{"id":607,"date":"2021-11-18T18:09:34","date_gmt":"2021-11-18T23:09:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cccwva.wpengine.com\/?p=607"},"modified":"2022-02-05T16:53:58","modified_gmt":"2022-02-05T21:53:58","slug":"time-for-europe-to-rethink-vaping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/en_gb\/time-for-europe-to-rethink-vaping\/","title":{"rendered":"Time for Europe to rethink vaping?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Vaping has been high on the European Union\u2019s agenda the last few months, with the European Parliament finalising its version of Europe\u2019s Beating Cancer Plan. However, vaping can be part of the solution and save many lives, argues Bernd Mayer, professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Graz in Austria<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Vaping is a hot topic in the EU right now, with Europe\u2019s Beating Cancer Plan coming up. So how should the EU treat vaping?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>A key point to understand is that vaping is not smoking. Treating the two the same would be a mistake. It is scientifically established that vaping is\u00a0less harmful\u00a0than smoking. Against the background of\u00a0700,000 deaths per year\u00a0due to smoking-induced illnesses, and with an alternative which\u00a0Public Health England\u00a0states is at least 95% less harmful, the EU must endorse vaping as a harm reduction method for smokers.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike traditional cigarettes, e-cigarettes do not emit smoke, and the emission of toxic combustion products\u00a0is reduced by 99%.\u00a0Because of this, the\u00a0lifetime risk of cancer\u00a0for vapers is hundreds to thousands of times lower than for smokers.\u00a0Studies\u00a0also show that the cardiovascular and pulmonary function in smokers who switch to vaping improves drastically. Therefore, vaping is not associated with a clinically relevant serious health risk and public health gains when smokers switch to vaping.<\/p>\n<p><em>Despite all this evidence, some reports are sceptical of vaping, such as the European Commission\u2019s recent SCHEER report<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The SCHEER report is far from being an objective research paper. Although the judgment of relative risks is key to the harm reduction approach, the report was set up in a way that no comparison be made between vaping and smoking. This request resulted in a pointless paper, with little scientific value, completely ignorant (purposefully or not) of the concept of harm reduction. Unfortunately, some policymakers are using this report as an instrument to argue for unjustifiably harsh regulation of vaping.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cPublic health has transformed its justified efforts to reduce smoking rates into an unjustified war on nicotine in the last decade\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><em>Yet, despite so much research, vaping remains very controversial in a lot of countries. Why is that?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>There are indeed severe misunderstandings in the general public about vaping and its fundamental differences from smoking. The misconceptions are manifold, but the false perception of nicotine is undoubtedly a particularly troubling example of high relevance. In 1976, Prof. Michael Russell, a pioneer in the study of tobacco dependence and the development of quitting agents,\u00a0stated\u00a0that \u201cPeople smoke for nicotine, but they die from the tar\u201d. Nonetheless, public health has transformed its justified efforts to reduce smoking rates into an unjustified war on nicotine in the last decade.<\/p>\n<p>Nicotine containing drugs like nicotine patches or nicotine inhalers are freely available over the counter and are unreservedly recommended to smokers by health authorities. However, the same authorities regularly issue warnings from nicotine in e-cigarettes. They suddenly\u00a0declare\u00a0this benign\u00a0recreational drug, with properties similar to\u00a0caffeine, as a potent toxic and addictive drug. It appears that nicotine undergoes a mysterious transformation from a harmless remedy into a deadly toxin when added to the liquids of e-cigarettes.<\/p>\n<p>Originally published\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparliamentmagazine.eu\/news\/article\/time-for-europe-to-rethink-vaping\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">here<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vaping has been high on the European Union\u2019s agenda the last few months, with the European Parliament finalising its version of Europe\u2019s Beating Cancer Plan. However, vaping can be part of the solution and save many lives, argues Bernd Mayer, professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Graz in Austria Vaping is a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wva-in-the-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Time for Europe to rethink vaping? - World Vapers&#039; Alliance<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/en_gb\/time-for-europe-to-rethink-vaping\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Time for Europe to rethink vaping? - World Vapers&#039; Alliance\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Vaping has been high on the European Union\u2019s agenda the last few months, with the European Parliament finalising its version of Europe\u2019s Beating Cancer Plan. However, vaping can be part of the solution and save many lives, argues Bernd Mayer, professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Graz in Austria Vaping is a [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/en_gb\/time-for-europe-to-rethink-vaping\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"World Vapers&#039; Alliance\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-11-18T23:09:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-02-05T21:53:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/parliament-vaper.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"840\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"475\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Michael Landl\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Michael Landl\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldvapersalliance.com\\\/time-for-europe-to-rethink-vaping\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldvapersalliance.com\\\/time-for-europe-to-rethink-vaping\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Michael Landl\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldvapersalliance.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/05f663571d787d89a2d5c77c482a6583\"},\"headline\":\"Time for Europe to rethink vaping?\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-18T23:09:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-02-05T21:53:58+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldvapersalliance.com\\\/time-for-europe-to-rethink-vaping\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":535,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldvapersalliance.com\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldvapersalliance.com\\\/time-for-europe-to-rethink-vaping\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldvapersalliance.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/08\\\/WVA-in-the-news.