Blanket smoking bans are not the best way to cut smoking. Rather innovative nicotine products, such as pouches, offer a more effective path to a ‘smoke-free Europe’. This was one of the key messages given at an afternoon panel discussion in the EU quarter’s Renaissance Hotel in Brussels.
The event was hosted by ‘We Are Innovation’, a global network of over 40 think tanks, foundations and NGOs committed to advancing human creativity, adopting new technologies, and promoting innovative solutions to world’s most pressing problems.
Opening the session, Tetiana Rak and We Are Innovation CEO Francisco Fernández presented findings from a new report on nicotine pouches. Fernández noted that, despite decades of restrictions and higher taxes, one in four European adults still smokes. “At the current pace of decline, Europe will not reach its ‘smoke-free by 2040’ goal for more than a century.” He argued that this represents millions of avoidable deaths — and a failure to adapt to better tools.
“At the current pace of decline, Europe will not reach its ‘smoke-free by 2040’ goal for more than a century.”
Countries such as Sweden and Greece, he explained, are reducing smoking not by intensifying prohibition, but by introducing and regulating lower-risk alternatives. Nicotine pouches, in particular, provide pharmaceutical-grade nicotine without tobacco, combustion, vapour or second-hand exposure. Sweden’s near smoke-free status, Fernández suggested, reflects the country’s willingness to treat innovation as an asset rather than a threat.
Czech MEP Ondřej Dostál, who shared his experience from the European Parliament’s Public Health Committee (SANT). He expressed support for a proportional approach, emphasising that regulation should support well-being without undermining autonomy. “Our purpose is not simply to be data points in reaching an arbitrary 2040 target.” He also pointed to the importance of subsidiarity, arguing that national and local authorities may be better placed than the EU to shape culturally appropriate measures.
Dr Karl Fagerström, clinical psychologist and founder of the Society for Research and Nicotine and Tobacco, addressed common misconceptions about nicotine. He highlighted that nicotine itself is not responsible for cancer or tobacco-related disease, and noted its role in cessation therapies. “It’s the thousands of chemicals contained in tobacco and tobacco smoke that makes tobacco use so deadly… It’s this toxic mix of chemicals, not nicotine, that causes serious health effects.”
To illustrate these dynamics in real life, Carissa Düring, Director of Considerate Pouchers, shared her experience growing up in Sweden. Early progress in reducing smoking had mainly been among men who adopted snus. Women were slower to switch, in part because traditional products were seen as unattractive. That began to change with the arrival of nicotine pouches, which are discreet and do not stain teeth. Female smoking rates fell sharply, as did youth smoking. Among young adults aged 16–29, prevalence now stands at just 2.3%.
Düring’s conclusion was clear: a single solution will not work for every group. “One smoking cessation tool will not work for all groups of society. They will not affect women and men equally.”
In closing remarks, Fernández warned that countries which ban innovation altogether — citing Mexico’s constitutional prohibition of vaping — risk harming both public health and scientific progress. Fagerström challenged the claim that all nicotine products carry equal risk, arguing that such statements are driven more by history and mistrust than by data.
The overall message from the panel was consistent: the fastest routes to a smoke-free society are emerging not from stricter bans, but from regulated choice and harm-reduction strategies. As Düring put it, “Let’s not waste time trying to reinvent the wheel when the evidence and the voices of consumers already exist and are pointing the way.”
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