Consumers have responded to the European Union’s SANT Committee Hearing that believes policy makers need to focus on harm due to cigarettes. These decision-makers are formulating policy on the back of “misinformation” and “innate prejudice towards harm reduction”, according to the World Vapers’ Alliance. The Alliance has also taken aim at The World Health Organization (WHO)’s director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as he denounced vaping and denied it works to reduce harm.

The SANT (Subcommittee on Public Health) held a hearing on “Preventing non-communicable diseases” to focus on possible solutions, on 1 June.

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’ Alliance, an association that claims to amplify voices of vapers worldwide.

“Transmisiozkoak ez diren gaixotasunak, hala nola, gaixotasun kardiobaskularrak, biriketako gaixotasun kronikoak eta minbizia EBko osasun publikoko agendaren oinarria izan behar diren arren, funtsezkoa da ebidentzian oinarritutako eta zientzian oinarritutako ikuspegiak bilatzea. Benetako kalteak murriztu behar ditugu eta ez nikotina-kontsumoa berez borrokatu. Benetako osasun publikoaren mehatxua zigarroak erretzeak dakar. Produktu alternatiboek, hala nola, snus-a, vaping-a eta nikotina-poltsak erretzeari eragindako gaixotasunak murrizten ari dira, erretzaileei eraginkortasunez laguntzen dietelako. Benetako kalteen ordez nikotina-kontsumoari aurre egiteak askoz ere ondorio kaltegarriagoak izango ditu.” said Landl.

Among the addressed misconceptions about the role of harm reduction, stood out comments of MEP González Casares and MEP Trillet-Lenoir.

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