Why the Ministry of Health excludes plain packaging from the anti-smoking law and goes against scientific societies

The Ministry of Health plans to present the reform of the anti-smoking law to the next Council of Ministers , which will be held on Tuesday, September 9. It is expected to include measures such as a ban on smoking on terraces and stricter regulations for e-cigarettes, while sources from the ministry led by Mónica García confirm to El Confidencial that, for the time being, plain packaging will be excluded from the text due to the lack of agreement within the coalition government.

Plain packaging would mean the disappearance of brands and a uniform, single-color appearance, intended to make them less attractive and discourage young people from consuming them. However, there are reports warning that this measure increases the black market and reduces tax collection, a matter that falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Finance. Although it is not included in the first draft, the Ministry of Health "has not ruled out" introducing it during the parliamentary process.

The government's dissenting side fears that the measure will lead to an increase in counterfeiting, which will harm revenue. For now, under current packaging conditions, it is estimated that 1.4 billion illegal cigarettes were consumed in Spain in 2024, representing 3.3% of the total market . These figures translated into a loss to the public coffers of €263 million , according to a KPMG report.

Those fears became reality in France , where plain packaging has been in place since 2017. While the measure, accompanied by a sharp price increase, did manage to slightly reduce the number of smokers, at the same time, the consumption of counterfeit tobacco grew substantially. In fact, our French neighbor is the European country with the highest percentage of illicit trade, accounting for 38% of all contraband in the EU last year. In Spain, especially the Treasury, does not want to be drawn into this economic drift .

Anger in the healthcare world

For the Spanish Society of Pulmonology and Thoracic Surgery (SEPAR), the assessment of this anti-smoking law is "very negative." "It's yet another disappointment," Carlos Andrés Jiménez Ruiz , a pulmonologist in the Smoking Department at SEPAR, told this newspaper. Regarding the withdrawal of plain packaging, he believes it has proven "effective" in preventing people from starting to smoke and in getting more smokers to consider quitting: "Removing the measure will have a significant impact on both of these aspects. Therefore, we urge the government not to repeal it; that way, they will have the support of SEPAR, scientific societies, and healthcare institutions."

The expert recalls that the government had already removed the measure that contemplated a tobacco price increase from the 2024-2027 National Tobacco Prevention and Control Plan , approved in 2024. The Ministry of Finance also intervened at the time, claiming that its inclusion would lead to " market stockpiling."

However, Jiménez Ruiz believes that health should always prevail. "It's been proven that there's a direct relationship between raising the price of packs and reducing the number of people starting to use e-cigarettes , especially among young people. There's a completely disproportionate increase in the number of people in this age group starting to smoke e-cigarettes," the expert adds.

He also explains that the Ministry of Health asked them for their opinion on the draft law . "We expressed the need to raise prices, implement plain packaging, and regulate advertising for new forms of tobacco consumption, just as is done with traditional tobacco. Publishing the law like this is a very important step backward in the field of smoking prevention," he maintains.

The Ministry of Health, on the other hand, has not contacted tobacco companies to develop the new regulations. Even so, as this newspaper reported this week , companies in the sector are strengthening their positions with former senior government officials . The latest hire is Philip Morris, which has hired Rubén Baz Vicente as Senior Manager of Institutional Relations. He was Undersecretary of Social Rights, Consumption, and the 2030 Agenda until last February.

Japan Tobacco International has also been authorized to hire Antonio José Olivera Herrera, who was Chief of Staff to the Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres . He held the position for just four months, until his resignation in April of this year. He was also authorized by the Transparency Office to join the Canary Islands Association of Tobacco Manufacturers , which represents manufacturers in the Atlantic archipelago.