Cigarette

More than 128 tons of illegal tobacco and tobacco products worth an estimated 5.5 million euros were seized in a wide-scale operation spanning three regions of the country, the Greek Police (ELAS) said Friday.

In July, customs officers from the Directorate of Customs Intelligence and Investigation and the Southern Maritime Territorial Directorate detained 1,280,000 pieces / 64,000 boxes / duty-free cigarettes, 102 kg of smoking tobacco and 51 kg of hookah tobacco.

Electronic cigarettes are "undoubtedly harmful" and should be regulated, the WHO said. It also warned against the use of vaping products by smokers trying to quit their deadly habit. 

Trillion cigarette butts are thrown globally every year, but they do not decompose and they do interfere with plant growth, according to Independent.

The presence of butts reduces clover sprouting by 27% and stems by 28%. The weight of the roots is less by 57%.

The largest illegal cigarette manufacturing factory was discovered yesterday near Plovdiv. 11 from the workers were arrested - Moldovans and Ukrainians. According to preliminary estimates, the factory has incurred budget losses between 15 and 20 million BGN per month. The discovered factory is close to another smaller one where the cigarette tobacco for the illegal cigarettes was cut.

Smuggled cigarettes on the Bulgarian market fell to 3.8% in the first quarter of 2019. This is a record compared to 2010 when surveys began and showed a 34.5% share of illegal cigarettes.

The presentation of the study is attended by Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, Chief Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov and the Interior Minister.

San Francisco intends to become the first American city to ban the sale of electronic cigarettes. The measure is part of the effort to reduce smoking among young people.

Greece has the highest rate of contraband cigarettes in the European Union, which cost the state coffers 690 million euros in revenues last year, as KPMG's "Stella Report," commissioned by Philip Morris International, reveals.

A decade after the introduction of a general ban on smoking in enclosed public places in Greece, the country still lags behind other nations in the effort to restrict the addictive habit, the Hellenic Cancer Society (HCS) said on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day 2019 on Friday.

In 2017, more than 487 billion cigarettes were produced in the European Union - 40 billion less compared to the previous year, according to Eurostat data published today on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day, BNR reported.

2017 Production's worth is about € 4.9 billion, which is with € 1.3 billion less than 2016.