Germany is the only country in the EU where cigarette manufacturers are allowed to promote their products. As already Minister of Health Jens Spahn and Chancellor Angela Merkel, the new Federal Drug Commissioner Daniela Ludwig (CSU) has now spoken in favor of a ban on outdoor advertising for smoking bans of any kind - even for e-cigarettes.
"I call for a ban on advertising for all smoke products - whether conventional cigarette, e-cigarette, evaporator or heater, whether with tobacco and nicotine or without," she told the newspapers of the editorial network Germany (RND). Necessary until the end of the year is a clear "rule that leaves no loopholes".
In the Union in particular, a comprehensive tobacco advertising ban is controversial. In the past legislative period, a call for an outdoor advertising ban to contradict the Union had failed. The Cabinet agreed in 2016, although a draft bill tobacco advertising on billboards and in the cinema from 2020 largely prohibit. The law was never decided.
At the beginning of this year, there was a movement in the deadlock debate. The specialized politicians of the Union in the Bundestag largely agreed that the existing restrictions should also be extended to out-of-home advertising.
Advertising is aimed at teenagers
Ludwig is particularly concerned about the protection of minors: She does not want to talk small that e-cigarettes could help adults get away from the conventional cigarette, said the CSU politician. "But we must not let adolescents be seduced to steam." If the tobacco industry advertises with liquids that are like chewing gum and popcorn, "then it's clear that it's not for the adult who wants to change." This is about addressing young people.
Electric cigarettes, in which nicotine-containing liquid is vaporized, have gained enormous popularity in recent years worldwide. Recently, however, a number of lung diseases and deaths have been associated with smoking of e-cigarettes in the US. However, the products in the US are not as tightly regulated as in the US.
According to German experts, e-cigarettes are less harmful than traditional cigarettes. (Read more about the risks of e-cigarettes here).