improved quit success rates over the last year and an accelerated drop in smoking rates across the country;
* Many thousands of smokers incorrectly believe that vaping is as harmful as smoking; around 40 percent of smokers have not even tried an e-cigarette;
* There is much public misunderstanding about nicotine. Less than 10 percent of adults understand that most of the harms to health from smoking are not caused by nicotine;
* The use of e-cigarettes in the UK has plateaued over the last few years at just under three million;
* The evidence does not support the concern that e-cigarettes are a route into smoking among young people. Youth smoking rates in the UK continue to decline. Regular use is rare and is almost entirely confined to those who have smoked.
“The UK Vaping Industry Association welcomes yet another ringing endorsement for the positive public health opportunity that vaping represents,” said an association spokesman.
“It is shocking that 40 percent of smokers haven’t even tried a vaping product to reduce or stop smoking, when the evidence quite clearly demonstrates it is the most effective way.
“If we are to persuade the UK’s remaining seven million smokers that there is a viable, effective, safer alternative to smoking, then the industry must be allowed to communicate effectively with smokers. Why is the vaping industry itself explicitly banned from advertising the research that Public Health England have reported on today?
“Professor Newton [Professor John Newton, director of health improvement at PHE] is absolutely right that it would be tragic if thousands of smokers who could quit are put off because of false claims and junk science. That’s why the government must deliver on its commitment to review and reform vaping-related regulation as we leave the EU to create a system that better reflects the public health reality.”EU in denial over snus
The uptake of snus in Norway is being credited with almost eliminating cigarette smoking among young people living there.
In a note published on its website today, the New Nicotine Alliance (NNA) said that government figures showed the incidence of smoking among women aged 16-24 was down from 30 percent in 2001 to 0.1 percent, while the incidence of smoking among young men was down from 29 percent to three percent.
The NNA said that the fall in smoking among Norway’s young people did not appear to be the result of their switching to vaping because nicotine-containing electronic-cigarettes were only now being legalised.
A more likely explanation seems to be presented by a sharp increase that has occurred in the use of snus. During 2008-14, snus use among young women grew from five percent to 14 percent.
In neighbouring Sweden, where snus is also legal, 20 percent of the population use snus and there the adult smoking rate has fallen to five percent.
Last month the European Court of Justice held a hearing on whether the EU ban on snus outside Sweden should be lifted, an action that has been supported by the NNA.
Its trustee Professor Gerry Stimson was quoted as saying that any reasonable person looking at the spectacular graph for smoking among young Norwegians would be struck by how the fall accelerated after snus became available in 2002.
“This is no fluke,” he said. “The end of smoking is in sight in Norway and Sweden as people choose far safer snus instead.
“So reasonable people will ask why the UK government decided to urge the European Court of Justice to maintain the snus ban in the rest of the EU.”
His comments were echoed by the smoking-substitutes expert Dr. Konstantinos Farsalinos who said there was absolutely no doubt that access to snus in Sweden and Norway had played a crucial role in the rapid reduction of their smoking rates.Graphic pack proposal
All tobacco-product packs sold in Singapore might soon have to carry graphic health warnings enlarged to cover 75 percent of the packaging, according to a Today story.
Currently, graphic health warnings cover 50 percent of the packaging.
In a press statement issued yesterday, the Ministry of Health said it would be conducting a public consultation on its Standardized Packaging Proposal from February 5 to March 16.
In its statement, the ministry said Singapore’s smoking rate had fallen from 23 percent to 19 percent between 1977 and 1984, and then to 12.6 percent in 2004.
But it said the rate of decline had slowed in recent years.
‘The smoking rates have been fluctuating between 12 percent and 14 percent in the last 10 years, with no clear pattern of continuous decline,” said the ministry.
‘A particular concern is the fact that there remains a sizable proportion of men (more than 1 in 5) who smoke daily.’
The ministry said that it is the government’s preliminary assessment that the implementation of the Standardized Packaging Proposal would, with other existing and future tobacco control measures, ‘constitute a significant step towards Singapore becoming a tobacco-free society’.
Members of the public may contribute their views and feedback on the Standardized Packaging Proposal by email at tobacco_control@moh.gov.sg or by post.
The public consultation paper can be found on REACH at www.reach.gov.sg and on ministry’s website at www.moh.gov.sg/proposed-tobacco-control-measures.Crackdown on backsliders
Greece’s Health Minister Andreas Xanthos yesterday called on the competent authorities to enforce the country’s anti-smoking law by starting to make strict checks on public places where currently tobacco smoking is banned but tolerated, according to a story by Philip Chrysopoulos for the Greek Reporter.
A 2010 law banning smoking in enclosed public places such as restaurants, coffee shops and theaters, was never truly enforced. Some random checks were made and fines imposed during the first few months of the ban, but Chrysopoulos reports that smoking in public places ‘continues to be rampant in Greece’.
In an effort to awaken the dormant bill, the ministry has issued a memorandum calling on all pertinent authorities to enforce the law by carrying out checks on establishments that allow smoking, and to impose harsh fines on offenders.
People who smoke in public places are liable to be fined €50-€500, depending on the circumstances.
And the owners of businesses such as bars, restaurants and coffee shops will be fined €500-€10,000 if they allow customers to smoke. Repeat offenders will be fined, and their licenses will be revoked after five offenses.
Those who sell tobacco products to minors or tolerate violation of the relevant provision will face a fine of €500-€10,000. And the same fines will apply to those who advertise tobacco products.
Drivers who smoke with a child under 12 in their cars will face a fine of €1,500.
