A group of prominent European and international scientists has sent an open letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, expressing serious concern about recent statements by Health Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi regarding the health risks of novel nicotine products.
In interviews and public statements, Commissioner Várhelyi asserted that alternative nicotine products are “as harmful” as conventional cigarettes. The scientists argue that these claims are scientifically untenable and contradict a substantial body of independent evidence.
In their letter, the authors state:
“There is no serious dispute that vaping, pouches, and other forms of non-combustible tobacco and nicotine products are far less harmful than smoking.”
They emphasise a key distinction in risk communication:
“There is an important difference between safe and safer: smoke-free products do not have to be ‘safe’ to be far ‘safer’ than cigarettes.”
According to the letter, tobacco smoke contains around 7,000 identifiable chemical agents, many of them toxic or carcinogenic. In contrast, biomarker studies show that exposure to toxicants among users of smoke-free products is “much lower compared to those of people who smoke, close to background, or undetectable.”
The scientists further stress:
“Nearly all the risks from tobacco use arise from smoking: inhaling thousands of chemical agents, many toxic or carcinogenic, produced during the combustion of tobacco leaves in the burning tip of a cigarette.”
They warn that misrepresenting relative risks could have significant policy implications. The letter argues that incorrect assumptions about comparative harm may distort taxation, undermine proportionate regulation, and negatively affect major EU public health initiatives aimed at reducing cancer and cardiovascular disease.
The signatories include professors of medicine, epidemiology, toxicology, psychology and public health from across Europe. They call on the Commission leadership to correct what they describe as “dangerous, false, and misleading statements” and to ensure that EU policymaking “is grounded in sound science.”
