EU Tobacco Policy: Balancing Prevention and Innovation in Smoking

As European bureaucrats consider actually taxing smoking cessation, we can foresee millions of former smokers reverting back to their old habits. The EU's flagship "Fight Against Cancer Plan" will be a major topic of discussion at this week's global Nicotine Forum conference in Warsaw.

Experts will tell representatives that when the new European Parliament convenes later this year, product bans, excessive taxation, and plain packaging will all be on the table - not just for cigarettes, but also for e-cigarettes and other safer nicotine products.

It's difficult to say whether the EU is taking the fight against cancer seriously. If it is, then it needs to truly prioritize tobacco control," said tobacco policy expert Clive Bates.

This means using all possible means to help people quit smoking, including e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches, heated tobacco, and snuff. EU institutions have wasted a lot of energy in preventing people from using these products to quit smoking," he said.

Dr. Colin Mendelsohn, founding chairman of the Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association, said that Europe may ultimately follow in Australia's footsteps, where you can only legally purchase tobacco if it is intended for smoking.

E-cigarettes are difficult to obtain and may be as restricted as being banned. In the United States, the situation is equally dire, with regulations so burdensome that legal options cannot compete with the black market. Smoking cessation products like e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches need to be affordable and easy to access. The experience in other countries shows that these products can significantly reduce smoking rates and cancer risks," Mendelsohn said.

In Sweden, the rate of smoking has decreased three times faster than in other EU countries after smokers turned to snus. In New Zealand and Japan, the introduction of heated tobacco products led to a 50% and 33% decrease in smoking rates, respectively. The European Commission aims to reduce tobacco use to below 5% by 2040. However, progress has been slow. From 2006 to 2020, the smoking rate has only decreased by 6 percentage points. In some countries, such as Slovenia, the smoking rate has even increased (see Figure 1).

Dr. Garett McGovern, Medical Director of Dublin Priority Medical Clinic in Ireland, said that making people unable to quit smoking through pricing or making alternative products so unappealing that no one is willing to use them is not the answer.

Bates said, "EU bureaucrats should recognize that new products are an opportunity, not a threat, but unfortunately, they seem to be misguided by advocacy groups that are hostile to innovation and resistant to change.