European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates

: Published: 05 June 2023

May breaking news

ETHRA’s monthly roundup of news: MERCI LA VAPE : participez! - TPD consultation: ETHRA & partners respond - MEPs call out conflict of interest - Expert letter to the Australian Health Minister - Rethinking U.S. tobacco and nicotine regulation - Vapers Finland opinion on nicotine pouch consultation - Country updates. Read on for more.

Contents:

TPD Open Public Consultation
ETHRA submitted to the European Commission's public consultation on the evaluation of the legislative framework for tobacco control. The consultation was in the form of a questionnaire with the option to attach a supporting document. Due to the inherent bias against tobacco harm reduction in the questionnaire, our supporting document was our main contribution to the consultation.

Read our submission here:
https://ethra.co/submissions/133-evaluation-of-the-legislative-framework-for-tobacco-control-open-public-consultation

See the questionnaire here:
Public Consultation on the Evaluation of the Legislative Framework for Tobacco Control Questionnaire

ETHRA partner Sovape responds to the consultation:
SOVAPE appelle la Commission à respecter la réduction des risques

Conflicts of interest in tobacco control policy
Swedish MEP Sara Skyttedal has voiced her concerns over members of a consortium which won a tender from the European Commission. The group is tasked with conducting research services related to the implementation of the EU’s tobacco control policy, and contains two groups who are vocally opposed to tobacco harm reduction. We wrote about the consortium and tender back in February.

MEPs write to the Commission
Two MEPs wrote to the EU Commission in relation to the extremely biassed TPD consultation questionnaire.

Letter from MEPs 1

Letter from MEPs 2

SANT: Hearing on ‘Preventing non-communicable diseases’
A newly formed subcommittee on public health will hold its first hearing on preventative measures to combat non-communicable diseases on 1 June. The Committee contains many of the MEPs which took part in the BECA Committee.

SANT Committee members:
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/sant/home/members

SANT Committee hearing can be viewed here:
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/sant/home/highlights

COUNTRY UPDATES

Belgium
The Belgian Government notified the EU Commission of its intention to transpose the Commission Delegated Directive on heated tobacco products (HTPs) into law. The Directive would introduce a flavour ban for HTPs and graphic warning similar to cigarettes. A TRIS notification on the Directive will run until 26 July.

See more here:
https://technical-regulation-information-system.ec.europa.eu/en/notification/23577

Croatia
Tobacco harm reduction was one of the topics discussed at a recent meeting of Croatia’s Committee for Health and Social Policy. President of the Croatian Association for the Reduction of Harm to Health (HARPH), Ranko Stevanović, noted that safer nicotine products are significantly less harmful than smoking, yet they are treated the same as smoked products.

Finland
A consultation on a Bill published by the Ministry of Health has closed. The bill proposes to regulate nicotine pouches in a similar way to oral tobacco under the Tobacco Control Act. In practice this would mean a ban on the sale and importation of nicotine pouches.

See Vapers Finland response to the consultation:
Vapers Finland ry:n lausunto nikotiinipusseja koskevaan lakiesitykseen / Vapers Finland ry's opinion on the bill regarding nicotine pouches

France
On World No Tobacco Day (31 May), ETHRA partners Aiduce and Sovape joined with LaVapeDuCoeur and Fivape to launch a petition in order to mobilise consumers against the threats to vaping. The petition will run until 30 September and the associations aim to get at least 100,000 signatures.

Latvia
A petition to keep vape flavours legal has attracted over 10,000 signatures. As it has gained the legally required number of signatures, the initiative will be reviewed by the Parliament of the Republic of Latvia (Saemia).

Netherlands
A Royal Decree to ban the national and cross-border sales of vaping products containing nicotine has been published. The ban will come into force on 1st July 2023. A separate Royal Decree, which will ban cross-border sales of non-nicotine containing vaping products and heated tobacco products is expected later in the year.

Switzerland
The main representative body of professionals in the field of addictions, the Romand Group for Studies on Addictions (GRÉA), has strongly opposed proposals which would increase the cost of vapes through taxation.

UK
A new scheme launched in May is offering free vapes for recycling single-use vapes through the Royal Mail. The scheme aims to reduce environmental impacts from disposal vapes.

MUST READS

Open letter to the Australian Health Minister
Forty three leading tobacco control and addiction experts from Australia and New Zealand have written an open letter to Health Minister Mark Butler asking him to reconsider the proposal to further restrict access to nicotine vaping products in Australia.

Rethinking U.S. tobacco and nicotine regulation (part 2)
Clive Bates takes a detailed look at how the US FDA should rethink its regulatory strategy for reduced risk nicotine products.

Outlier or Pioneer? the Development of Policy on E-Cigarettes in England
The UK, and England in particular, has long been a global leader in tobacco harm reduction. Professor Virginia Berridge takes a fascinating look at the history of THR in the UK.

FINALLY

Something to watch:

sCOPe global livestream event
On May 30 - 31, World Vape Day & World No Tobacco Day, advocacy associations from around the world took part in a marathon live streaming event to discuss everything THR and more.

sCOPe

Watch 30 May’s World Vape Day sCOPe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lhd8rQjmoQU

Watch 31 May’s World No Tobacco Day sCOPe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgcI-r9lmXc

European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates

ETHRA May News roundup