Valvira and the tobacco industry
Finland ratified the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2005. According to the Framework Convention, the parties must protect public health policy and anti-tobacco legislation from the tobacco industry’s interests.
The execution guidelines for the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control state that there is a fundamental and irreconcilable difference between the interests of the tobacco industry and public health targets. For this reason, any activities or interactions with the tobacco industry must be limited, responsible, and transparent.
Valvira tasks and interactions with the tobacco industry
According to the Tobacco Act, Valvira monitors
- the regulatory compliance of tobacco products, electronic cigarettes, refill tanks, nicotine liquids, nicotine-free liquids for vaporisation and herbal products for smoking, regarding their ingredients, quality, fire safety and technical characteristics
- the regulatory compliance of retail packages as stated in section 1
- the marketing of tobacco products, as stated in the Tobacco Act, in all of Finland
- the regulatory compliance of verification laboratories.
Given its monitoring tasks, Valvira’s interaction with the tobacco and electronic cigarette industry is necessary and unavoidable in certain situations. Minutes must be prepared of all meetings between Valvira and the industry. To ensure transparency, these minutes will be published on this web page.