Health: The sale of “Puff” cigarettes still illegal in Luxembourg
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LUXEMBOURG – Luxembourg is facing new products that replace cigarettes. Fashion phenomena taken from the new generations, but not always legal and ultimately little known.
The flavored electronic mini-cigarettes called “Puffs” are a hit with French teenagers, thanks to their “sweet and fruity aromas”, note the DP deputies Claude Lamberry and Carole Hartman, the latter worrying about a fashion phenomenon which could quickly reach Luxembourg.
The object in reality has already crossed borders and it is not uncommon to see minors vaping these disposable e-cigarettes. “Currently the Ministry of Health has neither figures nor data on consumption in Luxembourg,” replied Minister of Health Paulette Lenert.
In particular, the sale of these products is de facto illegal on Luxembourg territory. The companies that market the “Puffs” have not fulfilled the administrative and fiscal obligations included in the anti-tobacco law. “The notification of the product must be made six months before the placing on the market. In addition, a tax of €5,000 is due for each product notification (…) Currently none of the notified files is complete because the tax has not yet been paid”, explains the socialist minister.
Difficult controls
This does not prevent some manufacturers from marketing them despite everything. Even if it means risking a control: “As part of specific control actions in several points of sale, undeclared products have already been withdrawn”, indicates Paulette Lenert, specifying all the same that these operations are difficult because of the absence of excise duty for these products: “It is not possible to know precisely all the points of sale in the country as well as the quantities put on sale”.
Still, the ministry does not take the problem lightly. The Health Department considers that “the electronic cigarette in all its forms or variants constitutes a potential health risk” in addition to “renormalizing the image of smoking in society”. A “gateway to long-term smoking” for young people, also considered the minister.
“Preventive measures” have thus been put in place by demonstrating that e-cigarettes and refill products have the same restrictions as tobacco (ban on sales to minors, consumption prohibited on playgrounds, no online sales) .
Shisha also in the viewfinder
A regulation that also applies to the hookah. This time responding to a question from Jeff Engelen (ADR), Paulette Lenert recalls that shisha “is a tobacco product, subject to the anti-tobacco law”. Last year, excise duties on 14,768 kg of hookah tobacco were tested in Luxembourg. The figure is 3,315 kg for the first three months of the year.
A statistical study to better understand the phenomenon of hookah consumption in the Grand Duchy will be unveiled in 2023. It will be used in particular to implement a more targeted prevention strategy.