The Dutch government has launched a consultation on legislation to ban nicotine pouches. The consultation ends on 16 January.
This is a simple consultation to respond to, and it is important that you do.
The European Commission has already signalled that it would like an EU wide ban on nicotine pouches. If individual member states, such as the Netherlands, ban pouches, an EU wide ban becomes far more likely.
Nicotine pouches are becoming increasingly popular with people seeking safer alternatives to smoking. It is morally wrong to deny people who smoke access to products which are less harmful to their health.
The NL government’s rationale for the ban relies on the same tired old arguments we see used against vaping. The ban is based on ideology, not on sound science.
The NL government has actually already banned pouches, by only allowing 0,035 mg of nicotine per pouch under food regulations. This proposal intends to bring pouches into their Tobacco and Smoking Products Act (Google translate) - despite pouches being neither tobacco nor smoked! Here is the contradiction, in their own words:
“This bill proposes to also bring nicotine products that do not contain tobacco and devices used to use such nicotine products (nicotine devices) under the Tobacco and Smoking Products Act. Non-tobacco nicotine products for oral use (such as nicotine pouches) will be banned.” (Google translate)
It is never appropriate to regulate safer alternatives to smoking in the same way as the harmful combustible products.
ETHRA will be submitting to this consultation and we urge you to do the same. At the time of writing there are only 9 responses.
You know what to do - light it up! 💡
GUIDE TO SUBMITTING TO THE CONSULTATION
1. Go to: https://www.internetconsultatie.nl/nicotineproducten/b1
2. If you are not a Dutch speaker, enable Google translate (or your preferred translation software) for your language
3. Click on “Respond to this consultation”
4. You will then see this page:
There is just one question: “What do you think of the draft bill?”
You have a choice….
(i) “Add directly to document”
Choose this option if you want to upload a PDF with your submission.
(ii) Or, you can type your answer into the text box, where it says “Your reaction” (the easiest and quickest option).
(iii) If you have time, you can do both options.
5. Click on submit
6. An email will be sent to you to verify your response, don’t forget to click on the link in the email, then your response will be displayed
Let us know how you get on by tweeting your response to us at @europethra
Useful reading
ETHRA letter to the Belgian government:
Safer nicotine products should play a much bigger role in the Inter-Federal Strategy for a smokefree generation
BfR (German Risk Institute) report on nicotine pouches:
https://www.bfr.bund.de/cm/349/health-risk-assessment-of-nicotine-pouches.pdf