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Spain's government on Tuesday approved a decree that bans the sale of flavored heated tobacco products as part of efforts to discourage tobacco use, the health ministry said.

Heated tobacco products, or HTPs, use a high heat to release nicotine from tobacco leaves via a process called pyrolysis, which does not set it on fire or burn it, therefore avoiding creating smoke.

The increasingly popular alternative to conventional tobacco is often confused with e-cigarettes, which heat liquid that can contain nicotine but do not involve tobacco leaf.

The decree also requires the packaging of heated tobacco products to display the same health warnings as other tobacco products, the health ministry said in a statement.

The use of flavors in other tobacco products such as cigarette filters and rolling papers is also banned by the decree.

While smoking rates in Spain have declined significantly in recent decades, the number of regular smokers remains high.

Around one in four adults in Spain (26 percent) use tobacco daily, according to the World Health Organization's latest figures, compared to the global average of 22.3 percent.

© 2024 AFP