As expected, the Swedish Parliament voted against the government's ban on flavors in e-cigarettes and e-liquid. But the debate heated up when Yasmine Bladelius (S&D) claimed that the emails and letters received from users were not sent by real people.
"It is industry that is behind this, not real people" said Yasmine Bladelius (S&D) in a rebuttal with Clara Aranda (S&D).
Although most things were ready for the vote in Parliament A united 1TP8Movement was glued to the Swedish Parliament's webcast debate on the government's proposal to ban flavorings in e-cigarettes. Not least entrepreneurs who risked losing 90% of their product range if the government's proposal had gone through. This was not the case. As expected, a united opposition in the Riksdag voted down the proposal.
"It's like a constant year of stress is finally over. What a huge relief." stated Linus Gustafsson, e-juice manufacturer from who runs two vejpshoppes online, when the voting was done and the votes counted. 177 MEPs voted against the taste ban and 122 voted for the government proposal.
Parliament voted down the taste ban
But nevertheless the debate on the proposal sometimes heated. Johan Hultberg (m), Clara Aranda (sd), Pia Steensland (kd) and Anders W Johansson (c) reiterated their support for a harm reduction perspective in tobacco policy. They pointed out the differences between e-cigarettes and tobacco smoking and that the aim of policy should be to reduce the harm of smoking - not to make it harder for smokers to switch to less harmful alternatives.
"A flavor ban on e-cigarettes is not in line with this. On the contrary, there are signals and studies that indicate that bans of this kind lead to the opposite - that more people start smoking - including young people - after the bans are in place. It is therefore a very risky proposal that the government has put forward." stated Johan Hultberg (m).
Accused "industry" of sending fake emails
Yasmine Bladelius (s) represented the government and was obviously not happy with the outcome in Parliament. She was also quick to accuse e-cigarette companies of influencing the decision.
"Members of the Social Affairs Committee have received thousands of emails from people claiming to have quit smoking with the help of flavored e-cigarettes. There are no studies to suggest that this is the case, quite the opposite" said Yasmine Bladelius.
She said that the people who had contacted politicians in the committee were unlikely to exist in reality.
"Is it really true that Ann-Marie, 69 years old, sends an e-mail at 2:30 in the morning telling me that she has quit smoking with the help of a jotdgubb flavor?" wondered Yasmine Bladelius. "Of course it is the industry that is behind these emails. If there were real people behind it, it's a bit strange that a research team that wants to know more about this can't find a single person to interview. That's because there are so few people who manage to quit smoking with bubblegum flavor, instead of using the evidence-based smoking cessation products available on the market." Yasmine Bladelius.
"Listening to users"
Clara Aranda (sd) Yasmine Bladelius replied that e-cigarettes are proven to help people quit smoking. And politicians cannot live in a bubble:
"I can decide for myself which emails are from real individuals and which are not. Of course it can be part of a campaign, but as a politician I have to take a stand on that. And this doesn't just come via email, I talk to people too. I meet them in town, at meetings, discuss this with them and listen to what they have to say. I also have relatives who have managed to quit smoking with the help of these products" said Clara Aranda.
Campaign smakförbudet.se successful
According to Victor Bryn-Jensen, President of the Electronic Cigarette Industry Association, BELC, suggests Yasmine Bladelius comments on the fact that vejpers in Sweden have really made themselves heard. As Vejpkollen previously reported, BELC launched website smakföbudet.se already in the fall of 2021.
"The idea of the page was to make it easy for Swedish e-cigarette users to contact the right politicians regarding the flavor ban. It is not an automated channel, but information about the flavor ban, how it would affect businesses and users as well as a clear list of politicians in the Social Affairs Committee and their email addresses" says Vikcor Bryn-Jensen.
According to BELC statistics, a total of 2929 vejpers have used the site to send emails to various Members.
"They could choose to write freely, or use a template where they filled in their age, how long they smoked, when they quit and what flavors they used to stay smoke-free" says Victor Bryn-Jensen.
The text was then transferred to a finished email that was exported to an email program, different depending on the user's settings.
"Then they clicked 'send' - if they were happy." says Victor Bryn-Jensen.
"No one is hiding"
According to BELC statistics, 348 chose to use the simplified text. 10 downloaded their text in pdf format. 343 people chose to copy only the email address of a politician or two.
"If Yasmine Bladelius don't believe that vejpers who stay smoke-free with candy flavors are real, then the next step is to visit a vejpshop. It's not like anyone is hiding - neither from her nor from researchers" says Victor Bryn-Jensen to Vejpkollen.
Wants to invite Bladelius for coffee
A similar message was given to e-cigarette users Therese Ström, 38. Through her Tik Tok channel, she tagged Yasmine Bladelius and invited her for coffee.
"If you want to meet a constituent, one who is "real" and who vejpakes candy flavors, you are welcome anytime. I have been smoke-free for five years now, as has my husband. We are now a smoke-free family, with many friends around Sweden who have made the same journey. But we have two children, work shifts and find it hard to get away. I send emails when I can, even if it's three in the morning. Get in touch and we can have a friendly discussion about flavors" said Therese Ström via its CloudFamily_Official channel on Tik Tok.
