Tobacco regulations

Since the late 70s, the Belgian authorities have been enacting laws and decrees to protect consumer health and combat the harmful effects of smoking, particularly among young people.

Since 2009, legal texts  prohibit smoking in schools, public places and workplaces. These texts also set out a whole series of recommendations for smoking prevention.

Recently, Belgian regulations included a paragraph stipulating thatelectronic cigarettes should be banned from workplaces in the same way as cigarettes.

At international level, a framework convention signed by the World Health Organization in May 2003 constitutes the first legal instrument under international law on the increasingly uncontroversial subject of smoking.
European anti-smoking policies are not to be outdone. By adopting legislative measures to prevent and limit smoking, the European Community aims to play a pioneering role in this field, particularly with regard to passive smoking.
National and regional measures taken in Belgium, whether at federal level, in the French Community or in the Walloon region, are part of these multiple institutional plans and propose concrete awareness-raising and training actions against this type of addiction. A growing number of resources (brochures, tobacco-stop line 0800 111 00, etc.) are aimed at target groups such as young people at school and university