They are called “coffee break”, “vanilla” or “cherry lollipop”. That sounds like a bit of relaxation or next summer. However, it is not about enjoyment alone, but about flavorings in smoking devices that are hazardous to health, which will soon disappear from the market. With a large majority from the Union to the Left Party, the Bundestag approved a reform of the Tobacco Products Act on Thursday evening, which puts e-cigarettes and tobacco heaters on an equal footing with conventional cigarettes. Artificial additives such as peach flavor or chocolate should be banned in tobacco heaters. And on the pack there are deterrent images of lung cancer, just like with ordinary cigarettes.
Germany is thus transposing a mandatory EU directive into national law, which is primarily aimed at young people. While smoking among young people was considered evidence of a rather pre-modern way of life for many years, smoking is now increasing again, also in Germany. In 2021, 8.7 percent of 14- to 17-year-olds smoked, a year later it suddenly was 18 percent of young people, almost doubling, warned former consumer protection minister Renate Künast in the Bundestag. “There are of course also strategies of the tobacco industry behind this.”
In the debate about the reform of the Tobacco Products Act, the Greens politicians referred to the strategy of the so-called harm reduction. This means the message in advertising that everyone who smokes e-cigarettes instead of conventional cigarettes is doing something good for themselves. After all, the health risk is lower here. “That’s not entirely wrong, but I think it’s still dubious,” said Künast. The high risk of cancer as with burned tobacco does not exist with tobacco heaters. “But nicotine is also addictive and constricts the blood vessels.” The Greens also pleaded for an advertising ban for the future.
Hookahs cause serious illnesses – politicians didn’t care
According to studies by the German Cancer Research Institute, vaping in shisha bars or e-cigarettes at home on the sofa is more dangerous than is often assumed. Many would believe hookahs are less harmful and less addictive than cigarettes. “In fact, hookah smoking causes several serious diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases and severe chronic respiratory diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and can be addictive,” said a staff member at the institute to the German Medical Journal already in 2019. The response from politics: rather none.
Only a decision in Brussels has now caused Germany to ban flavorings in e-cigarettes. That is correct, but not enough, complained the CDU MP Hans-Jürgen Thies in the Bundestag. The federal government “unfortunately missed the opportunity” to ban single-use e-cigarettes. “Currently, around three million disposable e-cigarettes are bought, smoked and ultimately thrown away carelessly in the household rubbish or on the street every month in Germany, and the trend is clearly increasing.” According to Thies, every e-cigarette contains a built-in lithium battery that belongs in electronic waste. E-cigarettes should be banned in Europe. “Nobody needs these things.”
Criticism came from the AfD, which was the only parliamentary group to abstain from voting, because Germany now had to implement an EU directive. “This constant paternalism from Brussels has long since had nothing to do with democracy,” said AfD MP Stephan Protschka. The FDP warned that smoking conventional cigarettes caused “tens of thousands of times more suffering, cardiovascular diseases, carcinomas and a significantly lower life expectancy”. Stopping is “not trivial for many,” said MP Gero Hocker. That is why the legislature must make “legal offers” here. In other words: the Liberals reject a ban, including a ban on advertising electronic incense.