Tag: European Union

EU Parliament Endorses Harm Reduction

Photo: VanderWolf Images
The EU Parliament has adopted, by a margin of 652 votes to 15, a report on Cancer prevention and Treatment that recognizes the potential contribution of vapor products to smoking cessation. The report notes that “electronic cigarettes could allow some smokers to progressively quit smoking.”
In adopting the report, the EU Parliament has become the world’s first elected chamber to endorse tobacco harm reduction, according to the Independent European Vape Association (IEVA).
“This is a landmark declaration by the European Parliament, which should go a long way to reassuring smokers of the health benefits that a switch to vaping can bring,” said IEVA President Dustin Dahlmann in a statement. “We now encourage the other EU institutions—and in particular, the European Commission—to take this on board and ensure that policy follows science, not the other way around.”
In addition to measures to reduce cancer incidence, the committee’s report places a special focus on the serious health effects of smoking.
The report also stresses the need for further research on vaping to be viewed in relative terms, given that tobacco smoking kills and vaping does not.
The final text of the report also includes a mention of further assessment of flavors “particularly attractive to minors and non-smokers” and a possible ban on them in the context of the review of the Tobacco Products Directive.
The IEVA says its crucial to avoid a flavor ban because the variety of flavors is one of the top reasons for adult smokers to switch to e-cigarettes and for vapers not to return to smoking.
“Research into the impact of flavor bans shows that many vapers return to smoking as a result [of a ban],” said Dahlmann. “This must be prevented. We agree that steps must be taken to curtail inappropriate marketing, while recognizing the crucial role flavors play in helping smokers quit.”

February 18, 2022
Immunity Waiver Clears Path for Dalli Trial

Photo: Kirill Ryzhov
The European Commission waived John Dalli’s immunity from prosecution, allowing the court case against him to begin, reports The Independent.
“The commission can confirm that, on the request of the attorney general of Malta, the commission has waived the immunity of former Commissioner John Dalli,” a European Commission spokesperson said.
Dalli’s aide Silvio Zammit allegedly tried to obtain a €60 million ($71.17 million) bribe from Swedish Match to reverse the EU ban on snus (the company rejected the offer as improper and reported it to the European Commission). Dalli was the European commissioner for health at the time, in charge of managing reforms to the EU’s tobacco rules.
The European Commission forced Dalli to quit in 2012 due to the scandal after the EU’s anti-fraud office uncovered the bribery attempt. Zammit was charged in December 2012 for trading influence and complicity in the request.
Dalli insists the case is an orchestrated scheme created the “corrupt” media.
The case is set to begin on Dec. 21.
December 15, 2021
IEVA: Risk of EU Flavor Ban Remains

Dustin Dahlmann (Photo: IEVA)
The Independent European Vape Alliance (IEVA) welcomed the decision of MEPs to recognize tobacco harm reduction as a tool in beating cancer; but remains concerned that the report approved today by the European Parliament leaves the door open to a flavor ban in the EU.
The Special Committee on Beating Cancer (BECA) recently voted on the amendments and the draft of the Beating Cancer report by Rapporteur Véronique Trillet-Lenoir. The authors of the report identify smoking as one of the main causes of cancer and IEVA agrees that everything should be done to significantly reduce the smoking rate in Europe.
“There is little scientific doubt that tobacco harm reduction is a key tool in achieving this goal,” the IEVA wrote in a press note. “Even those skeptical of tobacco harm reduction concede that vaping is many orders of magnitude less harmful than continuing to smoke. According to Public Health England, e-cigarettes are 95 percent less harmful than tobacco and the risk of cancer drops by 99.6 percent.”
The reports’ compromise amendment on vaping includes the recognition of vaping as a tool to help some smokers quit smoking and the need for further research on vaping to be done in relative terms (i.e. in comparison to combustible tobacco).
But the final text of the report also includes a mention of further assessment of flavors “particularly attractive to minors and non-smokers” and a possible ban on them in the context of the review of the Tobacco Products Directive.
“European Parliament reports like this are necessarily a compromise,” said IEVA President Dustin Dahlmann. “IEVA notes that the variety of flavors is one of the most important reasons for smokers to switch to e-cigarettes and for vapers not to go back to smoking. A ban on flavors would eliminate one of the main advantages of the e-cigarette over the tobacco cigarette—an improved taste.”
“We also see that the importance of the e-cigarette for quitting smoking is recognized and that the risks of vaping are planned to be assessed even more in relation to the risks of smoking in the future. This approach must be pursued, and not undermined by banning most products on the market today.”
December 10, 2021
Knowledge of E-Cigs Key to EU Support

