EU mulls stricter rules to discourage youth smoking

BRUSSELS, July 10 (Xinhua) -- Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in its public health committee on Wednesday backed a draft proposal to discourage youth smoking by banning the use of strawberry and other flavors in tobacco products.

MEPs also asked for health warnings on each side of a cigarette pack, as well as the ban on slim cigarettes and "attractive" packaging. The proposal suggested that 75 percent of the front and back of cigarette packs should be covered with pictures and texts of health warning.

The proposal had been adopted by the Commission last December to update the current tobacco products directive with initiatives of discouraging young people from starting to smoke. It still needs formal endorsement from the Parliament in a plenary session and the EU Council before becoming a EU law.

Nearly a third of EU citizens smoke, 70 percent of whom started before the age of 18 and 94 percent before the age of 25.

In the past decade, the number of smokers has however fallen from nearly 40 percent in the EU15 back in 2002 to 28 percent in the EU27 in 2012.

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