Only 'tobacco flavours' can remain - for those who want to quit smoking with e-cigarettes
From spring 2021, the Dutch government will ban all flavoured e-juices, except 'tobacco flavours'. Now vejpers in the country are protesting and calling on all Europeans who use e-cigarettes to take a stand.
According to the Dutch Minister for Youth and Health, Paul Blockhuis, the flavours of e-cigarettes attract young people to eventually start using regular cigarettes.
"A smoke-free generation must also be an e-cigarette-free generation" he tells the magazine DutchNews.com
Paul Blockhouse argues that 'tobacco flavours' are sufficient for current smokers to quit smoking with the help of vejpning. At the same time, new research in this area shows that it is in fact almost all flavours, except tobacco, that lead to most smoke stops by vejpning.
Vejpare protests
The Dutch government's decision has been strongly criticised. According to several commentators, the government is ignoring the fact that e-cigarettes (and their varied flavours) help thousands of smokers quit every year. And that this contributes to overall public health. And now Dutch vejpare has started a petition to stop the decision.
"The government's claims about flavours and how they are used are completely unfounded. Flavour is one of the main reasons why smokers switch to e-cigarettes. Retailers respect the age limits and their customers are mostly former smokers." Writes the vejps in connection with the petition.
So far, over 8,000 signatures from across the EU have been collected.
"Smokers continue to smoke"
According to the Belgian researcher Frank Baeyens, professor of psychology at the University of Leuven, politicians are missing the mark when they regulate e-cigarettes in the same way as tobacco products. The Belgian government is following the same line of reasoning as its Dutch counterparts and recently introduced a ban on online sales of e-cigarettes in the country.
"The tactics to get smokers to quit are already working badly. And it's not helped by governments giving smokers the impression that e-cigarettes are as harmful as regular cigarettes. At the same time, it's getting harder to point out the health benefits to smokers. No marketing of e-cigarettes is allowed. Banning flavours gives smokers fewer reasons to choose e-cigarettes over cigarettes. The bottom line is that smokers will continue to smoke regular cigarettes instead." says Frank Baeyens in the newspaper DH (translated via ETHRA News)
Better if young people vejpar
And according to Frank Baeyens the argument that young people are attracted to smoking regular cigarettes via e-cigarettes is poorly substantiated.
"There is really nothing to indicate that this is the case. Not in Belgium or in other countries. Rather, the research shows that non-smoking young people who try e-cigarettes rarely become long-term users. On the other hand, we see that smoking is declining sharply while vejp use is increasing among young people. It has also been shown that the young people who tend to start smoking are the same individuals who tend to start vejpa. In other words, this is a risk behaviour that was present in the individuals from the start. We must therefore ask whether it is not in fact a good development if Young people choose e-cigarettes over tobacco." says Frank Baeyens
2 years ago the flavours saved my life!
I was able to quit tobacco and regular cigarettes and switch to e-cigs instead and have a healthier lifestyle without 100s of toxic substances!
Removing flavours from e-cigarettes is an extremely bad idea as many people I know have been able to quit cigarettes and switch to e-cigarettes thanks to these flavours!
Banning flavours is an extremely bad idea. Being able to choose between flavours is a big important detail for the smoker. I myself have been smoke-free and cigarette-free for 10 years thanks to e-cigarettes and a variety of flavours. Many people I know don't even like the tobacco flavour of a cigarette and think it's good that different flavours are available to choose from.