Packaging deal ‘may lead to 2% fall in smokers’

The “war” against tobacco took another small step with final agreement on new rules mainly on packaging that experts reckon should lead to a 2% drop in smokers and save economies about €500m a year.

Currently 700,000 smokers die every year — many 20 years before they should — as a result of smoking and costing every person, smokers and non-smokers, more than €200 a year in health and lost productivity.

The new regulations, that include electronic cigarettes for the first time, will cut the cost by about €1 a year per person and reduce the number of smokers by 2.4m in the EU.

Due to some of the most intensive lobbying ever seen in Brussels and European capitals, the new rules are less stringent than demanded by health and anti-smoking campaigners. But they clear the way for Ireland to introduce plain packaging on cigarette boxes — a move that has proven effective in other countries such as Australia.

The main thrust behind the changes is to remove some of the elements designed to make smoking attractive — such as flavours like menthol, and pretty packaging. As a result cigarettes must be sold in regular cuboid boxes with a minimum of 20 while lipstick-type packaging will be banned. Misleading claims such as “free of additives” or “organic” and special offers will not be allowed.

Each pack must carry warnings and photographs pointing out the danger of smoking, including the fact that cigarettes contain about 70 ingredients that are known to cause cancer. The same will apply to roll-your-own tobacco packets.

E-cigarettes will have a maximum concentration of nicotine and refills will have to be child-proof. They will also have to carry health warnings and information on the fact that nicotine is addictive and toxic.