Smoke-Free Europe - It's Coming...

November 3, 2007 - The European Parliament adopted, on 24 October 2007, an own-initiative report external drafted by the House's Health and Environment Committee on a smoke-free Europe. The report, adopted external by a large majority, backed wide-ranging restrictions on smoking in public places, rules to make it harder for underage people to buy cigarettes and the designation of environmental tobacco smoke as a class one carcinogen. In particular, the MEPs (Members of the European Parliament) urge member states to introduce, within two years, unrestricted national smoking bans in all enclosed workplaces, including catering establishments and all enclosed public buildings and transport. If these objectives are not attained by all the EU-27, the Commission is urged to submit by 2011 a proposal for EU rules on the protection of non-smokers in the field of employment protection. In this non-binding report, MEPs also backed an amendment calling on the Commission to "investigate the health risks associated with consumption of snus [oral tobacco] and its impact on the consumption of cigarettes". Placing on the market tobacco for oral use has been illegal in the EU since 1992, and just two days ago, the Commission referred external Finland to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for failing to comply with EU legislation on the manufacture, presentation and sale of tobacco products, which specifically prohibits the sale of oral tobacco. "Given the health risks linked to the use of oral tobacco, the Commission has no tolerance for allowing the placing on the market of that product," said European Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou. MEP position statements regarding SNUS. ( MEPs back complete ban on smoking in workplace, EurActiv.com, 10/25/2007)