Tag: tobacco

Confidential documents, obtained by British newspaper The Guardian, reportedly show that the tobacco industry successfully lobbied in Brussels to get a crucial vote on the EU's new Tobacco Directive postponed.

The Parliament's Committee for Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) voted Wednesday (10 July) in favour of new rules on cigarettes packaging and a ban on slim cigarettes, raising a chorus of complaints from the tobacco industry.

Green members of the European Parliament have accused the EU’s anti-fraud office, OLAF, of using wire taping and other “illegal means” in the investigation which led to the resignation of John Dalli as health commissioner. Senior MEPs called for the OLAF director to resign.

In eight European and Scandinavian countries, 270,000 people are diagnosed every year with cancers caused by smoking, according to a European study.

The emergence of smokeless tobacco in Sweden and now Norway should make the European Commission think twice about its decision to impose a ban, writes Steve Stotesbury.

European Commission plans to clamp down on the tobacco industry, set to be published later this year, will boost criminal activity, according to an industry-funded report out today (3 April).

EU Health Commissioner John Dalli will face legal action if he tries to reproduce Australia's plain-packaging proposals for cigarettes in Europe, a tobacco industry representative warned this week.

The European Commission is set to widen the scope of cigarette-trading rules to cover potentially harmful electronic cigarettes, flavourings and even marketing strategies, as part of a wider campaign launched yesterday (16 June) to urge Europeans to quit.

Bulgarian lawmakers voted yesterday (20 May) to loosen a smoking ban which would have forbidden smoking in all public spaces from June this year.

Traces of radioactive and other substances – such as radon, polonium and cadmium – recently found in tobacco leave open questions as to whether they should be regulated at EU level.

The European Parliament has urged member states to impose unrestricted smoking bans in all enclosed workplaces, public buildings and transport, and asked the Commission to draft specific rules on the protection of non-smokers if they fail to do so.

The European Parliament's Committee on Health and the Environment has asked the Commission to propose, by 2008, an unrestricted smoking ban in all enclosed workplaces, including catering establishments, public buildings and transport in the EU.

As part of an EU wide anti-smoking campaign, the European Commission is set to launch, on World No Tobacco Day, an email 'coaching service' to support people trying to quit.

Scientists call for a more rational debate about the relative risks posed by drugs as a study shows that alcohol and tobacco cause more physical and social harm than some illicit substances.

After Germany, the Commission decides to refer Italy to the European Court of Justice for failure to correctly transpose the EU ban on tobacco advertising. Three further member states are threatened with legal action.

Germany will implement the Directive on tobacco advertising, following a recommendation by the European Court of Justice's Advocate General to dismiss Germany's action to partially annul the Directive.

Lung cancer rates throughout the EU are falling for men, but not for women, says a new report from the British Medical Journal.

The Commission has launched a new anti-smoking campaign whose objective is to promote a tobacco-free lifestyle among young people. It will also inform about the dangers of passive smoking and promote the trend towards tobacco-free public places.

Markos Kyprianou told EurActiv that promoting healthy lifestyles and mental health, as well as ensuring food safety, would be among his priorities as commissioner for health and consumer protection. He added that it was his ambition to have smoking bans introduced in all member states by the end of his term.