Vaping is not smoking.
The future of legislation is differentation.

Helping smokers make better choices through harm reduction, independently from big tobacco.

About us

We are the Independent European Vape Alliance (IEVA). We represent independently owned vaping companies and national trade associations in EU policy-making processes.

Our members are not tobacco companies. They are primarily small or medium sized businesses helping smokers who cannot or do not want to quit make better choices through harm reduction.

They are committed to playing their part in ending the smoking epidemic, which remains the leading cause of preventable death in the European Union.

Thoughtful marketing and advertising – making sure our products appeal to smokers not kids – is a core part of what they stand for.

About vaping

Vaping is not smoking. There is no tobacco or combustion involved, and government agencies around the world recognise that smokers are better of vaping than continuing to smoke.

We believe this should be recognised in EU policy through differentiated regulatory regimes. A quarter of Europeans still smoke and half of them will die from a smoking related disease.

This is a public health challenge we can overcome.

Alongside traditional tobacco control measures which we support, encouraging smokers to use less harmful nicotine delivery mechanisms, like vaping, has the potential to save tens of millions of lives.

What is vaping?

Vaping products – also known as e-cigarettes – aerosolize a liquid solution through heating, not burning. The user then inhales the aerosol, which replicates the visual and sensory aspects of smoking. What it doesn’t replicate is the smoke. It’s the combustion involved in smoking that creates smoke, and it’s smoke that contains high levels of carcinogens and other harmful substances. It’s because vaping doesn’t produce smoke that Public Health England have estimated that vaping is 95% less harmful than smoking. There is a lot of debate around vaping, much of which is inaccurate. Read more about vaping myths here.

Is vaping regulated?

Europe was the first region in the world to regulate vaping, and manufacturers have to comply with strict standards. All products are subject to an intensive risk assessment and testing regime that safegraurds the quality and safety of products on the market. Products must be appropriately labelled with a clear nicotine warning, and products must be supplied in child proof packaging. Regulation is important in ensuring that products meet high standards; we believe it can also be used to encourage smokers to make better choices and encourage the use of less harmful products instead of smoking. Read more about our view on regulation in our website’s category “POLICY”.

How do we know that vaping is less harmful?

Government agencies around the world – from the FDA in the United States to Public Health England in the UK to the New Zealand Department of Health – have said so. They came to this conclusion by looking through fifteen years worth of scientific studies. These studies are broad and diverse; they compare the contents of cigarette smoker to vaping product aerosol; look and changes these products make to the human body; and examine the effects of the ingredients used. Read more about vaping science here.