The European Commission will recommend smoking bans in outdoor areas across Europe, including in cafe terraces and bus stops, a leaked memo has revealed.
Officials will ask that these bans cover not only cigarette smoke but also products that don’t contain nicotine. The plans are intended to extend guidelines from 2009, which were designed to reduce exposure to second-hand smoke in public areas and in workplaces.
World Vapers’ Alliance director Michael Landl attacked the proposals as being part of a “blatant, paternalistic, ideology-driven agenda.” Alan Beard, an executive at the New Nicotine Alliance, also dismissed them—just weeks after Britain began moving to introduce tougher rules on smoking outdoors—as “yet more nonsense.”
Brussels cannot actually force EU member states to introduce these wider bans. But officials, said Politico, will likely point to the fact that its past guidance reduced exposure to tobacco products, anyway.
The memo, seen by EuroNews, covers plans to clear public spaces of all aerosols, including “heated tobacco products and electronic cigarettes, whether containing nicotine or nicotine-free.”
Commissioners also want to add so-called “tobacco surrogates and any other smoke and/or aerosol emitting products” to existing bans.
They would like to see outdoor areas which are partially covered—particularly in service establishments—become smoke-free, as well as recreational areas, such as zoos and amusement parks.
While the unveiling of some measures has been pushed back, Brussels has worked to ensure that its commitment to stopping smoking has not been forgotten. Outgoing Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said in May that “tobacco use, nicotine addiction and tobacco-induced illness should have no place in Europe’s future,” adding that
We are continuing our work on further measures to restrict and control tobacco consumption in the EU.
