Lidl Nederland will be the first supermarket to stop selling cigarettes. The chain announced that it will phase out sales until no more cigarettes are sold in Lidl Nederland stores by 2022 at the latest, ANP reports.
According to the supermarket chain, the sales figures for cigarettes declined over the past years and cigarette sales are no longer profitable. But Lidl also took measures to discourage the sale of smoking products, like placing all cigarettes out of sight in stores last year.
With the new year starting, the Dutch government is implementing a number of new laws and changing some existing ones. Below is an explanation of changes to the law applying to consumers.
The Dutch government is expanding its anti-smoking policy, State Secretary Martin van Rijn of Public Health informed parliament on Wednesday. From 2020 supermarkets may no longer display cigarettes and tobacco products, with other retailers following two years later. Cigarette vending machines will also be banned in restaurants and bars.
The Dutch government is working on a legislative proposal to ban the visible display of tobacco products, State Secretary Martin van Rijn of Public Health informed parliament, ANP reports.
Van Rijn gave the involved industry associations until December 15th to come up with an alternative, but their plans were inadequate. According to Van Rijn, the organizations did not go far enough with their plans.
A majority in Dutch parliament passed a motion calling for a ban on displaying cigarettes and tobacos in every supermarket. The motion by PvdA parliamentarian Marith Volp also includes a deadline of enforcing this measure by December 1st, AD reports.
According to the motion, reducing the tobacco addiction is so important that tobacco products should be hidden from view, especially in places children and young people frequent.
Tobacco companies will soon no longer be allowed to sell cigarette packets in the Netherlands that have decorative elements on them, State Secretary Martin van Rijn of Public Health announced on Tuesday.
In an open letter on their website on Thursday, doctors' association KNMG called for a ban on selling tobacco and cigarettes in supermarkets, gas station stores, bookstores and drug stores.
The police released video footage of two armed men robbing an Albert Heijn store on Pieter Calandlaan in Amsterdam Osdorp on January 13th. They hope that information from the public may help lead to an arrest.
The majority of Dutch citizens - 57 percent - want cigarettes to not be visible in stores, according to a survey by TNS NIPO. Store owners are already required to keep tobacco out of sight in Canada, Ireland and England.
State Secretary Martin van Rijn of Health is putting in extra effort to get all school grounds smoke-free and to prevent young people from smoking.
Within a year the packaging of cigarettes and tobacco must consist of at least 65 percent of warning texts and pictures of all kinds of distasteful conditions that you get from smoking. There must also be an age restriction of 18 years for the sale of electronic cigarettes.
The Foundation Youth Smoking Prevention (Rookpreventie Jeugd) is suing the Dutch government because of their existing relationship with the tobacco industry. The government will be informed of the summons today or tomorrow, AD.nl reports.
According to research into alcohol usage amongst teenagers aged between 11 and 16 years of age in The Netherlands, there appears to have occurred a "spectacular" shift over the last ten years, with the binge drinking trend seemingly remaining in the past, Het Parool reports.
Half of the youth younger than 16, who bought cigarettes in 2013 was never asked for their ID, as evidenced by a survey of TNS-NIPO, one of the oldest market research agencies in the Netherlands.
Amsterdammers drink more, smoke more cigarettes, and use more marijuana and hashish than anywhere else in the Netherlands, according to a new report by community health services organization GGD. 7,200 adults were included in the 2012 survey, which revealed that 11 percent also have feelings of deep loneliness, nearly triple the rate shown in 2000.
The round-up of some of this week’s most noteworthy events and news stories features: €400,000 euro found inside women smugglers, a nude parade through downtown Amsterdam for World Diabetes Day, Photo Show Human Side of Breast Cancer, Joran van der Sloot wants new trial, and Amsterdam coin minter busted
Cigarettes in the Netherlands now cost as twice as they did ten years ago due to rising taxes, according to Dutch statistics bureau CBS.
