Smoking prevalence, vaping laws, snus in Hungary

There has been an overall downwards trend for prevalence of current smokers in the general population in Hungary since 2006. 27% of Hungarians were current smokers in 2017, down from 36% in 2006. The prevalence reduced steadily during the period, with the exception of 2006-2009 where there was a 2% increase. These data come from the Eurobarometer surveys, the most recent of which was carried out in 2017. In the most recent survey a total of 27,901 respondents from different social and demographic groups were interviewed face-to-face at home, in their mother tongue, across all 28 of the EU countries. The sample for each country is representative, however the sample sizes are relatively small (e.g. most countries had just over 1000 participants, but for Italy, Malta and Lithuania the sample was around 500). Nevertheless, the Eurobarometer surveys are useful as they have estimates for smoking prevalence collected over a number of years which can show trends, as described here.

Hungary abides by the EU Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) (2014) and has added some extra regulations of its own. E-cigarettes can only be bought from tobacco shops; trading any e-cigarette product requires a license; and there is a total ban on flavoured e-liquids – all e-cigarette flavours apart from 'tobacco flavour' are banned. Vaping is prohibited anywhere where smoking is not allowed. Fines for breaking the laws are reportedly heavy e.g. up to $980 for vaping in a prohibited area, up to $9,800 for a business allowing vaping indoors, and $196,000 for selling products without a license. Cross-border sales are banned. The tax on nicotine-containing fluid is capped at 55 Forints (€0.18)

There are no comments specific to snus in Hungary in the database.

There are no comments specific to heated tobacco products in Hungary in the database.

There are no comments specific to nicotine replacement therapy in Hungary in the database.