Smoking Archives - Brussels Express

From November 1st tobacco products not to be sold to minors anymore

Admin BE — Wed, 30 Oct 2019 07:22:34 +0000

From November 1st, tobacco products will not be sold to minors anymore. Previously, people over 16 years old could buy tobacco products legally. Belgium was the only country in Europe where cigarettes were still sold to young people between the ages of 16 and 18.

This change in the legal age for buying tobacco was approved last April. The ban concerns cigarettes, rolling tobacco but also electronic cigarettes.

Mathew MacQuarrie @deskfire

Studies show that the sooner young people start smoking, the sooner they become addicted to nicotine. According to the Cancer Foundation, this makes stop harder. In fact, data shows that the majority of tobacco users (90%) started smoking before the age of 18.

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Ban on smoking is not respected in Brussels

Admin BE — Mon, 05 Aug 2019 07:13:50 +0000

A hundred cafes were checked by the FPS Public Health in Brussels to see whether they were respecting the ban on smoking inside the cafes.

The inspection showed that less than half of the cafes respected the ban on smoking. Fines had to be imposed on all those who did not respect the regulation.

The checks were carried out on the night of 10-11 July in Brussels.

Paul Van den Meersche, commissioner, who was interviewed by De Standaard stated that the regulation is respected more in Flanders and Wallonia than in Brussels.

He added: « In these areas, the owners are severely punished, with fines and even temporary closures, but in Brussels, it is not as severe, ».

Unsplash – From: Vannrith Va @vannrith

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30% of litter in Brussels is cigarette butts

Admin BE — Tue, 21 May 2019 10:47:33 +0000

The Agence Bruxelles Propreté (‘The Brussels Cleanliness Agency’) has found that cigarette butts represent 30% of all litter in the Belgian capital, according to an article published today in the Dernière Heure.

The Brussels Region had recently requested €203,000 in compensation from the tobacco industry, to be used specifically for cleaning the capital’s streets of cigarette butts. In response to this request, Cimabel (Belgian-Luxembourg federation of cigarette manufacturers), Fetabel (the federation of producers and importers of rolling tobacco in Belgium and Luxembourg) and the Belgian subsidiary of the multinational Philip Morris sent a letter to the Brussels Secretary of State for Cleanliness, Fadila Laanan, informing her of their willingness to cooperate, provided that there was sufficient evidence that cigarette butts constituted a significant proportion of all Brussels litter. The study conducted by the Agence Bruxelles Propreté was carried out primarily as a response to this request from the tobacco industry.

The Dernière Heure article also reported that a survey conducted in 2018 by Tabacstop found that smokers represent 26% of the Brussels population. The Region intends to take measures to reduce this figure.

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