{"id":23085,"date":"2025-02-27T10:33:04","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T10:33:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/?p=23085"},"modified":"2025-02-27T10:33:09","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T10:33:09","slug":"european-commissioner-wrongly-states-vaping-kills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/post\/european-commissioner-wrongly-states-vaping-kills\/","title":{"rendered":"European commissioner wrongly states \u201cVaping kills\u201d\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

European commissioner Wopke Hoekstra made the false claim that \u201cvaping kills\u201d in a public address to parliament.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking at the Subcommittee on Tax Matters<\/a> on February 6, Hoekstra inaccurately stated that vaping kills in the same way as smoking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

He said: \u201c700,000 Europeans die each year because of tobacco. Smoking kills. Vaping kills.\u201d  <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

While his statistic on smoking deaths<\/a> is correct, vaping has not in fact been scientifically linked to any deaths globally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hoeskstra, from the Netherlands, made the sweeping claim in response to a question from French MEP Pierre Pimpie about excise taxes for tobacco companies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt kills\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He went on: \u201cWe now have kids at my kitchen table, but I\u2019m sure also at yours, who are telling us \u2018look it smells and tastes like strawberry, it can\u2019t be harmful, can it?\u2019 Well actually it does [sic]. It kills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo my view is that we need to do more. We need to do more given that it is highly addictive, it is actually structured to be addictive and the sector is mercilessly lobbying for increased room and knows very well that this addictive approach is a continuation of the problem.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hoeskstra, the European Commissioner for Climate Action, then explained how he intended to squeeze vape companies with higher taxes across the European Union member states. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Increasing taxation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cSo what I intend to do is to ensure we increase again the hurdle of taxation across member states,\u201d he said. \u201cIt will not be easy but what we have simply is too low. And we expand the scope beyond classic cigarettes because the supply has gone beyond the classic scope. I just gave you the strawberry example.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Hoekstra\u2019s comments go against the position of the Dutch tobacco regulator, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), which is considered one of the most conservative regulators in Europe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A report<\/a> commissioned by RIVM called \u2018The health risks of using e-cigarettes\u2019 clearly states: \u201cE-cigarettes are less harmful than tobacco cigarettes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The European Parliament itself also acknowledges that vaping is far less harmful than smoking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Its own report titled \u2018Novel tobacco and nicotine products and their effects on health\u2019 says: \u201cRegarding electronic cigarettes (vapour products), the presence of certain harmful substances in the emissions (vapour) of these products can be lower by around 90 to 95 per cent compared to tobacco cigarettes, although the composition of aerosols depends on the devices, settings used and the composition of the liquid itself.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Evidence vaping not as harmful as smoking<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A large body of evidence shows that vaping does not present the dangerous health risks that smoking does. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A landmark report<\/a> published last year \u2013 \u2018No Smoke, Less Harm\u2019<\/a> \u2013 proves that nicotine use does not lead to tobacco-related disease. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study revealed Sweden has dramatically lower rates of tobacco-related deaths and health issues than other European nations \u2013 despite similar levels of nicotine intake through products like vapes, snus and nicotine pouches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Sweden, one in four adults use nicotine daily, the same as across Europe. However, the Scandinavian country reports a massive 41 per cent lower incidence of lung cancer and fewer than HALF the tobacco-related deaths of 24 out of 26 of its European peers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Subcommittee on Tax Matters is a European Parliament committee that focuses on tax-related issues. It was established in September 2020 to help the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

European commissioner Wopke Hoekstra made the false claim that \u201cvaping kills\u201d in a public address to parliament.\u00a0 Speaking at the Subcommittee on Tax Matters on February 6, Hoekstra inaccurately stated that vaping kills in the same way as smoking.  He said: \u201c700,000…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":990002,"featured_media":23086,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[257],"tags":[329,340,186,333],"slider":[],"class_list":["post-23085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-european-union","tag-netherlands","tag-nicotine","tag-sweden"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23085","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\/990002"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23085"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23092,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23085\/revisions\/23092"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23085"},{"taxonomy":"slider","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/slider?post=23085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}