Larger warnings including graphics and a ban on characterizing flavours that would impose limits on the amount of menthol in cigarettes are among proposed changes to the European Union’s Tobacco Products Directive, the Commission said today.

Commissioners stopped short of recommending unitary packaging for all 27 member states of the European Union, but the mandatory combined health warnings will remove much of what previously was available for tobacco product branding. The Commission also backed a standard width for cigarettes in a square pack of at least 20 sticks, saying slim cigarettes less than 7.5 mm are considered “misleading.”
“It is not proposed – like in Canada or Brazil – to ban completely all flavours,” EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy Tonio Borg said in written remarks. “What we propose is a prohibition of certain products that exert a strong and noticeable flavour. 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.”
Menthol in smaller, non-characterizing amounts is allowable, according to the Commission. Test panels will help formulate standards. Additives such as sugar that are essential to manufacture of some tobacco products can continue to be used. “The proposal does not discriminate between tobacco varieties such as Virginia, burley or Oriental tobacco,” the Commission said.
Combined graphic and written warnings must cover 75 per cent of the front and back of cigarette packs and roll-your-own pouches, the Commission proposed. Under the existing directive, text warnings can cover as much as 35 per cent on the front and 50 per cent on the back. Graphic warnings had been optional.
Nicotine-containing products such as e-cigarettes that previously had not been regulated will be treated as a medicinal product above a determined nicotine threshold and subject to warnings below that level, the Commission said. The EU ban on snus will be maintained.
Both the European Parliament and Council, the latter comprised of leaders of the 27 countries, will take up the Commission proposal in coming months. Borg said he hoped the revised directive would be adopted before June, 2014. (ci)