European Parliament proposes to expand no-smoking areas; Poland supports but slow to act

European Parliament proposes to expand no-smoking areas; Poland supports but slow to act

Poland supports the European Parliament's expansion of no-smoking areas, but no concrete action has been taken, and the Polish government has also been slow to implement stricter regulations on the sale of e-cigarettes.

According to Politykazdrowotna, the European Parliament called for the expansion of no-smoking areas in restaurant terraces, parks and beaches, an initiative supported by Poland, although there is unofficial information that the Polish government plans to strengthen the law on this issue, but the government is not active in implementation.

The new EU law aims to reduce the proportion of smokers to 5% by 2040. To this end, the European Parliament passed a resolution to expand the scope of smoke-free environments, including banning smoking in parks, beaches and restaurant terraces. Poland supports this, but has not yet shown an intention to tighten the law in a hurry. According to undisclosed information, the government has no plans to introduce stricter regulations for the time being.

Despite previous announcements, Poland has not yet initiated regulations to restrict the sale of e-cigarettes. The issue has been discussed for nearly a year, and the "Amendment to the Health Protection Act", which was supposed to be reviewed on December 18, was originally planned to include relevant regulations on e-cigarettes, but the project failed to enter the agenda again. The Ministry of Health explained that the delay was caused by the complexity of the matter.

In the amendment to the Tobacco Law, the original plan to ban the sale of snus was not implemented, and these products were only banned for sale to minors. At the same time, the government also postponed the amendment to ban the sale of flavored heated tobacco.