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.