The Riigikogu on Wednesday evening passed the domestic legislative amendment which will enact an EU directive banning heated tobacco products with added flavors or scents, effective next year.

The intention of the EU directive is to make smoking as unattractive as possible, to dissuade people, particularly the young, from continuing or taking it up.

However, vaping products, which have a high nicotine content and added flavors and which are extremely popular among teenagers in Estonia, remain exempt from the ban.

Former health minister Riina Sikkut (SDE), who initiated the bill which passed this week, noted that the primary concern in Estonia was also young people's health.
"Yesterday's decision doesn't cover those new nicotine products that kids really like — I don't know, those that taste like bubblegum and have a Super Mario picture on them. There are even vapes that come with a video game attached, so you can play and vape at the same time. Allowing aggressive marketing like this toward youth is certainly reprehensible. We did indeed yesterday (Wednesday – ed.) address tobacco products, and undoubtedly with children's health in mind," Sikkut said.

However, addressing vaping might be years off, she added.

"If we're talking about changing the directive, then at European level, the tobacco products directive should be transformed into a nicotine products directive. That is still a process of many, many years — but that's the path to achieving this goal, in the end."

One school principal, Õnnela Leedo-Küngas, of Nõmme põhikool in Tallinn, agreed that heated tobacco products need to be banned.

"Of course kids vape. Just based on experience and recognizing the smells, I can say that vanilla seems to be a big hit. Most start around sixth grade. By seventh and eighth grade, they're really getting into it. Of course, it should be banned," Leedo-Küngas said.

There is usually the one popular spot where teenagers congregate to vape relatively undisturbed, making catching them in the act difficult.

At the Nõmme school, Leedo-Küngas said: "The favorite place is, of course, the bathroom. Getting there at just the right moment is tricky… Often, these lovely young people show up wreathed by a cloud of scent, but naturally, these are always the innocent bystanders, who happened to go in after it happened."
The Nõmme school is currently awaiting a new school building, where vape detectors are planned for installation, given no legislation to ban vapes is expected any time soon, despite the strong opposition to the practice.

A study by the National Institute for Health Development (TAI) confirms that most kids start vaping between the ages of 12 and 14. Every second teenager has tried e-cigarettes, the study found, while over the past five years, their use has become increasingly frequent among youth. In the past year, 38 percent of teens have vaped; in the past month, one in four.

The institute says it also backs a ban on e-cigarettes.

Anneli Sammel, head of the agency's drug and addiction department, said: "Nicotine is a highly addictive substance. It is, after all, a drug — and like all other drugs, it has the greatest impact on the developing brain. This affects a young person's future abilities — learning capacity, memory, emotional development. The effect on cell DNA has also already been identified."

For now, only heated tobacco products are being banned. This is a device into which a cigarette-like capsule containing tobacco is inserted — but instead of being burned like a regular cigarette, it is heated up. Due in part to their high cost, these products are not very widespread in Estonia. Far more popular are e-cigarettes and vapes that contain nicotine liquid.

In any case, from February next year, selling heated tobacco products with flavors or scents will be barred. Flavored traditional cigarettes such as menthol cigarettes were banned in Estonia, following the EU's lead, in 2020.

Distance selling flavored e-cigarettes is already banned in Estonia, but buying e-cigarette products and the sweet-flavoring additives separately and, for instance, having them delivered by mail is still viable; the likelihood of getting caught is low, "Aktuaalne kaamera" reported.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!