Europe, Poland: Polish Tobacco Industry to Protest New EU Menthol and Slim Cigarette Ban

Source from:  Polskie Radio (pl)  12/18/2012

Polish tobacco growers and cigarette manufacturers are sending a letter to PM Tusk, Monday, calling for the government to oppose new EU plans to ban menthol and 'slim' cigarette sales.

"Polish tobacco growers will suffer, with the elimination of many plantations and reduced orders will mean corporations making redundancies," says head of the Polish Tobacco Association Przemysław Noworyta.

 

Experts calculate a loss to the Treasury of around 9 billion zloty annually if the ban, announced by EU Commissioner Tonio Borg under a new Tobacco Products Directive last week, went ahead.
 
Menthol and 'slim' cigarette brands make up around 38 percent of the market in Poland and the country is a major exporter of tobacco products.
 
New EU rules would also ban the term 'lite' on packets and demand that health warning take up a larger surface of the packets than at present.
 
The UK-based The Lancet" journal published its "Global Burden of Disease Study 2010" last Thursday, saying smoking was the world's second-largest health risk on around the world. Enditem