The tasks of the Tobacco Coordination Office include

• Planning of the legally required monitoring and control of tobacco and related products according to the specifications of the Ministry of Health, including further arrangements and documentation of results;
• Monitoring and sampling of tobacco and related products on the market, within the scope of the respective annual inspection plan or in case of need, by specially trained bodies of the agency;
• Examination, analysis, appraisal and risk assessment of tobacco and related products, including the monitoring of reporting by manufacturers or importers, as well as the control and evaluation of reporting data;
• Preparation of correspondence with authorities, trading companies and commercial enterprises, in particular in the case of findings of defects in tobacco and related products, including preparation of the initiation of administrative penal proceedings and their documentation;
• Co-supervision of the rapid alert, communication and information systems, in particular the interfaces to RAPEX, IRASFF, ICSMS, EWS/EBDD and the “Poison Control Centre of Gesundheit Österreich GmbH” as far as tobacco and related products are concerned;
• Technical and legal processing of submissions and enquiries by authorities, business representatives, interest groups, international organisations and persons of the general public, in preparation for the handling of the submissions and enquiries by the Minister of Health as the competent authority.
• Technical and organisational matters of the flat-rate annual fees pursuant to the TNRSG in connection with the determination of a cost-covering annual fee for the surveillance of tobacco products and for the approval of novel tobacco products, including the performance of the annual evaluation.
• Technical evaluation within the framework of the approval of novel tobacco products in connection with the regulation of the Ministry of Health regarding the approval of novel tobacco products.
• Technical tasks of the survey of tobacco product ingredients according to the Tobacco Product Ingredients Survey Ordinance.
• Publication of technical information on tobacco and related products;
• Preparation of technical reports, expert opinions, evaluations and statements on tobacco and related products;
• Participation in national and international projects and working groups in the field.

Office for Tobacco Coordination

• E-mail:
  tabak@ages.at
• Phone:
  +43 5 0555-25614
  or
  +43 5 0555-34837
• Address:
  Spargelfeldstraße 191
  1220 Vienna