25.08.2022 – Brussels, BE – Yesterday, the EU Commission announced the registration of a European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) entitled ‘Call to achieve a tobacco-free environment and the first European tobacco-free generation by 2030’.

The organisers, a Spanish public health NGO called NoFumadores, propose to ban the sale of tobacco and nicotine products to all citizens born after 2010.

Michael Landl, Director of the World Vapers’ Alliance, said:

“This initiative shows the widespread misinformation about different nicotine products. We can’t have a one-size fits all approach on very different products. Almost all of the harm from smoking comes from the thousands of other chemicals in tobacco smoke, not from nicotine. Alternatives such as vaping are substantially less harmful and are proven effective methods to quit smoking. Prohibition will do nothing but cost lives.”

Additionally, the World Vapers’ Alliance is questioning the practicality of a sales ban attached to the birth year of citizens:

“How should this work in practice? In a few years, shops would have to check the IDs of 50-year-olds. This will not work. Those rules will be ignored, or they will generate a massive black market. Both outcomes are detrimental to public health. Aside from impracticality, generational bans may be illegal in Europe as they stand against an equal and fair treatment of EU citizens – a pillar of the Lisbon Treaty. Moreover, it is morally wrong to deny harm reduction to younger generations. Instead of stigmatising smokers, we need to give them all opportunities to quit smoking once and for all,” added Landl.

The organisers now have six months to collect one million signatures from at least seven different Member States to force the EU Commission to react to the proposal. The registration of the ECI is not an endorsement by the Commission. Still, with the Tobacco Products Directive on the horizon, vapers are calling on the Commission to follow a risk-based approach for each product.

“The registration of this initiative shows that the pressure from anti-harm reduction groups on EU institutions is increasing. This is not a good sign regarding the upcoming Tobacco Products Directive update. Future regulation must be based on science and the experience of millions of consumers. Less harmful products must be treated differently than cigarettes. Prohibition never worked and will never work. It just creates massive unintended consequences and harms public health. The exact opposite of what we all want,” added Michael Landl.