A coalition of over 25 world-renowned scientists and public health researchers have said that a proposed revision of tobacco legislation is based on a “scientifically false premise.”
This comes in a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
The signatories include internationally-respected experts like Professor Luboš Petruželka, a distinguished oncologist at Charles University; Assoc. Professor Viktor Mravčík, a key scientific advisor to the Czech national drug coordinator and Roland Shuperka, a WHO award-winning tobacco control expert.
In the letter, they warn the EU should consider a “library” of over 130 independent studies that argue that non-combustible products are significantly less harmful than smoking.
By treating smoke-free alternatives, like nicotine pouches and e-cigarettes, as identical to traditional combustible cigarettes, the experts argue the Commission isn’t just “ignoring the science” – it is “protecting” the cigarette market and jeopardizing the health of millions of adult smokers who are being denied an accurate understanding of risk.
The letter openly concedes, “No serious scientist would claim that e-cigarettes, heated tobacco products, nicotine pouches, snus, or other smoke-free nicotine products are harmless.”
But it goes on, “Cigarettes are uniquely deadly because they burn tobacco,” the letter states, pointing to combustion as the primary driver of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and premature death.
It adds, “That is the central scientific distinction in this debate, and it appears at risk of being ignored.”
By contrast, it is argued that smoke-free products deliver nicotine without combustion, significantly reducing exposure to the toxic substances responsible for smoking-related illness.
“If Brussels assesses smoke-free products only against “not using anything,” it asks the wrong policy question. The relevant question is whether smokers who switch reduce their exposure to the toxicants that make smoking deadly,” it continues.
Citing the science, the letter notes that “Independent evidence
reviews in the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Germany have repeatedly
distinguished vaping from smoking while also emphasising that vaping “is not risk-free.”
The experts stress that ignoring the scientific differences between products risks having an impact opposite to the goal to achieve less than 5% tobacco use by 2040.”
“If Brussels now legislates on the fiction that all nicotine products are materially the same, it risks protecting the cigarette market rather than shrinking it.”
“That would be a profound public health mistake.”
“This matters because Europe says it wants a “tobacco-free generation,” defined by the Commission as less than 5% tobacco use by 2040. Yet, smoking remains widespread across the European Union.”
The experts’ concern comes at a critical moment for European health policy as the EU is currently reviewing several major regulatory frameworks alongside broader initiatives under the “Beating Cancer Plan”, discussions that will shape how nicotine products are regulated, taxed, and communicated across the EU for years to come.
In practical terms, the scientists call on the Commission to adopt a more evidence-based approach and to: compare products against continued smoking rather than non-use; recognize the continuum of risk across nicotine products and distinguish the harms of combustion from the effects of nicotine itself.
The letter concludes, “Europe cannot claim to “follow the science” on cancer while ignoring one of the most basic scientific distinctions in tobacco control: the difference between smoke and smoke-free products.”
It also contains a link which, it is said, provides a “series of studies that demonstrate the strong scientific evidence showing the differences between these.”
Responding, an EC spokesperson told this site on Wednesday, “There are no safe levels of tobacco or nicotine consumption, including from smoke-free nicotine products. Nicotine is a toxic and highly addictive substance and the growing appeal of
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