The Evolving EU Regulatory Landscape

Moderator Karl Erik Lund, PhD, Senior Researcher, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Norway, opened the proceedings with his introductory thoughts on the legitimacy of nicotine regulations. The academic has almost 40 years’ experience on tobacco control and tobacco research in government agencies.

Lund highlighted some of the dilemmas regulators face when crafting nicotine policy. Regulators must determine the line between an ethically justified interference and the exaggerated infringement of the users right to “live as they choose” as informed individuals. There is a belief that people are not informed, they are not aware of the risks.

Dr Lund presented the findings of a Norwegian study which identified three types of nicotine users who display distinct behaviour when it comes to changing their smoking habits: 

1. The ones that continue to use against their discomfort and knowledge of risks, who are receptive of restrictive measures and best placed to quit smoking 
2. The ambivalent users, whose behaviour fluctuates often and is unpredictable
3. The users who, while being aware of the risks, do not wish to quit their habit and will not easily comply with restrictions by regulators

Finally, Dr Lund concluded, it is often seen that the evidence presented by research is mainly intended to provide a legitimising and moral basis for the measures that governments and regulators have already decided to promote. In this way, we end up with policy-based evidence rather than evidence-based policies.

Speaking as a consumer, Damian Sweeney, a founding member of the consumer advocacy association the New Nicotine Alliance Ireland (NNA Ireland) and a partner with the European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (ETHRA), expounded on what consumers need from regulators.

Damian discussed the current EU policy around safer nicotine products and how that relates to consumers. Sweeney also discussed the implications of the Tobacco Excise Directive and the Tobacco Products Directive, highlighting a focus on youth risks over harm reduction opportunities. He expressed concerns about potential flavour bans and nicotine content restrictions, arguing that these could impede smokers' transitions to safer alternatives.

Sweeney advocated for a smoke-free target rather than a tobacco-free one (which is the EU’s Beating Cancer policy target), emphasising that combustion is the primary cause of cancer. He shared personal experiences to illustrate the importance of flavours in smoking cessation, the need for wide choice of nicotine products and affordability in encouraging smokers to switch to safer alternatives. He warned that restrictive policies might lead to increased black-market activity, to the use of self-made products (such as mixes for vaping) that can be dangerous, and eventually back to tobacco smoking. Sweeney called for greater consumer involvement in policymaking through joining existing associations or creating new.

Addressing what can and should be done, Clive Bates, Director of Counterfactual, provided a historical context for tobacco control, noting that many strategies from the 1990s are now outdated. He pointed out the significant health consequences of tobacco use and pointed out that its impact is comparable to that of the COVID-19 pandemic, killing 700,000 people in EU every year. He discussed the EU's ambitious goal of reducing adult tobacco use to less than 5% by 2040 and said that it’s unlikely to be achieved without reevaluating current strategies.

A recording of the webcast can be viewed on SCOHRE’s YouTube channel.

References:

• The International Association on Smoking Control & Harm Reduction - https://www.scohre.org/

Photo Credit:

• Photo by Chris Montgomery on Unsplash

Dave Cross

Journalist at POTV

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Dave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.