The European Commission remains “cautious” toward novel tobacco and nicotine products while continuing to collect evidence about their impact on public health, according to a story by Sarantis Michalopoulos for EurActiv quoting a European Commission official.
Speaking on the side-lines of the European Health Forum in Gastein, Austria, Martin Seychell, deputy director-general for health and food safety, said the executive’s public health objective remained the same: the promotion of the idea that people should not become addicted in the first place – the prevention of addiction.
“Tobacco consumption still causes a lot of deaths, which would be easily preventable,” he was quoted as saying. “On novel tobacco products specifically, the legislation is very clear. We have adopted a cautious approach about these products.”
Michalopoulos said that electronic cigarettes and other novel tobacco products had emerged as alternatives to traditional smoking, which was responsible for nearly 700,000 deaths every year in the EU. The World Health Organization was in favor of stricter regulation of vaping, while the EU had adopted the precautionary approach in its Tobacco Products Directive.
EU Health Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis reportedly told EURACTIV that e-cigarettes were currently known for being “less damaging” than traditional smoking but that they still caused harm and people should not use them to cut smoking.
Dis-precautionary principle
