Madrid, 18.07.2023. — Doctor Josep María Ramón Torrell, head of the Bellvitge Hospital’s Smoking Unit, asked last week for a risk-based ranking of nicotine delivery products. The risk-based ranking is needed, Torrell explained, so that consumers can know what are the health risks of each product and can make informed decisions.

In this ranking, the doctor explained to Europa Press, combustion tobacco should be the most risky nicotine delivery product, with a score of 100 points. He proposed nicotine gums and patches to be the products with the lowest score (between 3 and 5 points), while electronic cigarettes would score between 7 and 8 points and snus and heated tobacco between 20 and 30 points.

According to the doctor, the harm reduction potential of alternative nicotine delivery products is huge. Doctor Torrell stated that “any nicotine alternative currently on the market is 10,000 times better than combustion tobacco”, which is the reason why he “does not understand those who oppose offering alternatives of all kinds to those who do not want to or cannot quit smoking”. According to Torrell, making consumers aware of this could make the combustion cigarette a “marginal” product and save between 10,000 and 15,000 lives a year in Spain.

On the different approaches followed by countries to eradicating the tobacco epidemic, doctor Torrell stated:

“We need to decouple nicotine from tobacco, as some countries like the United Kingdom, Sweden and New Zealand are doing with quite a lot of success. It has been proven since the 1950s that nicotine is not directly associated with any type of disease. It is nicotine substitutes that can make people stop smoking. If we administer it safely, it has a better chance of success in getting people to stop smoking, which is what we are looking for”.

Alberto Gómez, Community Manager for Spain and Latin America of the World Vapers’ Alliance, commented:

“The beliefs that vaping is equally or more harmful than smoking and that nicotine is the cause of smoking-related diseases are preventing millions of smokers from quitting and saving their lives globally. Doctor Torrell’s proposed ranking is a great idea to combat misinformation and encourage the use of less risky nicotine delivery products. The quit or die approach has failed, and all countries should instead follow the examples of the United Kingdom and Sweden, countries that are leading the reduction of smoking rates thanks to the application of tobacco harm reduction policies”.

Doctor Torrell declared that one of the biggest mistakes is equating the price of the smoking cessation products with cigarettes, as “it is not right for patches to be the same price as a packet of cigarettes if you want people to stop smoking”.

On this, Alberto Gómez, Community Manager for Spain and Latin America of the World Vapers’ Alliance, commented:

“We need to set up incentives to encourage smokers to switch. Prices are one of the main relevant factors for smokers when they think about switching. Hence, taxation of nicotine products should be risk-based, with lower-risk products always keeping a price differential with cigarettes to make it attractive for smokers to try less harmful alternatives”.  

“Over 50,000 people die each year in Spain from tobacco-related diseases. Promoting the use of less harmful alternatives has the potential to save thousands of lives and improve public health. The Spanish government needs to listen to those that have been able to quit and improve their health thanks to alternative nicotine delivery products and establish a risk-based regulation,” concluded Gómez.