Sunday July 23. That is the deadline that Spain had to transpose Directive 2022/2100 that regulates various aspects of the heated tobacco and that ends with some exceptions that these products enjoyed. For this, it was expected that the last Council of Ministers before the general elections would meet the deadline set by Europe and give the green light to the relevant royal decree that modifies a previous regulation (Royal Decree 579/2017). But it has not been that way.
The Ministry of Health, for the moment, has not given an explanation about the reason for this delay and the failure to comply with the deadline to approve a regulation that ended its processing of claims last July 6. A breach that occurs in the semester in which Spain presides over the Council of the European Union.
According to the latest draft prepared, the new regulation will establish what kind of items treats -defines- and will withdraw certain exceptions of those they enjoyed up to now with respect to other products.
First of all, the text points out that heated tobacco is a “novelty tobacco product that is heated to produce an emission that contains nicotine and other chemicalswhich is then inhaled by users and which, depending on its characteristics, is either a smokeless tobacco product or a smoking tobacco product”.
In addition, in the section dealing with ingredients and additives, heated tobacco is included in the prohibition of containing characteristic aromas and “flavoring components, such as filters, cigarette papers, containers, capsules, or any other technical characteristic that allows modifying the smell or flavor of tobacco products, or intensifies smoke. Filters, papers, and capsules may not contain tobacco or nicotine.”