European Commission’s misguided asault on safer nicotine alternatives risks lives

STOCKHOLM –  International health experts have condemned the European Commission’s latest offensive against safer nicotine alternatives, calling it a “dangerous and misguided assault” on products that are helping millions of smokers to quit.

The move comes after Health Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi announced plans in Austria to hike taxes on vaping products to the same level as traditional cigarettes, while Tax Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra told POLITICO magazine that vaping is “killing kids”.

Dr. Delon Human, leader of Smoke Free Sweden, said: “The Commission’s rhetoric ignores overwhelming evidence that safer nicotine alternatives such as vaping and oral nicotine pouches are dramatically reducing smoking-related disease and death.

“Punitive taxation that treats harm-reduction products the same as cigarettes will only drive smokers back to the most lethal form of nicotine use, which is combustion.

“In the same way, misinformation and scaremongering about nicotine products misleads health professionals as well as consumers and threatens to block adults’ access to the tools that could save their lives.”

A new report, The Safer Nicotine Revolution, highlights how countries such as Sweden, which is on the verge of becoming the world’s first smoke-free nation, as well as the UK, Japan and New Zealand, have achieved historic declines in smoking by embracing risk-proportionate regulation and taxation.

By enabling adult smokers to switch to vapes, nicotine pouches or heated tobacco products, these countries are already recording measurable improvements in public health.

Dr. Human added: “There must be strict safeguards to prevent underage use of nicotine products. But public health policy must not sacrifice adult smokers in the process.

“The Commission should follow the science, not the politics, and adopt a risk-proportionate approach to regulation and taxation that reflects the vastly reduced harm of smoke-free alternatives. Encouraging smokers to switch to these safer products would trigger a public health revolution and pave the way for a smoke-free future.”