CONTACT:

Yaël Ossowski
Deputy Director
Consumer Choice Center
yael@consumerchoicecenter.org

Jeff Stier
Senior Fellow
Consumer Choice Center
jstier@consumerchoicecenter.org

The Consumer Choice Center nominates INNCO for the 2018 EU Health Award

The Consumer Choice Center welcomes DG SANTE’s decision to focus the 2018 EU Health Award for NGOs around the criteria to prevent tobacco use among young Europeans.

CCC Deputy Director Yael Ossowski said INNCO, the International Network of Nicotine Consumer Organizations, is most deserving of the prize.

“The emergence of innovative and harm reducing technologies such as e-cigarettes and heat-not-burn products allows consumers to switch from traditional cigarettes to these new products that are according to the Royal College of Physicians up to 95% less harmful than legacy tobacco products.

“Many of these innovative products are even tobacco-free and are able to deliver nicotine without any tobacco consumption. It represents yet another instance of innovation and technology delivering a solution to the problem of tobacco addiction,” said Ossowski.

A civic movement for choice

While many regulators still have a hard time understanding the massive benefits of harm reducing tobacco and nicotine intake, some civil society organizations and million of vapers around the world remain committed to advocating for allowing harm reduction to happen in the market place.

In order to acknowledge these often boot-strapped efforts of the harm reduction community, the Consumer Choice Center nominates INNCO for the 2018 EU Health Award.

CCC’s Senior Fellow Jeff Stier, who recently testified on harm reduction at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) adds: “INNCO has been spearheading the European debate on harm reduction for years. Their members realized early on that allowing harm reduction can save millions of lives.”

Harm reduction knows no borders

Stier continues: “While INNCO does not meet the formal criteria as it is based in Switzerland and not the EU, we still think that it is deserving of the prize. We need a  stronger dialogue on the benefits of harm reduction.

“The instinct of many tobacco control activists to demonize everything that contains tobacco or nicotine, even if they are alternative proven to be healthier, is bad for public health. While public health officials in the UK seem to lead the way to sound harm reduction, smokers in countries that ban the promotion of these new technologies are not even aware that there are safer methods of consuming nicotine.

“Awarding INNCO and other harm reduction groups with the EU Health Award would demonstrate that DG SANTE actually cares about smokers and does not want to fight an ideological war against tobacco and nicotine,” said Stier.

 ***CCC Deputy Director Yaël Ossowski and Senior Fellow Jeff Stier are available to speak with accredited media on consumer regulations and consumer choice issues. Please send media inquiries HERE.***

The CCC represents consumers in over 100 countries across the globe. We closely monitor regulatory trends in Ottawa, Washington, Brussels, Geneva and other hotspots of regulation and inform and activate consumers to fight for #ConsumerChoice. Learn more at consumerchoicecenter.org.