Photo: Anne Lakeman |
The government plans to put up the price of cigarettes to €10 a
packet, introduce outright smoking bans in the healthcare sector, at schools
and playgrounds and ban tobacco advertising, in an effort to stop youngsters
taking up the habit, the Telegraaf reported on Thursday.
The plans, which have
been leaked to the paper, were drawn up by civil servants, anti-smoking groups
and healthcare organisations and the tobacco industry itself was not invited to
take part in the discussions.
The package of measures will have ‘far reaching
consequences for smokers and companies’, the paper said. The measures will
cover cigarettes and cigars, e-cigarettes, water pipes and ‘herbal mixtures’.
By 2020, tobacco product packaging will have to be ‘neutral’, by 2021
cigarettes should not be on public display and by 2025 supermarkets will be
banned from selling tobacco altogether.
In addition, the plans would allow
local authorities to refuse subsidies for organisations where smoking is still
allowed, albeit in special areas.
Companies will also be encouraged to help
staff stop smoking and ABN Amro is leading the way, the Telegraaf said.
Sponsorship
The bank has stopped sponsoring organisations and clubs which do
not support the ‘smoke-free generation’ campaign and will no longer make loans
to companies which are part of the tobacco industry chain.
The tobacco industry
told the paper that the plans represent major government interference in
adults’ lives. ‘Smoking is unhealthy and children should not smoke,’ Jan Hein
Strater, head of the tobacco industry lobby group VSK told the paper.
‘But it
would seem that e-cigarettes are also to be banned, while the British
government supports using them to help people stop smoking.’ Neutral packaging,
he said, has not worked in Australia where it has already been introduced.
No comments:
Post a Comment