European regulators close in on Big Tobacco’s new tea sticks

European governments are weighing the introduction of tougher rules on cigarette makers' new zero-tobacco heat sticks, moving to close the loopholes they were designed to exploit just months after their launch.

Big tobacco companies including Philip Morris International and British American Tobacco  announced the launch of the sticks, made from nicotine-infused substances like rooibos tea, late last year as a way to counter an incoming European Union ban on flavored heated tobacco products.

The European Commission said it was currently evaluating EU tobacco laws and any changes would be subject to the findings of that effort, public consultation and an impact assessment.

But, already, authorities in Latvia, Lithuania and Croatia are looking to introduce stronger regulations to govern the products, officials from the three countries told Reuters.

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