{"id":13137,"date":"2024-09-17T19:41:58","date_gmt":"2024-09-17T19:41:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/equating-tobacco-and-e-cigarettes-is-not-helpful-says-influential-member-of-the-european-parliament\/"},"modified":"2025-01-06T16:09:44","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T16:09:44","slug":"equating-tobacco-and-e-cigarettes-is-not-helpful-says-influential-member-of-the-european-parliament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/post\/equating-tobacco-and-e-cigarettes-is-not-helpful-says-influential-member-of-the-european-parliament\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cEquating tobacco and e-cigarettes is not helpful\u201d says influential Member of the European Parliament"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>

The European Commission\u2019s attempt to convince member countries to ban vaping in almost all public places – as reported by Clearing the Air yesterday – has been slammed by a leading Member of the European Parliament as \u201cnot helpful\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr. Peter Liese, the health policy spokesperson for the largest group in the European Parliament (the centre-right EPP Group) and a practicing doctor, made clear his opposition<\/a> to the Commission\u2019s plans. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor heavy smokers who otherwise cannot quit, e-cigarettes are an important tool to reduce harm and risks\u201d, said Liese, who is also co-ordinator of the EPP group on the Parliament\u2019s Environment and Public Health Committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cE-cigarettes do contain nicotine, which is addictive, but they do not contain all the other substances in cigarette smoke that cause damages such as cancer and stroke, Liese continued. \u201c[E]ven experts from the World Health Organization say that there is no theoretical scenario where e-cigarettes are as harmful\u201d.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cI do not think it is effective to equate them [e-cigarettes] with tobacco smoke in the proposal for the Council recommendation. I hope the member states will correct this point\u201d Liese concluded.<\/p>\n

Liese has been a strong defender of safer nicotine products at the EU level, frequently speaking out against the European Commission\u2019s desire to impose heavy-handed regulation.<\/p>\n

As co-ordinator of the Parliamentary Committee which will review any updates to the Directive, his voice will matter when it comes to deciding whether or not safer nicotine products are banned or regulated out of existence, as the Commission\u2019s services (if not necessarily its political masters) will want to see.<\/p>\n

Dr Liese – who represents the German state of North-Rhine Westphalia – is also strongly opposed to smoking, and made clear his support for banning cigarettes in public.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important that we adopt measures at all levels to protect people from tobacco smoke. Smoking is particularly dangerous for the smokers themselves\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is nothing better one can do for their health than to quit smoking. Other health protection measures such as exercise and healthy eating are also important, but stopping smoking brings the most significant benefits by far. Protecting other people, especially children, from tobacco is also extremely sensible\u201d.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u200d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The European Commission\u2019s attempt to convince member countries to ban vaping in almost all public places – as reported by Clearing the Air yesterday – has been slammed by a leading Member of the European Parliament as \u201cnot helpful\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":990003,"featured_media":13143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[257],"tags":[],"slider":[],"class_list":["post-13137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/990003"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13137"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15860,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13137\/revisions\/15860"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13137"},{"taxonomy":"slider","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/slider?post=13137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}