"Electronic cigarettes, with and without nicotine, must be equated to the classic fuels and that cannot be sold anywhere"

With its sights set on the general elections on 23-J, the National Committee for the Prevention of Tobacco (CNPT) has called on all political parties and the government that is elected at the polls to release the Comprehensive Plan for Smoking in the first hundred days of office. A document whose approval was stalled from one day to the next without an apparent explanation.

But before that can occur, Spain must transpose Directive 2022/2100 on the withdrawal of certain exceptions applicable to heated tobacco products “no later than July 23, 2023”. In other words, the current Executive only has one Council of Ministers left (today) to do so in compliance with the deadlines set by Europe. Andrés Zamorano, president of the CNPT, believes that the government will meet that deadline “and approve it, but it is a minimal document,” he says.

The Directive that Spain must transpose against the clock after the argument period, will be embodied in a royal decree that modifies the one in force (Royal Decree 579/2017). Zamorano explains that in “the previous directive, that of 2014, there were a series of exceptions for heated tobacco, but it has been shown that tobacco is called heated or not heated”. And it is that the Commission made the decision to withdraw the exceptions to these products after verifying that there had been a considerable increase in sales and consumption of these products.

Zamorano explains that “in heated tobacco there is no combustion, but there is heating to 400 or 450 degrees and, being tobacco, it has nicotine and many other toxic and carcinogenic substances as well.. The fact that it does not combust is absolutely no guarantee of anything,” he says.

Once the decree is approved, heated tobacco products will be clearly defined, the exception they now had to include warning images that do contain other items will be withdrawn and, furthermore, they will not be able to include flavors.

The Government has less than a week to comply with the transposition of Directive 2022/2100. Will it arrive on time? Yes, I think it will arrive on time. From the CNPT we have made our allegations. The commitment of this royal decree comes from the ex-minister Salvador Illa. We thought that plain packaging would also be introduced, which was one of our requests, but it has not been done. When an EU country transposes a directive, it can always go further, but in Spain this has not been the case. What was the CNPT asking for this royal decree? That electronic cigarettes, with and without nicotine, be equated to the classic fuels and that these devices could not be sold anywhere. I have bought an electronic cigarette at the store where I buy the newspaper, at the gas station, I have bought on the internet…. That is, they can be bought anywhere with or without nicotine; are available to anyone. All this has to be in the tobacconists and once there, regulate everything, because other products that are very attractive to children are being sold in those establishments. Have you met with the Minister of Health, José Manuel Miñones, since he was in office? No. The minister who received us and behaved very well with the committee was María Luis Carcedo to announce that they were going to finance smoking cessation treatments as of January 1, 2020. We had several meetings with her. Later with Salvador Illa there was also a certain fluidity. We had a face-to-face meeting and then another online one when the pandemic hit. He committed to a series of things such as plain packaging, to influence electronic cigarettes, but in the end he stayed there. And with Minister Carolina Darias there is a tremendous step; He has never received us and we have asked him on several occasions. He has not answered us or received us. And neither has the new minister because he hasn't given him much time. The CNPT has just released a document in which they ask the political parties and the new government resulting from the polls to approve the Comprehensive Plan for the Prevention and Control of Tobacco ( PIT) in the first hundred days of the mandate. The plan is done, and the most important allegation that we made from the CNPT, in addition to all the requests that were collected, is that this plan had a single governance and that it depended on the Presidency of the Government because there are many ministries involved (Treasury, Ecological Transition, Industry, Universities…) and for this to work there must be perfect coordination. It is a plan that is accepted by all scientific societies. From the CNPT we have sent the draft to the 45 companies, we have collected what they have told us and we have added it to what the CNPT Board itself has worked on. It is done and very well done. You just have to pass it on to the Public Health Commission and the Interterritorial Council. It is a plan for 2021-2025 and we are already in 2023. Why has it been paralyzed? What explanation have they given? We have no idea. The health technicians had elaborated it very well in agreement with the autonomous communities and taking into account the allegations. We are talking about a document that has a tremendous consensus and also a social consensus, because only 20% of the population, which is a lot, smokes from the age of 15 until the end of their lives and of that percentage, 70% would like to quit. smoking and when asked at what age would they like their child or grandchild to smoke, the answer is no. That is why we think that there is a very large consensus at all levels. Do not forget that 30% of cancers are caused by tobacco. There has to be real political will for it to be published; Up to now, everything has been long. So, it is a plan that has remained in a drawer. And also in a drawer of the Ministry of Health. At first we thought it could be somewhere else, but no.. Then we found out that Carolina Darias was running for Mayor of Las Palmas and, of course, tobacco is something untouchable there. Putting the interest of an autonomous community ahead against public health and the entire population of a country…
The PIT also describes alternatives to tobacco cultivation, in the medium and long term. In Spain we have a problem with Extremadura and the Canary Islands. Our plan is based on the Framework Convention on Smoking Control, a treaty that is signed by 181 countries and the European Community, that is, 182 parties. It is a commitment that does not oblige or collect economic sanctions, but it is a great agreement that includes raising prices, limiting the spaces where smoking is made, equating electronic cigarettes to the rest, helping the smoking patient…
In the countries where all this has been done, prevalences have been half that of what we have. France, for example, has neutral labelling, prices are twice as high as ours. They are countries that have recently moved. We moved in 2005 and in 2010, but now we have become completely obsolete. With the general elections, have you maintained any contact with other parties? We have sent the statement to all the parties so that they take it into account, that it be resumed and that the PIT be removed in the first hundred days of the new government's mandate. Young people smoke because it's fashionable. It is what they see in influencers and streamers and who advertise tobacco products. It is the same tactic as with the old movies where you saw an actor or actress smoke. We have analyzed marketing companies and the same techniques are used. Spain was a pioneer in Europe with smoking legislation. Is the Spanish Presidency of the EU a missed opportunity? It would be very interesting if in these six months of the Presidency a new tobacco law were carried out and the germ is the Comprehensive Plan for Smoking. I am convinced that in the next legislature, if it is one that lasts, there will be time to draw up a new law, which will have a social consensus, even if there are protests that will come from the tobacco companies only. I think there is a societal clamor for action and it just takes a brave minister to say, “Let's go for it!”
There is another piece of information that politicians could perfectly use and that comes from health economists, and that is that of the 9,300 million that the Treasury enters for tobacco use, we spend three times as much on illness, diagnoses and treatments, and on sick leave. This supposes every year around 20,000 million losses.
Right now the most urgent thing that needs to be legislated well is electronic cigarettes, whether or not they contain nicotine. They cannot be sold anywhere and be a claim for the youngest.