INNCO - International Network of Nicotine Consumer Organisations
INNCO
Founded in 2016, the International Network of Nicotine Consumer Organisations (INNCO) is a global member association that advocates for tobacco harm reduction and access to, and proportionate regulation of, low-risk alternative nicotine products.
ID: 657522841173-59
Lobbying Activity
Response to Revised recommendation on smoke-free environments
20 Jul 2022
Smoke-free EU Environments: Public Submission
INNCO is the only global non-profit community of ex-smokers who use safer nicotine to avoid toxic forms of tobacco. It is an umbrella organization representing 35 country-based grassroots Member Organizations and networks worldwide (see “About INNCO” below). We help smokers quit. We support the rights of 112 million safer nicotine consumers worldwide, and we seek to ensure access - for 1.3 billion people who use toxic forms of tobacco - to safer nicotine alternatives. We thank you for the opportunity to express our position, and note that EU decisions on this topic have a massive impact on similar policies worldwide.
Our position and recommendations are simple. They are evidence-based and reflect the lived-experience of our members who are all ex-smokers.
Second hand smoke risks:
- 80-90 million EU citizens smoke
- Massive longitudinal studies show that 2nd hand smoke increases lung cancer risk by 30% in never-smokers who live with a smoker for decades (some large longitudinal studies show no increased risk)
- A never-smoker’s lifetime risk of lung cancer is 1%, so a 30% higher risk means that their lifetime cancer risk will be 1.3% instead of 1%
- 2nd hand smoke is, however, probably harmful to never-smokers with long exposure
Therefore, indoor smoking bans of combustibles are justified because of the potential harm to workers in bars, restaurants and other areas where smoking was once common.
Second hand vapor risks:
- Vapor from e-cigarettes is not smoke, and is vastly safer than tobacco smoke
- Unlike smoke, which lingers 30-40 minutes, vapor evaporates in 20-30 seconds
- Numerous studies show that potentially harmful substances in 2nd hand e-cigarette
vapor are well within both US and EU occupational safety limits
- Both Public Health England (UK Health Security Agency) and Cancer Research UK have reviewed evidence on 2nd hand vapor and agree it is of “negligible risk to bystanders”
Behavioral impact of public vaping bans:
- Forcing ex-smokers - who use safer nicotine - to vape in designated smoking zones is morally equivalent to forcing recovering alcoholics to drink water in whiskey bars
- Forcing ex-smokers-who-use-safer-nicotine to vape in designated smoking zones exposes them to 2nd hand smoke which, if harmful, increases harm to ex-smokers
- Forcing ex-smokers-who-use-safer-nicotine to vape in designated smoking zones stigmatizes them, and that stigmatization will further discourage smoking cessation
- Smokers who see ex-smokers vaping in designated smoking zones may benefit, but ex-smokers should not be used as cannon fodder to achieve public health goals
Recommendation: Examine the evidence. You will discover there is no rational reason to prohibit nicotine vaping in public places. No plausible harm to bystanders, and significant potential harm to adult vapers. Such prohibition may discourage smoking cessation by causing smokers to believe, incorrectly, that nicotine vaping is as harmful as smoking.
We encourage you to consider this also in conjunction with the excellent submission from ETHRA, an EU-centered network. Most ETHRA members are also members of INNCO.
Thank you
Note: INNCO is an NGO and a collective of ex-smoking consumers
simultaneously - we are therefore also a consumers organisation
About INNCO: We are a global community of ex-smokers helping smokers quit, and defending the rights of 112 million People Who Use Safer Nicotine (PWUSN). We believe that current global efforts to deny 1.3 billion people - who use toxic forms of tobacco – access to safer nicotine alternatives is a form of mass murder. Safer alternatives include nicotine patches, nicotine gum, nicotine lozenges, prescription nicotine inhalers, nicotine pouches, nicotine vapes, snus and heated tobacco products. Almost all of us have lost a loved one to smoking. Almost all of us experienced health improvements after we quit smoking. This is neither a game...
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