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"WVA in the News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/worldvapersalliance.com\\\/time-for-europe-to-rethink-vaping\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldvapersalliance.com\\\/time-for-europe-to-rethink-vaping\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldvapersalliance.com\\\/time-for-europe-to-rethink-vaping\\\/\",\"name\":\"Time for Europe to rethink vaping? - World Vapers&#039; Alliance\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldvapersalliance.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldvapersalliance.com\\\/time-for-europe-to-rethink-vaping\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldvapersalliance.com\\\/time-for-europe-to-rethink-vaping\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldvapersalliance.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/08\\\/WVA-in-the-news.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-18T23:09:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-02-05T21:53:58+00:00\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/worldvapersalliance.com\\\/time-for-europe-to-rethink-vaping\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldvapersalliance.com\\\/time-for-europe-to-rethink-vaping\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldvapersalliance.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/08\\\/WVA-in-the-news.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldvapersalliance.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/08\\\/WVA-in-the-news.png\",\"width\":1264,\"height\":848},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldvapersalliance.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldvapersalliance.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"World Vapers&#039; Alliance\",\"description\":\"The largest community of vapers\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldvapersalliance.com\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldvapersalliance.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldvapersalliance.com\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"World Vapers&#039; Alliance\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldvapersalliance.com\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldvapersalliance.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldvapersalliance.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/01\\\/WVA_RB_Fist_G.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldvapersalliance.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/01\\\/WVA_RB_Fist_G.png\",\"width\":985,\"height\":1177,\"caption\":\"World Vapers&#039; Alliance\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldvapersalliance.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldvapersalliance.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/05f663571d787d89a2d5c77c482a6583\",\"name\":\"Michael Landl\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1537a11db5ae7fef0631b6c662f439d8a632c50630c980828d0e2c4de581568b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1537a11db5ae7fef0631b6c662f439d8a632c50630c980828d0e2c4de581568b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1537a11db5ae7fef0631b6c662f439d8a632c50630c980828d0e2c4de581568b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Michael Landl\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/worldvapersalliance.com\\\/en_gb\\\/author\\\/michael\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Time for Europe to rethink vaping? - World Vapers&#039; Alliance","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/en_gb\/time-for-europe-to-rethink-vaping\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Time for Europe to rethink vaping? - World Vapers&#039; Alliance","og_description":"Vaping has been high on the European Union\u2019s agenda the last few months, with the European Parliament finalising its version of Europe\u2019s Beating Cancer Plan. However, vaping can be part of the solution and save many lives, argues Bernd Mayer, professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Graz in Austria Vaping is a [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/en_gb\/time-for-europe-to-rethink-vaping\/","og_site_name":"World Vapers&#039; Alliance","article_published_time":"2021-11-18T23:09:34+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-02-05T21:53:58+00:00","og_image":[{"width":840,"height":475,"url":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/parliament-vaper.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Michael Landl","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Michael Landl","Estimated reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/time-for-europe-to-rethink-vaping\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/time-for-europe-to-rethink-vaping\/"},"author":{"name":"Michael Landl","@id":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/#\/schema\/person\/05f663571d787d89a2d5c77c482a6583"},"headline":"Time for Europe to rethink vaping?","datePublished":"2021-11-18T23:09:34+00:00","dateModified":"2022-02-05T21:53:58+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/time-for-europe-to-rethink-vaping\/"},"wordCount":535,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/time-for-europe-to-rethink-vaping\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/WVA-in-the-news.png","articleSection":["WVA in the News"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/time-for-europe-to-rethink-vaping\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/time-for-europe-to-rethink-vaping\/","url":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/time-for-europe-to-rethink-vaping\/","name":"Time for Europe to rethink vaping? - World Vapers&#039; Alliance","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/time-for-europe-to-rethink-vaping\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/time-for-europe-to-rethink-vaping\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/WVA-in-the-news.png","datePublished":"2021-11-18T23:09:34+00:00","dateModified":"2022-02-05T21:53:58+00:00","inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/time-for-europe-to-rethink-vaping\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/time-for-europe-to-rethink-vaping\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/WVA-in-the-news.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/WVA-in-the-news.png","width":1264,"height":848},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/","name":"World Vapers&#039; Alliance","description":"The largest community of vapers","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/#organization","name":"World Vapers&#039; Alliance","url":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/WVA_RB_Fist_G.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/WVA_RB_Fist_G.png","width":985,"height":1177,"caption":"World Vapers&#039; Alliance"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/#\/schema\/person\/05f663571d787d89a2d5c77c482a6583","name":"Michael Landl","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1537a11db5ae7fef0631b6c662f439d8a632c50630c980828d0e2c4de581568b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1537a11db5ae7fef0631b6c662f439d8a632c50630c980828d0e2c4de581568b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1537a11db5ae7fef0631b6c662f439d8a632c50630c980828d0e2c4de581568b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Michael Landl"},"url":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/en_gb\/author\/michael\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldvapersalliance.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}