Plain packaging and usage restrictions among Dutch plans for e-cigs

The Dutch government is proposing to insist on plain packaging for e-cigarette products from 2022. That is one of the startling measures proposed in the long-awaited National Prevention Agreement (Nationaal Preventieakkoord), which has finally been presented by health secretary Paul Blokhuis and which aims to make the Netherlands smoke-free by 2040.

The agreement, which takes on obesity, alcohol abuse and smoking, also proposes extending the current ban on smoking in certain places to all vaping products – with or without nicotine – from 2020.

This means that along with traditional tobacco, e-cigarettes will be banned from schools, playgrounds, sports clubs, hospitals, health care institutions, swimming pools and nurseries.