Photo: VanderWolf Images
Members of the European Parliament are much more likely to recognize the reduced risk of e-cigarettes and other novel nicotine products if they have some knowledge of the subject, new research reveals.
A survey conducted by ECigIntelligence and TobaccoIntelligence found that 70 percent of MEPs with some knowledge of e-cigarettes considered them less harmful than smoking, against just 41 percent of MEPs with no knowledge of the topic.
“When it comes to politicians’ perceptions of new nicotine products, accurate information appears to make all the difference,” said Tim Phillips, managing director of ECigIntelligence and TobaccoIntelligence, in a statement. “The MEPs with knowledge of these products generally realize that they carry less risk than smoking—but those lacking knowledge often don’t understand that. The implications for policy across Europe are clear.”

When it comes to politicians’ perceptions of new nicotine products, accurate information appears to make all the difference.
Tim Phillips, managing director, ECigIntelligence
The difference in MEPs’ attitudes was even more pronounced with two other new types of product, heated tobacco and nicotine pouches.
For heated tobacco, 74 percent of MEPs with some knowledge considered it less harmful than smoking, but only 32 percent of those lacking knowledge agreed.
And for nicotine pouches, almost all MEPs with knowledge of the products – 94 percent – considered them less harmful than smoking, but among those with no knowledge the figure fell to 26 percent.
The findings broadly demonstrate a similar trend from a previous survey of MEPs undertaken by ECigIntelligence and TobaccoIntelligence last year.

December 1, 2021
Critics: TPD Proposals Would Ban Most Vapes

Photo: areporter
The Independent European Vape Alliance (IEVA) has expressed concern about “the content and the tone” of the European Commission’s recent report on the application of the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD), which suggests that further restrictions on vapers might be proposed.
According to the IEVA, the effect of the commission’s proposals would be to ban most vaping products on the market today.
“While the commission is careful not to say it out loud, its proposals would effectively ban most vaping products available today,” the organization wrote in a press release. “It suggests revising all the unjustifiable limits the last TPD set downward, removing most flavors and banning many of the devices commonly used today. Vapers in the EU would lose most of the products they use to stay away from cigarettes today. A flavor ban alone would, according to the commission’s own figures, remove two-thirds of today’s vaping market.”
The IEVA says the report fails to acknowledge the concept of harm reduction. “The report fails to acknowledge any of the evidence on the relative risks of vaping and smoking,” the IEVA wrote. “This is despite member state governments running campaigns trying to encourage smokers to switch to vaping. Sante Publique France, for example, has launched an anti-smoking campaign called ‘Je choisis la vapotage’ (‘I choose vaping’), which makes clear that ‘you can use vaping products without taking short-term health risks.’ The commission must take account of best practice in the EU, not ignore it.”
Some of the report’s proposals on vaping, says the IEVA, could also lead to more young people smoking.
“Shortly after this report was published, Yale University released the first real world study on the effect of flavor bans on youth smoking prevalence,” the IEVA stated. “In the city of San Francisco, flavored vaping products were banned in 2018. Since then, smoking has doubled among high school students in the area relative to trends in districts without the ban, even when adjusting for individual demographics and other tobacco policies. This study was funded by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products. There was no industry involvement in the study.”
The IEVA says the report insufficiently focuses on the real enemy of public health—smoking. “While the commission does question whether the nicotine threshold for vaping products should be lower, it has brushed aside calls from members of the European Parliament to adapt the method for measuring tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide levels in cigarette smoke,” the IEVA wrote. “This combination of policies would ensure that cigarettes deliver far more nicotine—an addictive substance—than vaping products. While there have been no reported deaths in Europe caused by vaping TPD-regulated products, smoking kills half of its regular users.”
June 7, 2021
Commission Evaluates EU Tobacco Directive

