The European Parliament became the first legislative body in the world to officially recognize tobacco harm reduction (THR) as a public health strategy when it ratified on February 16, 2022 a special committee report calling for stronger EU action on how to beat cancer, with a provision on the role of e-cigarettes in cutting down smoking.
Members of the European Parliament voted 652 in favor of and 15 against with 27 abstention the December 2021 report by Parliament’s Special Committee on Beating Cancer (BECA) which introduced for the first time a THR perspective at the EU level.
The THR perspective in the report is reflected in the provision that the committee “considers electronic cigarettes could allow some smokers to progressively quit smoking.”
MEPs also rejected attempts by a political faction to water down the report’s important harm reduction declaration, according to the Independent European Vape Alliance (IEVA).
The IEVA described the latest development as "a landmark declaration by the European Parliament, which should go a long way to reassuring smokers of the health benefits that a switch to vaping can bring."
Several scientific and health agencies, including Public Health England, affirmed results of peer-reviewed studies showing that vaping, or the use of electronic cigarettes, is 95-percent less harmful than smoking tobacco.
The parliament's decision brings the EU a step closer to putting regulation in place that allows smokers to choose alternatives to smoking, according to IEVA.
"We now encourage the other EU institutions—and in particular the European Commission—to take this on board and ensure that policy follows science, not the other way around," said IEVA president Dustin Dahlmann.
The BECA report, a part of a more effective EU strategy to beat cancer, states that as more than 40 percent of all cancers are preventable through “coordinated actions targeting behavior-related, biological, environmental, work-related, socio-economic and commercial risk factors, MEPs call for effective prevention measures at national and EU level, based on independent scientific expertise."
BECA was formed in June 2020 and ended its mandate on 23 December 2021, after organizing an unprecedented consultation process through a series of public hearings. Members exchanged views with national parliaments and with international organizations and experts. It was chaired by Polish MEP Bartosz Arłukowicz and was tasked with establishing concrete recommendations for EU member states and institutions to strengthen the EU’s “resilience against cancer.”
The IEVA said BECA's report includes harm reduction perspective as part of its recommendations. The report calls on the European Commission to fund programs that promote smoking cessation and underlines, among other things, that tobacco consumption is a risk factor common to other chronic diseases and that cancer prevention and risk reduction measures have to be implemented in the context of an integrated chronic disease prevention program.
The BECA report calls on the European Commission to follow up on the scientific evaluations of the health risks related to electronic cigarettes, heated tobacco products (HTPs) and novel tobacco products, including the assessment of the risks of using these products compared to consuming other tobacco products, and the establishment at European level of a list of substances contained in, and emitted by, these products.
It considers that electronic cigarettes could allow some smokers to progressively quit smoking and that e-cigarettes should not be attractive to minors and non-smokers. It, therefore, calls on the European Commission to evaluate, in the framework of the Tobacco Products Directive, which flavors in e-cigarettes are in particular attractive to minors and non-smokers, and to propose a ban on these and on them.
Several public health experts are pushing for THR to end the global smoking epidemic which results in 8 million deaths a year. THR is a pragmatic public health strategy that recognizes the use of less harmful alternatives such as e-cigarettes, HTPs and snus to reduce the death toll from the smoking problem, which affects 1.1 billion people worldwide.
The IEVA said harm reduction has been practiced in many fields of healthcare for decades and has helped many people to curtail harmful habits, which is good both for them and those close to them.
"This model has also been successful in mitigating the death and disease associated with smoking. Over six million smokers in the EU have been able to significantly reduce the damage to their health by switching completely to reduced-risk alternatives such as the e-cigarette," the IEVA said.
The parliament's approval and adoption of the BECA report are also seen to encourage the switch to these less harmful alternatives. It is also expected to harmonize individual country members' views and policies on e-cigarettes, HTPs and other alternatives. Observers said this may also have broader implications worldwide, particularly in countries with a high death toll from smoking.
Data show that cancer led to 1.3 million deaths in the EU in 2020. Smoking is considered the leading cause of preventable deaths in the world.
“Twelve years after the last European strategy to beat cancer, the one we are presenting today is historic, both in terms of its ambition and its objectives, and in terms of the resources, we will provide. We will finally be able to fight effectively, together, against the health inequalities that persist within the European Union and respond to the needs of millions of Europeans affected by this disease. Today, the European Health Union is moving forward," said BECA Rapporteur VéroniqueTrillet-Lenoir in the presentation of the BECA report before the European Parliament.