Cigarettes go up in price, number of sales points shrink

Photo: DutchNews.nl
Photo: DutchNews.nl

The price of a packet of cigarettes or rolling tobacco goes up on Wednesday as the government brings in more measures to stamp out smoking.

A packet of cigarettes will cost €1 more, taking the price to around €8.20 depending on the brand. The price of rolling tobacco will rise by  €2.40.

At the same time, smoking will be banned throughout Schiphol airport from today and Dutch railway company NS says it will ensure all platforms are smoke free by October. NS is also reducing the number of shops at stations which sell tobacco products.

Some 22% of the Dutch population still smoke and 35,000 people in the Netherlands a year die from the effects of smoking, being overweight or problem drinking.

The Nationaal Preventieakkoord, a government prevention programme, aims to bring back the number of smokers and problem drinkers to 5% and the number of overweight people to 38% by 2040.

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