ERS supports European Citizens’ Initiative to achieve tobacco-free environment and first European tobacco-free generation

ERS supports European Citizens’ Initiative to achieve tobacco-free environment and first European tobacco-free generation - article image

The European Respiratory Society (ERS) is supporting an ambitious goal of the European Citizens’ Initiative to achieve a tobacco-free environment and the first European tobacco-free generation by 2030.

ERS calls on its network to join the new campaign, launched recently by the European Citizens’ Initiative, which urges European Union citizens to get behind calls for a tobacco-free environment and generation.

The campaign has until January 2024 to gather one million signatures across the European Union. Once it reaches one million validated signatures, the European Commission is obliged to respond and take action.

Any EU citizen, who is old enough to vote in European Parliament elections, can sign.

The campaign aims to achieve several key objectives, including:

  • Promote the first tobacco-free European generation by 2028, ending the sale of tobacco and nicotine products to citizens born since 2010.
  • Create a European Net of tobacco-free and butts-free beaches and riverbanks, making this spaces more healthy and environmentally sustainable.
  • Establish a European Net of tobacco-free and butts-free National Parks, making them healthier, reducing contamination and risk of fires.
  • Extend outdoor smoke and vapor-free spaces, especially those frequented by minors (parks, swimming pools, sports events and centers, shows and restaurants terraces).
  • Eliminate tobacco advertising and presence in audiovisual productions, social media, specially addressing covert advertising through influencers and product placement.
  • Finance research and development projects for diseases caused by tobacco use to improve their prognosis and make them curable.

Tobacco usage is the leading cause of preventable disease and premature death across Europe. The European Citizens’ Initiative’s campaign aligns with ERS policy on Tobacco Control.

Prof. Carlos Robalo Cordeiro, ERS President, said: “Smoking/tobacco use remains to be a major concern for ERS, considering it is one of the main three factors which cause respiratory illness.”

Helping people to stop smoking and cutting tobacco use is the most cost-effective health intervention we can make to prevent illnesses such as lung cancer, chronic lung diseases and countless other health problems. ERS policy on tobacco use encourages governments to implement and enforce tobacco control policies, in order to reduce and prevent tobacco use.

If no action is taken to address current trends in its use, tobacco could kill eight million people each year during the 21st century according to the World Health Organization (WHO). 

Estimates from the European Cancer Information System (ECIS), indicate that in 2020, almost 260,000 people may have died in the EU from lung cancer. Cigarette smoking is also estimated to cause 82 percent of lung cancer cases in Europe (EC/IARC 2015), and exposure to SHS has also been established to cause lung cancer.

Globally, the WHO European Region has the highest prevalence of tobacco smoking among adults (28 percent). The WHO also estimates that the proportion of deaths from non-communicable diseases attributable to tobacco use in Europe was 18 percent in 2015, meaning that almost one in every five of deaths from non-communicable diseases could be avoided if tobacco use was eliminated altogether from the region. (WHO global report on trends in prevalence of tobacco smoking 2000–2025, second edition).

According to the latest Eurobarometer, only four percent of smokers start older than at the age of 25 and more than half (54 percent) of current or former smokers developed a regular smoking habit before the age of 18.

The European Citizens’ Initiative aims to promote the first tobacco-free European generation by 2028, ending the sale of tobacco and nicotine products to citizens born since 2010.

Prof. Carlos Robalo Cordeiro continued: “Through our advocacy activities, ERS continues to work directly with EU policymakers and civil society organisations to build support for the implementation of tobacco control measures. To this aim, we strongly support European Citizens’ Initiative’s new campaign which aims achieve a tobacco-free environment and the first European tobacco-free generation by 2030.

“ERS, along with other organisations, including the World Health Organization, support smoking prevention and tobacco control efforts worldwide. We also represent the respiratory community’s interests at the EU policy level.

“By doing this, we will not only improve wider lung health for citizens and communities today – we will also save future generations from falling into tobacco addiction. I strongly encourage EU citizens to sign this campaign.”

Learn more about European Citizens’ Initiative and join the new campaign.

Advocacy
News