Health Minister Manuel Pizarro said Wednesday that the amendment to the tobacco law is “not a policy against smokers” and guaranteed lung cancer screenings will continue this year.
“The essential point is to deal with the reduction of tobacco smoke. Tobacco smoke is not a minor matter in terms of public health. Changing the tobacco law is not a policy against smokers,” said Manuel Pizarro when confronted by journalists in Porto, on the sidelines of a visit to Hospital de Santo António, about the schedule of screenings dedicated to lung cancer.
“In 2023 we will start screening initiatives”, the minister suggested, to ensure that projects in this area are not stopped.
Manuel Pizarro admits that changing the tobacco law is now, as in 2007, “always met with a lot of resistance”, saying that there are two objectives at stake: “to save those who do not smoke from exposure to tobacco smoke and ensure that the young generations reach 2040 as a tobacco-free generation”.
“The cancers whose mortality has increased the most are cancers related to tobacco use: lungs, trachea and bronchi,” the official said.
The Council of Ministers on Thursday approved several amendments to the tobacco law, which equates electronic cigarettes with regular tobacco and imposes restrictions on sale and consumption.
“The government passed a bill in the Council of Ministers that takes strong measures to protect people from exposure to tobacco. Packages of heated tobacco will now be equivalent to conventional tobacco, with the obligation to present the combined health warnings and will now restrict the sale of heated tobacco tobacco products with flavors in their components should also be banned”said Manuel Pizarro, clarifying that these measures will come into effect from October 23.
Speaking at the press conference after the Council of Ministers, the official stressed the need for legal transposition of a European directive on the issue and the push to “reduce consumption incentives” and help the Portuguese “overcome addiction to tobacco”.
Among the measures announced is the “extension of the ban on smoking outdoors within the perimeter of public places for collective use, especially in areas where the most vulnerable people are, whether health or school equipment, and the impossibility of creating new spaces create those reserved for smokers in buildings where smoking is still allowed in enclosed areas”.
For the establishments whose rooms have been adapted to the legislative procedures that have recently come into force, the final smoking ban in closed rooms will only come into force from 2030, which will allow them to recoup the investment made.
Source: DN
