Poland temporarily suspends ban on disposable e-cigarettes, sparking public concern

Poland temporarily suspends ban on disposable e-cigarettes, sparking public concern

The Polish government has not yet completely banned e-cigarettes, but has raised the age limit for purchase, which has aroused great public concern about the issue.

According to Polish media reports on July 9, the Polish government has not yet decided to completely ban e-cigarettes. In February this year, the Polish Ministry of Health announced plans to completely ban the sale of disposable e-cigarette products before the summer, but at present, the ban has not been implemented immediately. The government has only raised the legal age for purchasing such sweet stimulants, which has aroused great public concern.

Last year, Poland sold more than 100 million disposable e-cigarettes, and more than 90% of disposable e-cigarettes have the taste of fruits, drinks or sweets, and most of them contain nicotine. Almost all of these e-cigarettes come from China, but China has banned the sale of such products because of their potential appeal to children.

Deputy Health Minister Wojciech Konieczny said: "For disposable e-cigarettes, I think only a strict ban can succeed. Otherwise, manufacturers will take advantage of loopholes in the regulations, which will not achieve the desired effect." Health Minister Izabela Leszczyna even called the phenomenon of Polish teenagers using disposable flavored e-cigarettes a "plague". She added that the ban is to follow the EU directive to ban tobacco heating inserts containing flavors such as menthol.

However, what appeared on the Polish government website recently was not a ban, but a restriction on the sale of disposable e-cigarettes without nicotine. The Ministry of Health hopes that these products will be available only to people over 18 years old, just like nicotine-containing products.

However, the Market Monitoring Center pointed out that the market share of "zero nicotine" e-cigarettes is very small, and most of the products sold are nicotine-containing products. The new proposal of the Ministry of Health only solves part of the problem.

A study conducted by the Polish Association for the Promotion of Medicine showed that more than 37% of teenagers admitted to smoking or using e-cigarettes; Monika Horna-Cieślak, the Polish Ombudsman for Children, called for urgent action to protect the health of children and adolescents and demanded a position on the ban on the sale of flavored disposable e-cigarettes in Poland, which has aroused public attention and concern about the issue.