ETHRA write to EU Commission

The European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates told the Commission that it represents 27 million European consumers of safer nicotine products (SNPs), being a consortium of 24 grassroots consumer associations across 17 European countries, supported by experts in tobacco and nicotine science and policy. 

“We operate voluntarily, with no industry funding or conflicts of interest. Our transparency registration number is 354946837243-73,” it told them.

ETHRA stated: “We are writing to express our serious concerns regarding the comments made on February 6th during a meeting of the Subcommittee on Tax Matters in the European Parliament and the recent media coverage quoting excessive tax increases about to be adopted by European Legislation.

“Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra (Commissioner for Climate, Net Zero, Clean Growth and Taxation) made a very dangerous and concerning statement that ‘Smoking kills, vaping kills’. Such statements are extremely damaging to the understanding of the significantly lower risks of vaping and other safer nicotine products (such as heated tobacco products and nicotine pouches) compared to smoking, particularly when delivered by such high-level policymakers. 

“Considering all the arguments presented below, we urge the Commission and all its members, not to accept opinion as a basis for excessive taxation measures against safer nicotine products (vapes, nicotine pouches or heated tobacco products), which would undermine the current efforts to reduce the burden on health from smoking across the EU, and incentivise smoking.”

ETHRA says that the opinion that vapes and other non-combustible products are equally harmful as smoking has no basis in scientific facts. 

“A substantial body of scientific evidence shows the contrary: non-combustible nicotine products are far safer than the dominant tobacco products (cigarettes) and function as substitutes for them, creating net public health gains,” the advocacy organisation added.

The Commission’s Beating Cancer Plan has a goal of achieving a tobacco-free Europe by 2040. ETHRA contends that reducing the number of deaths from smoking, currently 700,000 each year, won’t be achieved by policy decisions that increase the cost of switching or make people falsely believe they carry an equivalent danger to tobacco.

“Regulatory interventions that limit and restrict safer ways of consuming nicotine can trigger unintended consequences that the regulator may not expect or want, such as switching back to smoking, engaging in illicit trade, or finding risky workarounds. There is considerable experience of these effects in jurisdictions that have tried them, and we hope legislators will take this into account,” the organisation continues.

“The revision of the Tobacco Excise Directive aims to establish a harmonised fiscal framework for all tobacco and new emerging tobacco and nicotine products across the EU single market. Safer nicotine products are taxed differently or not taxed at all in many member states. The optimum EU excise system should align with key Internal Market principles: proportionality, non-discrimination, and a high level of human health protection - implying that tax rates, if any, should reflect potential risks to health and the public health opportunities to reduce the burden on health from smoking. The European Union should not be designing an excise system that has the effect of protecting the cigarette trade or encouraging the criminal supply of much safer products.”

The European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates concluded by calling on the EU Commission to examine the science around vapes and other low-risk alternatives to smoking and not to promote any fiscal measures which could jeopardise the future of the new technologies in the European Union. 

References:

• The European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates - https://ethra.co/ 

Photo Credit:

• Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash, resized, logo added

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.