{"id":299540,"date":"2026-02-15T15:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T15:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/299540\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T15:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T15:44:09","slug":"push-to-close-nicotine-loopholes-at-eu-level-who-chief-tells-mcneill-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/299540\/","title":{"rendered":"Push to close nicotine loopholes at EU level, WHO chief tells McNeill \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The European Union<\/a> needs to urgently close \u201cloopholes\u201d that exist in its regulation of nicotine products, from vapes<\/a> to pouches, the head of the World Health Organisation<\/a> told Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus<\/a>, director-general of the United Nations<\/a>\u2019 public health agency, said governments were still facing \u201cstrong industry opposition\u201d from the tobacco lobby, when trying to regulate the sector. <\/p>\n

In an August 22nd letter, Tedros said EU-wide regulations of tobacco and nicotine products were in need of an update, given the popularity of e-cigarettes or vapes, and nicotine pouches, among children and young people. <\/p>\n

The letter to Carroll MacNeill said it was \u201cessential to address regulatory loopholes that threaten tobacco control progress in the European Union member states\u201d. <\/p>\n

The UN health chief said \u201cthere remains a persistent difficulty of developing effective national regulations amid strong industry opposition\u201d. Politicians were trying to keep pace with what was a \u201crapidly evolving landscape of tobacco and nicotine products,\u201d Tedros wrote. <\/p>\n

The letter and other internal documents were released to The Irish Times under the Freedom of Information Act. Tedros said he wanted to thank Ireland for its \u201congoing leadership\u201d in pushing regulations on tobacco. <\/p>\n

The coming revision of EU regulations \u201crepresents a critical opportunity for tobacco control\u201d globally, he wrote. <\/p>\n

The Government<\/a> has on its own bat been calling for EU restrictions on tobacco products to be updated, to take account of changes in the industry and the prevalence of vapes and pouches. <\/p>\n

Existing EU-level regulations came into effect in 2014, which among other things required tobacco products to carry prominent health warnings and pictures on packaging. The legislation was the subject of a fierce lobbying campaign by the tobacco industry at the time. <\/p>\n

Several tobacco giants have pivoted parts of their businesses into less regulated products, such as vapes, and nicotine pouches that are placed between a person\u2019s lip and gum. Philip Morris<\/a> bought Swedish Match, who produce the popular nicotine pouch brand ZYN, in 2022.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Government open to banning vapes in cars with children, says TaoiseachOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Internal briefing notes prepared by the Department of Health<\/a> said a revision of the EU rules had been delayed for several years. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis has meant that multiple member states, including Ireland, have had to move ahead with their own measures,\u201d the internal notes stated. <\/p>\n

The Republic has introduced national legislation to ban the sale of disposable, single-use vapes, and extended restrictions around the sale and marketing of tobacco products to vapes. <\/p>\n

The European Commission<\/a>, the union\u2019s executive arm that proposes laws, is evaluating existing EU regulations, before suggesting changes. <\/p>\n

Carroll MacNeill had hoped a proposal would have been published in time for the Government to lead negotiations on draft legislation during the second half of this year, when Ireland will hold the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, the body that represents member states. <\/p>\n

Carroll MacNeill wrote to European health commissioner Oliv\u00e9r V\u00e1rhelyi last June, talking up the potential for work on new tobacco regulations to be advanced during the six months Ireland will chair EU-level policy debates. <\/p>\n

However, it is expected the commission\u2019s proposal may not land until well into the second half of this year, or later, which means negotiations between capitals may not begin until 2027. <\/p>\n

In a letter responding to the Minister, the Hungarian commissioner acknowledged the \u201cgrowing concern\u201d about the increased use of vapes, particularly by young people. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no doubt about the urgent need to address these challenges … The commission remains fully committed to tobacco control legislation which ensures comprehensive and effective tobacco control measures,\u201d V\u00e1rhelyi wrote. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf the Commission publishes a proposal for a revision of the Tobacco Products Directive on time, Ireland will be fully committed to progressing negotiations on this proposal during our presidency in the second half of 2026,\u201d a Department of Health spokesman said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European Union needs to urgently close \u201cloopholes\u201d that exist in its regulation of nicotine products, from vapes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[27511,3414,5148,1712,1523,42,1421,43,141972,141971,40,38,41,39,23242,31614],"class_list":{"0":"post-299540","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-vaping","9":"tag-department-of-health","10":"tag-european-union","11":"tag-european-commission","12":"tag-government","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-jennifer-carroll-macneill","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-philip-morris","17":"tag-tedros-adhanom-ghebreyesus","18":"tag-top-news","19":"tag-top-stories","20":"tag-topnews","21":"tag-topstories","22":"tag-united-nations-un","23":"tag-world-health-organisation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}