The SANT (Subcommittee on Public Health) held a hearing on \u201cPreventing non-communicable diseases<\/i>\u201d to focus on possible solutions, on 1 June.<\/p>\n
With nicotine consumption being one of the focus topics of the discussion, it becomes clear that there is still a lot of misinformation and innate prejudice towards harm reduction among the EU decision-makers, says Michael Landl, director of the World Vapers\u2019 Alliance, an association that claims to amplify voices of vapers worldwide.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, chronic lung illnesses, and cancer should be the cornerstone of the EU public health agenda, it is also crucial to pursue evidence-based and science-based approaches. We need to reduce actual harms and not fight nicotine consumption per se. The real public-health threat comes from cigarette smoking. Alternative products such as snus, vaping, and nicotine pouches are reducing smoking induced illnesses, because they effectively help smokers to quit. Fighting nicotine consumption instead of actual harms will have much more harmful consequences,<\/i>\u201d said Landl.<\/p>\n
Among the addressed misconceptions about the role of harm reduction, stood out comments of MEP Gonz\u00e1lez Casares and MEP Trillet-Lenoir.<\/p>\n
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