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The EU Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) has helped protect the health of European citizens, but there is room for improvement, according to a report released by the European Commission on May 20.
While lauding the decreases in EU smoking rates since the current directive took effect in 2016, the report argues for stronger enforcement at the national level and better consideration of new market developments, such as novel tobacco products.
“With Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, we are proposing bold and ambitious actions to reduce the use of tobacco. We have set a very clear objective—to create a tobacco-free generation in Europe, where less than 5 percent of people use tobacco by 2040,” said Stella Kyriakides, commissioner for health and food safety.
“This means enforcing EU tobacco legislation more strictly and helping it keep pace with new developments. EU legislation on tobacco has clearly had a positive impact on smoking rates in the EU, but to meet our target, we must set our sights higher. The upcoming reviewing of the Tobacco Products Directive will be an important part of this work.”
With 27 percent of all cancers attributed to its use, tobacco is the single largest avoidable health risk in the EU, according to the European Commission. Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan aims at creating a “tobacco-free generation” by 2040.

EU legislation on tobacco has clearly had a positive impact on smoking rates in the EU, but to meet our target, we must set our sights higher.
Stella Kyriakides, commissioner for health and food safety
The TPD has put in place comprehensive EU tobacco control policy rules, notably through enlarged combined health warnings, a track-and-trace system, a ban on characterizing flavors, the creation of an ingredients database and the regulation of electronic cigarettes. It has also contributed to the improvement of public health through a decrease in tobacco consumption. The report also concludes that, due to market developments, there is scope for improvement in certain essential areas, such as labeling, assessment of ingredients, cross-border distance sales and novel and emerging products.
Adopted in 2014, and applicable for most of its provision as of May 2016, the TPD concerns the manufacture, presentation and sale of tobacco and related products and aims at facilitating smooth functioning of the internal market, protecting people’s health—particularly of the youth—and meeting the EU obligations under the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
The May 20 report is supported, among others, by a study on consumer preference and perception of specific categories of tobacco and related products and a support study to the report on the application of the directive. It also draws on SCHEER’s opinion on electronic cigarettes and the most recent Eurobarometer survey on attitudes of Europeans toward tobacco and electronic cigarettes.
May 21, 2021
Critics: EU Committee Ignores Science
Photo: pavel_shishkin
The European Commission has missed an opportunity to bolster its Beating Cancer Plan and recognize the importance of vaping in reducing smoking-related diseases among Europeans, according to the Independent European Vape Alliance (IEVA).
A recent report from the Scientific Committee on Health, Environmental and Emerging Risks (SCHEER) fails to compare the risks of electronic cigarette use with the risks of smoking, the IEVA noted in a statement. “Such an omission renders the report of little use to policymakers,” it wrote. “An assessment of the impact e-cigarettes have had on European public health must be informed by this evidence.”
Independent and publicly funded scientific research has shown that e-cigarette use is far less harmful than smoking, according to the IEVA.
“The SCHEER committee has failed to present scientific data on vaping in a comprehensive and balanced manner,” said Dustin Dahlmann, president of the IEVA. “The result is a report that is little more than a series of baseless predetermined assertions. Another opportunity to educate smokers willing to switch to less harmful alternatives has been wasted, and this alone has serious public health implications. We urge decision-makers in Brussels to integrate harm reduction in their overall strategy.”

Another opportunity to educate smokers willing to switch to less harmful alternatives has been wasted.
Dustin Dahlmann, president, IEVA
An earlier draft of this report was put to public consultation in September 2020 and was widely criticized. Yet, the final report reiterates the core findings of the initial draft.
A comprehensive critique of this draft was published in the peer-reviewed Harm Reduction Journal. The authors assert that “the opinion’s conclusions are not adequately backed up by scientific evidence and did not discuss the potential health benefits of using alternative combustion-free nicotine-containing products as [a] substitute for tobacco cigarettes.”
The Harm Reduction Journal report recommends seven crucial areas that the committee should have considered to address this significant deficit, but SCHEER has decided not to do so. These were:
The potential health benefits of ENDS substitution for cigarette smoking;
Alternative hypotheses and contradictory studies on the gateway effect;
Its assessment of cardiovascular risk;
The measurements of frequency of use;
Non-nicotine use;
The role of flavors; and
A fulsome discussion of cessation.
Earlier this week, the World Vaper Alliance expressed similar concerns about the SHEER report.
May 3, 2021
Critics: Beating Cancer Plan Protects Tobacco

