IBVTA applaud letter from independent experts to EU Commissioner

A group of highly qualified and experienced Tobacco Harm Reduction experts have written to the European Commission’s President to express deep concern about grave misrepresentations of vaping by the European Commissioner for health.

The letter has been signed by twenty three independent experts from the UK, Belgium, France, Ireland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Norway, Poland, Latvia, Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary and The Netherlands. It focuses on misleading comments by Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi during an interview with Euractiv, as well as two other public statements made by him and his response to a European Parliament Question.

Signatories to the letter clearly demonstrate the lack of evidence for the Commissioner’s position and the evidence that exclusive smoke-free nicotine use poses just a small fraction of the risks of cigarettes. They urge Commission leadership, or other institutions, to “move swiftly to correct dangerous, false, and misleading statements made by Commissioner Várhelyi and to ensure that policymaking with the potential to save or threaten the lives of millions of EU citizens is grounded in sound science“.

The IBVTA applauds this independent correction to an increasingly distorted narrative.

False claims about harm from vaping are leading to disproportionate public health policy globally, with very few national exceptions. It is vital that policy makers are armed with credible information if they are to do good rather than harm.