TY - JOUR T1 - Worldwide news and comment JF - Tobacco Control JO - Tob Control SP - 595 LP - 596 DO - 10.1136/tc-2022-057659 VL - 31 IS - 5 AU - Karen Evans-Reeves AU - John Baker Y1 - 2022/09/01 UR - http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/31/5/595.abstract N2 - All articles written by Karen Evans-Reeves and John Baker unless otherwise attributed. Ideas and items for News Analysis should be sent to k.a.evans-reeves@bath.ac.ukEU considers flavour ban for heated tobacco productsThe European Commission has announced that it will consider a flavour ban for heated tobacco products (HTPs) for all 27 Member States of the European Union. Tobacco products, including HTPs with a characterising flavour or containing flavourings in any of their components would be prohibited. The announcement stated that the substantial increase in HTP consumption in many Member States warrants this intervention.At European Union level, between 2018 and 2020 there was an increase of over 2000% in sales volumes of HTPs, and as of 2020, HTPs accounted for approximately 3.51 % of the tobacco market.Flavour additives, including menthol are already prohibited for conventional cigarettes in the EU but not for HTPs and some other tobacco products such as cigarillos. Research evidence suggests that flavourings and additives such as menthol appeal to young people and are erroneously perceived as less harmful.The European Council will now consider the EU proposal. If approved, Member States are likely to be given many months to implement a ban.Canada publishes proposed regulations to require a health warning directly on every cigaretteOn 10 June 2022, Canada announced proposed regulations for its third round of picture warnings, together with a requirement for a health warning to appear on every cigarette, a world first. The draft regulations were subject to a 75-day consultation period, which ended on 25 August 2022. Final regulations are expected to be adopted in the first half of 2023, with the new warnings for cigarette packages and sticks to be implemented 180 days later at the manufacturer level, and 270 days later at the retail level.For the warnings on each cigarette, there will be two sets of 6 bilingual text warnings with black text on … ER -