The “National Plan on Drugs,” which depends on the Spanish Ministry of Health, recently conducted a poll on its Twitter account asking if the electronic cigarette is an aid to quitting smoking. Of the 710 people who voted, 54.4 percent voted affirmatively, 38.6 voted negatively, and 6.9 did not know what to think about it.
Beyond the results, a survey in social networks is not the proper methodology to solve such an important question.
Even more so when the most up-to-date scientific evidence shows that Non-Combusted Nicotine Products (NCNPs) are the most effective method to abandon combusted tobacco and avoid almost all smoking-related health harms. This is because:
- The Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Group’s research update, published on November 17, 2022, finds “high certainty evidence” that e-cigarettes are more effective for smoking cessation than nicotine patches and gum.
- The evidence from studies, articles, reports, and meta-analyses all agree that NCNPs are 95 to 98 percent safer than tobacco consumed traditionally by combustion.
It would be catastrophic for current Spanish smokers if social media games were to deprive them of alternatives such as vaping, which are much safer than traditional cigarettes and offer superior results as a smoking cessation therapy than any pharmaceutical alternative. “The evidence warns against prohibitionist measures. Restricting access and appeal among vape products… does not protect public health,” claims an article published in the prestigious scientific journal Science, “but threatens to derail a trend that if continued could accelerate the demise of cigarettes to the point of saving 1 billion lives this century.”
Effective anti-smoking policies
For all these reasons, public health policies should seriously consider Non-Combusted Nicotine Products such as vaping, nicotine pouches, snus, and heated tobacco.
In this sense, the recently launched “Effective Anti-smoking Policies Global Index” analyses the public policies to eradicate smoking in 59 countries divided into 4 regions, evaluating them in 10 objective categories such as the regulatory framework of Non-Combusted Nicotine Products (NCNPs), their prohibition, display, packaging, and taxation, among others.
The Top 3 countries of the index are Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand. The former has a legal framework for all NCNPs, while the national health authorities of the United Kingdom and New Zealand promote vaping for smoking cessation.
Latin American countries like Chile, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay find themselves in the bottom ten due to a combination of prohibitions and the position of their national health authorities, who are still hostile towards NCNPs as tools against smoking.
However, the outlier is Australia, where all products are banned — placing it at the bottom of the index.
Spain at a crossroads
Spain is currently performing well, ranking seventh globally and sixth in Europe. The Iberian country has relatively open access to NCNPs, except for snus, which is banned due to European Union regulations.
However, its public health authorities still profess an anachronistic and unfounded discouragement of safer nicotine products. Vape products have a nicotine limit of 20mg/ml (by EU regulation), and there are limitations on their sale in certain public places. They must also include textual warnings on their packaging. Of concern are plans to equate them to burning tobacco and periodic statements by the authorities not supported by scientific evidence that limit their potential as a tool for smokers to quit cigarettes. In the case of heated tobacco products, there are also regulatory initiatives to equate them with traditional cigarettes.
A European hot topic
This year, the European Commission launched a call for evidence asking for feedback about its Tobacco Products Directive (TPD), which regulates traditional tobacco products and NCNPs. The initiative gathered a staggering 24,359 responses in less than a month. The current EU directive already imposes limits and restrictions that hamper the effectiveness of NCNPs as smoking cessation tools.
According to the index, the European Union needs to advance in the definition of a specific regulatory framework for nicotine pouches, the legalization of snus, and the improvement of taxation and health recommendations on all NCNPs. Moreover, the 240-page document offers guidance to the authorities for public policies that effectively reduce and minimize tobacco harm and provide information to citizens. To this end, the index suggests allowing both physical and online retail, promoting the use of NCNPs as an active policy to limit smoking, and communicating the absolute and relative harms of nicotine vaping or consumption in any of its NCNPs forms so that consumers can make informed decisions.
All in all, smart regulation open to innovation is needed to incorporate the costs and benefits of evidence-based policies from a practical perspective, balancing the risks that the measures may pose, understanding that interventions may have unintended consequences, that high bureaucratic and tax barriers nullify positive future transformations, and that the most extreme bans usually create black markets with severe consequences.
* Federico N. Fernández is Executive Director at Somos Innovación (a Latin American pro-innovation alliance) and CEO at We Are Innovation (Somos Innovación’s sister organization for Europe). Federico is Founder and President of Fundación Internacional Bases (Rosario, Argentina) and also the Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the International Conference “The Austrian School of Economics in the 21st Century,” which takes place in Europe and LatAm alternatively.
Source: We Are Innovation
