The European Commission proposed on Wednesday to ban sale of flavored tobacco products in the EU after a big rise in their consumption.
By removing flavored heated tobacco from the market, we're taking another step towards realizing our vision under the Beating Cancer Plan to create a Tobacco Free Generation with less than 5% of the population using tobacco by 2040, according to EU health commissioner Stella Kyriakides.
The Commission said that it had seen a 10% rise in sales volumes of heated tobacco products in half a dozen EU countries, helping heated tobacco products to exceed 2.5% of total sales of tobacco products in the EU.
Heated tobacco is an alternative to smoking tobacco that uses real tobacco. That is different from e-cigarettes which contain no tobacco and use liquids.
According to the University of Bath, Philip Morris International has the largest share of the heated tobacco market.