Poland

Tobacco products: any products made of tobacco, like cigarettes, cigars, cigarillos, pipe tobacco, mahorka tobacco, and other containing tobacco or its components, excluding medicinal products containing tobacco.

Smokeless tobacco products: tobacco products for sniffing (snuff), sucking, chewing or other way of introducing tobacco to the body, excluding medicinal products containing tobacco.

Article 2 of the Protection of Health Act provides definitions of “tobacco products” (which applies to smoked tobacco products) and “smokeless tobacco products.” Together, these definitions align with and are broader than the definition of “tobacco product” contained in the FCTC in that they do not require tobacco leaf as a component. Specifically, the definition of “tobacco products” in the Act includes products that contain tobacco “or its constituents.” Thus, the Act’s definition includes products such as e-cigarettes (assuming the nicotine in the e-cigarettes on the market is extracted from tobacco).

The law does not contain a definition of “outside packaging and labeling.” A definition is not strictly necessary to interpret the law and regulations because the regulation uses the terms “unit packaging” and “bulk packaging,” rather than “outside packaging and labeling.” However, the law does not contain a definition of “unit packaging” or “bulk packaging” either. Failure to define this key term(s) may hinder enforcement of the provisions requiring health warnings on all unit and outside/bulk packaging.

To align with FCTC Art. 11 and the FCTC Art. 11 Guidelines, the law should contain a definition of “outside packaging and labeling,” or similar term, in accordance with the definition provided by the FCTC.