LONDON — Cigarette packs in Europe will have to carry bigger health warnings, and products with menthol or other flavorings face a total ban, under an agreement European Union ministers struck Friday after spirited negotiations.
A small group led by Poland won a reprieve for slim cigarettes, which are popular among female voters in several formerly Communist nations and had also been threatened with a ban.
The agreement Friday is not the final decision, as the new smoking rules would require approval by the European Parliament before coming into force. But the compromise is a milestone because it secured the support of national governments, including some that had fought hard to soften measures opposed by the tobacco industry and some smoker advocacy groups.
The measures reflect a concerted effort by European policy makers to reduce the attractiveness of tobacco to younger smokers in hopes of preventing them from taking up a habit notoriously hard to kick. Cigarettes with menthol and other flavorings are deemed easier for novices to smoke.
Under the deal reached Friday, a health warning combining pictures and text must cover 65 percent of the front and back of all cigarette packs. That represents a reduction from the proposal going into the meeting of a 75 percent minimum, but it is an increase from the current 40 percent figure.
James Reilly, the health minister of Ireland, which holds the European Union’s rotating presidency, told a news conference in Luxembourg that about 700,000 Europeans die every year of tobacco-related causes and that smoking is “one of the greatest preventable and avoidable threats to health.” Packaging that appeals to younger smokers, he said, was tantamount to “entrapment of our young people.”
The ministers also agreed on tighter regulation of electronic cigarettes, which would require authorization if they exceed a nicotine threshold.
Currently, only some of the European Union nations apply such restrictions on electronic cigarettes, which produce vapors from a nicotine liquid, rather than burning tobacco. But Tonio Borg, the European commissioner in charge of health and consumer policy, said that e-cigarettes “can give a false sense of security.”
The debate over flavored cigarettes mirrors a longstanding debate in the United States. In 2009, Congress passed a law prohibiting flavorings but exempted menthol after heavy lobbying by the tobacco industry. Although Congress gave the Food and Drug Administration the authority to ban menthol if this was deemed appropriate on health grounds, the F.D.A. has studied the matter but has taken no action.
In Europe, a ban on menthol cigarettes would not go into effect for some time. National governments would have up to three years to implement the rules after the new tobacco law came into force. And the rollout of the new law itself, if finally approved later this year, could take about 18 months, Mr. Borg said.
Slim cigarettes, which were exempted from the compromise Friday, had been a target because of the fear that their supposed allure attracts young women to smoking.
Though slim cigarettes will still be permitted, new packaging and health warning requirements will prevent their sale in the smallest types of packs in which they are currently sold. “Tobacco should look like tobacco and not like a perfume or a candy,” Mr. Borg said. “And it should taste like tobacco.”
In light of the compromises, antismoking campaigners expressed disappointment that large pictorial warnings were not made mandatory on all cigarette packs. The new rules would be less strict than those in Australia, which has legislated against logos and colorful designs, and in New Zealand, which has proposed doing the same.
Florence Berteletti Kemp, director of the Smoke Free Partnership, a European organization that promotes tobacco control and research, described the outcome Friday as “disappointing.”
“Despite the formidable efforts of the Irish presidency, the agreement adopted goes against key measures such as large pictorial warnings, which cost nothing to governments but would better protect millions of European children,” she said in a statement. “It is outrageous to see so many concessions made to an industry that buys its wealth and influence by marketing a deadly product.”
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/22/business/global/eu-ministers-agree-to-stricter-tobacco-laws.html?partner=rss&emc=rss