“The new rules will help to reduce the number of people who start smoking in the EU.

“These measures put an end to products which entice children and teenagers into starting to smoke in the European Union.”

Simon Clark, the director of the pro smoking campaign group Forest, said banning menthol cigarettes was a ban on consumer choice that “will do little” to deter children from smoking.

He also questioned the need for plain packaging legislation to remove any branding from packs, which is being considered in some EU countries, including the UK.

Uniform or plain packs have been introduced in Australia

“If health warnings are going to be even more prominent, dominating both sides of the pack, why on Earth do we need plain packaging?” he asked.

“At the very least the government should wait and see what impact the larger warnings have before introducing standardised packs which are opposed by so many people.”

The commission said plain packaging could go ahead when “justified on grounds of public health”.

Cancer Research UK’s head of tobacco policy, Alison Cox, said “Today is a great day for health. The Tobacco Products Directive sets standards on tobacco which will bring real benefits for people’s health in the UK and across Europe.”

Archie Turnbull, the president the Smoke Free Partnership, said “Today marks a genuine turning point for European tobacco control and a huge stride towards a tobacco free Europe.”

England’s Public Health Minister, Jane Ellison, said “Today’s vote in the European Parliament to support new Europe wide controls on tobacco is good news for people’s health.

“The Government is serious about reducing smoking rates and in particular stopping children from taking up smoking. I am very pleased that we have made a significant step towards further tough action on tobacco in the UK and across Europe.”

Eu regulations promote contraband cigarettes

European lawmakers vote to ban additives in cigarettes, require larger warning labels
Posted on July 7, 2011 by rogeroffice

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. The objective of EU tobacco policy is to reduce the harm caused by smoking, by informing and warning consumers of the dangers of cigarettes, by making packs and promotion less attractive, and making the product less available. The tragedy is the law of unintended consequences. Everything the EU is doing is making life easier for counterfeiters and contraband artists.

The plan is to require all cigarette brands to carry ever more grotesque and obscene pictures of cancerous lesions caused by smoking to remove branding from cigarettes, allowing no more than a small brand name in a standard font and colour and to ban promotion, merchandising and retail display of cigarettes.

Meantime I have on my desk a pack of Jin Ling cigarettes, which are made not (as you might suppose) in China, but in Kaliningrad, formerly Konigsberg. This is an orphan Russian enclave, separated from the main Russian territory and enclosed by Poland, Lithuania and the Baltic Sea. It is bandit country, mafia territory, calling to mind the lines of Kipling in another context

“&#8230 . where the best is like the worst,

Where there ain’t no Ten Commandments,

And a man can raise a thirst”.

Jin Ling is a brand specifically designed to be contraband. It is, of course, not subject to the comprehensive health and safety rules that apply, say, to Benson & Hedges. It does, however, have a very clear health warning on the pack (though no obscene pictures). The only problem is that the health warning, clear and explicit as it is, appears only in Cyrillic script! Any similarity to the pack of the Camel brand is, of course, entirely intentional.

This is no small operation. Industry sources suggest that production of Jin Ling cigarettes amounts to as much as two billion sticks a year or ten million packs of 200. Remarkably, this contraband brand has made the top ten in the German market.

Perversely, the measures that the EU is taking are a gift to brands like Jin Ling. The packaging may not be great, but it’s a lot more appealing than a picture of a cancerous neck goitre (that’s what it looks like, anyway maybe my diagnosis is not perfect). The virtual disappearance of branded cigarettes from legitimate retail outlets will help to promote informal and illegal distribution channels. Jin Ling is cheaper than official duty paid brands, so more attractive to young smokers. And because it’s not subject to the same regulation, it may be more dangerous.

The EU makes a big issue of protecting copyright and Intellectual Property, and of blocking contraband. Yet its policies in this case are having the opposite effect.

The whole issue of tobacco is so toxic in the EU institutions that the industry finds it difficult to talk to the Commission or the parliament at all. There have been efforts in the parliament to prevent industry access entirely. This is extraordinary for a product which is legal, and an industry which quite properly and legally employs many thousands of European citizens, including those at the Imperial Tobacco factory in Nottingham, in the East Midlands.

Ironically the industry is also keen to protect intellectual property and to stamp out contraband, and would be happy to talk to the EU institutions about methods to minimise harm while supplying, in a safe and orderly way, the needs of those consumers who choose to smoke. But Europe isn’t listening. This is a scandal. There is no other industry that the EU institutions would simply refuse to talk to. And the consequence is more harm to European consumers (and jobs), not less.

Disclaimer I personally haven’t smoked for thirty five years, and I thoroughly dislike the habit. But I believe that those of my constituents who choose to smoke also have rights.

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