EU exert more pressure

The EU Parliament have banned the use of mercury in manufacturing so that it cannot enter the food chain article 1 and article 2. As a result Britain's small but historic barometer manufacturing industry will die. This industry did receive a reprieve last year but Lord Rooker (the relevant Labour minister) decided not to make stand. The problem of mercury in barometers must be huge if it must be banned, well no it isn't; according to the British Barometer Makers Association "300 tons of the liquid metal used in the EU every year less than 30 kilos was used to make new barometers in the UK" - a strange mix of Metric and Imperial measurements there, unless they mean a tonne. Either way that's around 0.2%.
So a British industry dies because the EU say it's dangerous. Is it as dangerous as tobacco? I just wondered as the EU subsidise the European tobacco industry to the tune of €920million.