International health experts have condemned a move by eight European nations to impose an EU-wide freeze on new nicotine alternatives as “a dangerous and misinformed attempt to export their own failures” at tobacco control.
The countries calling for the ban have daily smoking rates up to almost EIGHT times higher than Sweden’s, where a pragmatic approach to safer alternatives to cigarettes has helped bring smoking below the internationally recognised 5% smoke-free threshold.
In a joint letter to the European Commission, the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, France, Hungary, Latvia, Slovenia and Spain demand a freeze on new nicotine products and devices entering the market. They also call for broad flavour bans and for all permitted tobacco and nicotine products to be regulated to the same extent, regardless of the differences in risk they pose.
Dr Delon Human, leader of Smoke Free Sweden, said: “This is a dangerous and misinformed attempt to export their own failures across Europe. Governments with substantially higher smoking rates are asking Brussels to restrict the options available to smokers in countries that have achieved far greater progress.
“Sweden has shown what is possible when smokers have access to affordable, acceptable alternatives to cigarettes. Europe should be examining that success and expanding the opportunities to save lives.”
The latest Eurobarometer figures put daily smoking at 20.6% across the EU, compared with Sweden’s 3.7% recorded by CAN in 2025. Among the signatories, rates range from 8.4% in the Netherlands to 27.7% in Latvia. France records 22.7%, Hungary 22.1% and Spain 21.8%.
Sweden now has the lowest rates of tobacco-related disease in the EU, with male lung cancer deaths 61% lower than the EU average.
The letter’s dismissal of reduced-risk claims contradicts the latest research by Cochrane, the global gold standard of scientific evidence.
Cochrane found “high-certainty” evidence that nicotine e-cigarettes help people quit smoking more effectively than nicotine replacement therapy products, such as patches and gum, which are on the WHO’s list of essential medicines.
Dr Human, a former secretary-general of the World Medical Association, said:
“These governments cannot make the scientific evidence disappear simply by dismissing it. Cochrane, one of the world’s most respected medical research organisations, has established that nicotine vapes improve smokers’ chances of quitting.
“A blanket market freeze would reject future alternatives before their evidence could even be assessed. It is the epitome of anti-science and risks shutting the door on innovations that could help more adults escape cigarettes.
“The Commission should judge tobacco control by reductions in smoking, disease and premature death. Counting bans tells us nothing about lives saved.”
The letter follows a move by Swedish MPs to ensure the Commission acknowledges the beneficial role of nicotine pouches as they update EU rules on tobacco control.
A question for a written answer submitted by Beatrice Timgren (ECR), Charlie Weimers (ECR) and Dick Erixon (ECR) asks: “In its revision of the Tobacco Products Directive, will the Commission ensure that measures concerning nicotine pouches are proportionate to their health risk relative to cigarette smoking and take into account their potential role in helping smokers switch from cigarettes?”
