EU puffing and blowing to push forth measures on tobacco sales and promotion

Proposals made to tackle smoking on a legislative level with more, stricter laws

By Penny Bouloutza - Kathimerini

The Health Ministry’s ban on smoking in all public places and restrictions in cafes and restaurants might seem bizarre to Greeks. Yet the European Union is moving toward even stricter measures, such as a ban on any advertising of tobacco products and preventing the sale of cigarettes to children and teenagers.

The European Commission has issued a recommendation, recently debated by the EU Health Ministers’ Council, that takes into consideration the high percentage of smokers in the EU — about one-third of the population. About 500,000 die each year in Europe from smoking-related causes, while 60 percent of smokers began the habit at the age of 13, and 90 percent before the age of 18. At the same time, the Commission observed that little progress had been made in reducing the consumption of tobacco products, despite the fact that member states are supposed to have made the fight against smoking a top priority.

So the Commission is suggesting legislative and administrative moves to discourage the advertising and promotion of tobacco, such as the use of tobacco brand names on unrelated products or services, the use of promotional material such as ashtrays, cigarette lighters and umbrellas and tobacco product samples, as well as the use of signboards and other advertising means, within or without buildings and in cinemas.

Another proposal is a ban on all other forms of advertising, sponsorship or any other practice for the purpose, explicitly or otherwise, of promoting tobacco products. Producers, importers and vendors will have to provide member states with data on their advertising, marketing, sponsoring and promotional expenses that are not banned by national or EU legislation.

At the same time, member states are urged to institute legislative and administrative measures to ban the sale of tobacco products to children and teenagers. Vendors will have to ensure that customers are of an age when they can legally buy these products. (In Greece, there is no such age limit.) Vendors will have to withdraw tobacco products from self-service sales points.

The Commission also recommends restricting tobacco vending machines to areas where access is limited to people of a legal age to buy these products, or otherwise restricting access to tobacco products sold by such machines.

Restrictions should be imposed on distance sales, via Internet for example, where related websites should have methods for ascertaining the buyer’s status. This proposal takes into consideration negotiations on a draft treaty by the World Health Organization on combating tobacco consumption. Commenting on the recommendation, Deputy Health Minister Ektoras Nasiokas told Kathimerini that it was being processed by the relevant ministry committee.

“When we have established our position, we will submit it to the Commission and we will take part in the debate on the final procedure, which, as is usual in the EU, will be of long duration,” he said.

The Commission’s recommendations are without doubt an indication of the trend within the EU. At the same time, it confirms that the ban on smoking in public places being introduced into Greece is the least that is being done compared to the rest of Europe, although Greece has the highest percentage of smokers, particularly in the 15-24 age group.

“We have committed ourselves and we reiterate this — we want consensus and we are using persuasion as appropriate to a Mediterranean culture. We are not being carried away by the anti-smoking hysteria of other countries,” Nasiokas said.

According to a ministerial decree signed last Tuesday, Greece has until January 2003 to implement the ban on smoking in public places, transportation and healthcare premises, and to ensure the provision of non-smoking areas in cafes and restaurants by October.