EU Smoking Directive

P_1

There's a lively debate going on over in the Vaping forum on this directive and I'm surprised there isn't one going on here too.

The short version is that the EU are trying to further restrict smoking, namely by increasing taxes, restricting packaging and also by banning menthol flavourings among other things.

Is anybody else here following things?

BeerNut

P_1 wrote: »

namely by increasing taxes

Where are you seeing that? Surely the EU has no role in taxation here.

This is odd:

The proposal foresees a prohibition for cigarettes, roll your own tobacco and smokeless tobacco that have characterising flavours

I wonder why pipe tobacco is left out? As an occasional smoker of cherry tobacco I hope we get a bye on this.

Going after the vapers is just stupid, IMO. Hopefully someone will point that out.

Here's the main EU Commission page on the issue.

OldGoat

I would imagine that if the proposal goes any further then mere debate that other tobacco products like pipe tobacco and cigars will be included.

I'm also supprised at the the vapers getting targeted. I can only assume that the anti-smoking lobby will rise to their defence.

P_1

OldGoat wrote: »

I would imagine that if the proposal goes any further then mere debate that other tobacco products like pipe tobacco and cigars will be included.

I'm also supprised at the the vapers getting targeted. I can only assume that the anti-smoking lobby will rise to their defence.

TBH I think its the pharmaceutical companies who provide the quitting smoking products being concerned over potential damage to their profit margins more than anything else.

Personally I don't think there should be an us and them divide between vapers and smokers. Its somewhat akin to there being a divide between tea and coffee drinkers

BeerNut

OldGoat wrote: »

I would imagine that if the proposal goes any further then mere debate that other tobacco products like pipe tobacco and cigars will be included.

NOoo! Not my vanilla cigars!

Staff Infection

Ah this is beyond annoying, we get charged enough for the ruddy things and now they want to ban the ones with quirky flavours.

Also as someone who smokes a pipe when I can (sadly not often enough) would this affect aromatic pipe tobacco? As the flavour would change from blend to blend along with the aroma could these awkward imbeciles in Europe with nothing better to do argue that as such it is a "characterising flavour"?

Needless to say I'm all worked up now, maybe I'll have a smoke so

lord lucan

P_1 wrote: »

There's a lively debate going on over in the Vaping forum on this directive and I'm surprised there isn't one going on here too.

Tbh i think that a lot of smokers have grown weary of the constant attacks on them and just tend to shrug their shoulders at stuff like this. This being the first attack on Vaping i can understand why there's much more activity and annoyance at it.

I'm firmly in the camp that believes that the big Pharmaceutical companies are behind the vaping directive. They've been lobbying governments hard on this as more people turn from expensive patches/gum/inhalers to vaping. Much like the way tobacco companies try to stem the crackdown on tobacco products,the pharmaceutical companies are going to go to bat to keep their market share alive.

nesf

OldGoat wrote: »

I'm also supprised at the the vapers getting targeted. I can only assume that the anti-smoking lobby will rise to their defence.

*looks at ASH UK's campaign against vaping*

*sighs*

P_1

To be honest it seems that certain people with influence seem hell bent on having the consumption of nicotine (in the vast majority of its forms) banned.

Why? I don't know. But for whatever reason they seem to do so.

It makes me feel incredibly frustrated that only one side of the argument seems to be being listened to.

lord lucan

P_1 wrote: »

To be honest it seems that certain people with influence seem hell bent on having the consumption of nicotine (in the vast majority of its forms) banned.

Why? I don't know. But for whatever reason they seem to do so.

It makes me feel incredibly frustrated that only one side of the argument seems to be being listened to.

I totally agree. TBH i'm very militant when it comes to smoking,so much so that i bite my tongue when posting here as i'd probably have to infract and ban myself!:p

This reply from a Danish politician about the smoking directive sums up my thoughts on smoking and life in general.

I have never smoked, and I will probably never will, but it annoys me enormously when politicians from the municipal level to the EU dictate whether people smoke or not.

Our Committee has today sent back to the Commission a tobacco directive which would, amongst other things, prohibit snus, cigarette flavours, thin cigarettes and would mandate warnings on 70% of the packages. If enough other countries do the same, the Commission must start over.

...If the EU, state and local governments succeed in making people stop smoking (which they hardly do), we will become healthier, but it's a poor society that controls its citizens completely in the private sphere. A rich life is to have his personal integrity safeguarded, and even to choose, good, bad, funny, unhealthy, healthy or downright stupid.

The only thing that is certain in life is that we eventually die. What we do with life while we have it is for us to decide.

http://velvetgloveironfist.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/denmark-rejects-tobacco-products.html