EU proposes ban on smoking outdoors: Will Czechia adopt it?

According to a leaked document, the European Commission wants to introduce a law that will ban smoking in various outdoor areas such as cafe terraces, bus stops, and zoos. Not only will these bans cover traditional tobacco products, but they will also extend to include newer, nicotine-free alternatives. This will affect Czechia – a country with relatively high smoking rates and whose government has tried to curb cigarette use in recent years.

These proposed guidelines aim to build upon the existing 2009 laws that set out to reduce exposure to second-hand smoke in public places, workplaces, and public transport stops.

While these guidelines are not legally binding, they provide a framework for member states to follow in their efforts to combat tobacco-related cancer. The Commission reports that the implementation of the 2009 guidelines has already shown a decrease in tobacco exposure in the first few years, international media outlet Euronews reports.

In the past couple of years, Czechia has taken sizable steps to discourage smoking – of both traditional and electronic cigarettes. For example, in October 2023 the country banned the sale of flavored heated tobacco, in accordance with a European directive. 

Previously, various flavors were already prohibited in traditional cigarettes – now, this ban applies to heated tobacco products in Czechia. Tobacco companies argued that flavored tobacco products were popular among users, and pointed to the U.S. experience with a similar ban, where some people switched back to regular cigarettes.

In early 2023, the Czech Senate approved a ban on the sale of nicotine sachets, otherwise known as pouches, to those under the age of 18. In November 2022, that state passed a decree that regulates the type of packing used for the sachets in a bid to make them less attractive.

The Czech Ministry of Health announced in August this year that it is taking steps to regulate electronic cigarettes, specifically flavored e-cigarettes, also known as vaporizers. These devices, which heat a liquid instead of burning tobacco, are said to be attracting non-smokers, including children, with their wide range of appealing flavors such as melon, cola, and cotton candy.

According to Matyáš Fošum, director of the Ministry of Health's Department of Public Health Protection, the goal is to create an electronic cigarette that tastes like traditional tobacco.

Eva Králíková, a professor of medicine at Charles University in Prague, told Euronews that the number of smokers remains high in the Czech Republic – around 25 percent of the population – due to a lack of basic tobacco-control policies.

"We need plain packaging. We don't have it. We need to sell it in special shops with permission like tobacco shops, because the majority of Czech cigarettes are sold together with food. It should not be [like this]. Also, we need the price to be about twice as high as it is now compared to the income 20 to 30 years ago,” she said.

Smoking in indoor public spaces, such as restaurants, has been illegal in Czechia since 2017.

"I appeal to mothers and fathers, to help us explain to children and teenagers that nicotine is a poison, quickly causes addiction, and promotes the development of cancer, even if [young people] get it into their bodies with a seemingly harmless electronic cigarette or a flavored nicotine pouch," said Minister of Health Vlastimil Válek earlier this year.

The revised EU guidelines are part of the Commission’s larger Beating Cancer Plan, which aims to achieve a "tobacco-free generation" by 2040, to cut tobacco use by 30 percent by 2025, and to see the share of the EU population smoking cut to just 5 percent.