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Tobacco harm reduction activists have expressed concern about new measures proposed in the European Union’s recently published Beating Cancer Plan. According to the European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (ETHRA), the measures would make low-risk products such as e-cigarettes and smoke-free tobacco products less effective and attractive as alternatives to combustible cigarettes.
According to the ETHRA, the plan fails to make a distinction between harmful smoking products and smoke-free alternatives, and signals that the European Commission intends to turn its back on innovation and science by cracking down on vaping.
“The effect would be to protect the tobacco industry, reduce the number of Europeans quitting smoking by switching to low-risk alternatives, and add to the overall burden of cancer—exactly the opposite of the aim of Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan,” the ETHRA wrote in a letter to the European Parliament members on the Special Committee on Beating Cancer.
The ETHRA also expressed concern about plans to ban nontobacco flavors for e-liquids. “Such an approach is one step short of outright prohibition,” the organization wrote. “It will trigger a range of undesirable reactions among both vapers and smokers—including relapse to smoking among vapers, reduced switching among smokers, increased illicit activity and cross-border trade, workarounds, more home mixing, and the formation of informal, unregulated markets.”
According to the EHTRA, other proposed measured, such as taxes, public vaping bans and plain packaging would provide further regulatory protection of the cigarette category. “The plan fails to recognize the interaction between smoking and vaping and is naïve about the perverse consequence of the regulatory intervention,” the ETHRA wrote.
The Independent European Vape Alliance (IEVA), meanwhile, welcomed the EU Beating Cancer Plan but urged regulators to use all means at hand to minimize smoking rates.
“We welcome the EU Beating Cancer Plan,” said IEVA Chairman Dustin Dahlmann in a statement. “The strategy needs to consider all means available to reduce the burden of cancer related risks: It is of utmost importance that preventive measures are flanked by tobacco harm reduction. Otherwise, millions of smokers might miss the opportunity to tremendously reduce their risk of cancer.”
February 5, 2021
EU: Travelers Should Pay Duties at Home Rate

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The EU has suggested that consumers buying tobacco and alcohol across borders should pay the duties of their home states rather than the rate of the country in which the products are purchased, reports The Independent.
The EU is also considering mandatory or lower limits on the amount of alcohol and tobacco products that can be brought back from other EU countries for personal use. The proposed changes are meant to help governments recoup lost excise duties and protect public health.
“For both alcohol and tobacco products, the misuse of cross-border shopping rules for private individuals is a source of concern for several EU countries due to lost revenues and the negative impact on the effectiveness of national public health policies,” the European Commission said in the public consultation
The proposed rule would have the greatest impact on Ireland, which is one of the most expensive places in the EU to buy tobacco and alcohol. Northern Ireland too would be included in any future policy change as, under the 2019 Brexit deal, it mirrors EU rules on VAT and excise duties.
The EU public consultation on the issue will remain open until April 23, 2021
February 3, 2021
EU Urged to Embrace Risk-Based Taxation

Photo: Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
The EU should embrace a risk-proportionate tax system for tobacco-related products, according to the Independent European Vape Alliance (IEVA).
“Revising the current Tobacco Excise Directive presents an opportunity to apply the right incentives for current smokers to improve their health, ideally by stopping the use of nicotine altogether but also by switching to reduced-risk alternatives where this is impossible or unlikely for the individual smoker,” the IEVA wrote in its response to the EU excise duties roadmap.
“Vaping has been found to be significantly less carcinogenic than smoking and an acceptable replacement for cigarettes for many smokers. It follows that any policy designed to reduce cancer rates through prevention must focus on the needs of this particularly at-risk section of the population.”
The consultation period for the revision of excise duties is scheduled for the first quarter of 2021, and commission adoption is scheduled for the fourth quarter of the year.
The feedback period to the roadmap closed on Jan. 5.
January 6, 2021