Links with interest groups
Yasmine Bladelius in addition to being a member of the Social Affairs Committee Central Association for Alcohol and Drug Education (CAN), an organization with the aim of disseminating information about drugs and drug prevention measures. CAN has strong links with the temperance movement and the National Association for a Drug-Free Society (RNS), as well as a number of associations that work in various ways for a tobacco-free Sweden (including Professional Associations against Tobacco and VISIR). The chairman and vice-chairman of the association are appointed by the government. The association's reports are often used by the Public Health Agency of Sweden, interest organizations and the government to justify decisions or show statistics.
The parliamentary debate did not reveal which research team unsuccessfully sought vejpare for interviews. Vejpkollen has sought Yasmine Bladelius for a comment.
Do you have a story to tell? Comment below (and it will appear after Vejpkollen's editor-in-chief has looked at it)
Qualified (S)kitsnack and lies, I am one of those who have been involved and fought for us to keep our right to refuse cigarettes! Was also in the beginning of the movie (Elvislook) that Linus made. Fellow Vapers are not liars, but REAL and very much alive people. All have in common that they (WE = Fellow Vapers) realized that smoking kills us, one puff at a time. That's why we became vejpers, and going back to the tobacco companies' LIES is not for us who have really become educated over the years. 2015 it was my turn to defeat the craving for smoking, and I have managed with Blueberry vejp and Menthol since then. Just like my Fellow Vapers. We are all proud Ambassadors of vejp, let's keep it that way!
Gets so tired! There is research but still she stands and lies herself blue that this research would show the opposite that more people start smoking? That you are not ashamed and have no professional pride as a politician in these matters. Do not stand and claim that you care about people's health when you try to introduce bans that force people back to cigarettes and tobacco! Hypocrisy is called it🙃 then stand and claim that people who exercise their democratic right for fake.... embarrassing is just the first name. In addition, there is no talk of a giant industry with a world agenda ... jeez!
I have smoked since I was 14, today 28, and tried to quit several times with and without various aids, medicines, snuff, etc., but only now with vejphe fact that I am smoke-free, do not smell shit and pollute my surroundings and do not have to see my children see me destroy my lungs and go to an early death. The fact that this means nothing to some politicians scares me. The lack of facts scares me. They should be urging all smokers to vejpa instead of undermining non-smoking and the development of such a much less harmful alternative!
Unfortunately, it is no longer about health in the true sense of the word, but about a puritanical ideology that says you should not use any kind of drug or stimulant at all, even if it is fairly harmless. Some people were against smoking long before the major health hazards of lung cancer and cardiovascular disease became known in the 1960s. Today, nicotine can be used without any major health risks, but there are still fanatics who are against it because it is nicotine in a "pleasurable" dose and it is "similar" to smoking. Despite the fact that there is no indication or evidence whatsoever that vejpning would be harmful to others, it is "banned" in various outdoor places. Gabriel Wikström even wanted "vejp bans" on beaches and in parks :))
Isn't it a bit scary that we have politicians in Parliament who indulge in conspiracy theories?
The problem is that she is not talking about being smoke-free when she says someone has quit. She means completely nicotine-free.
That our health has improved, that doctors recommend vejpning, it doesn't matter because we are not nicotine-free.
My oncologist told me after I finished my cancer treatment that I could vejpake as much as I wanted, as long as I stayed away from cigarettes.
I reacted strongly to the claim that researchers have not found a single person who has stopped smoking with the help of e-cigs. I would be happy to help them if there is any research in Gothenburg. I grew up in a family with smoking parents, grandmother, grandfather, uncles with wives were all smokers. So maybe not so strange that I became a smoker myself. I started smoking when I was twelve and a half years old. As I got interested in couple dancing in 1997 and very few dancers are smokers and you are very close to your dance partner, you don't want to smell smoke. I therefore had to spend a lot of time on dance nights washing off and freshening up my breath so as not to stink. Therefore, I tried several times to quit in recent years and with the help of everything the pharmacy and prescription drugs had to offer without success. But then at the end of October 2013 I got my first e-cig and juice with 36mg nicotine and on November 1 I was free from the stink sticks. Today I am sixty-five and a half years old, still vejpare with juice containing 1.5 mg of nicotine that I mix myself. As I have grown up children and a little sister who has also smoked, I have made them also switch to vejp. Removing flavors would be devastating.
The fact that she has links to the RNS, the Temperance Movement and similar movements says it all, these organizations have some kind of religious anti-drug and anti-indulgence ideology based in puritanism and totalitarian ideologies. This is as far as you can get from real public health work and the harm minimization principle. But it's good that the "taste ban" was voted down in the parliament and I continue to vejpa on the outdoor terraces:))
Yes, if they were just looking for smokers who quit with the help of bubblegum flavor, then I partly understand that they had a hard time. 🤣😂🤣
It should be clear that Yasmine Bladelius is sitting on several chairs here.
On the one hand, she represents S in the Social Affairs Committee, but then she is also the chairman of the Central Association for Alcohol and Drug Education (CAN), an organization funded by the government to strengthen the work of the government's ANDTS (tobacco strategy). They are thus paid to work AGAINST harm reduction alternatives.
Interestingly, it seems that the leader of the Left Party Nooshi Dadgostar uses a vejp instead of smoking🙂I'm listening to Val 2022 | Annie Lööf (C) interviewed in Morgonpasset i P3 on Podbean, check it out! (edit: changed to the correct link: https://www.podbean.com/media/share/dir-mf3xk-14eab8c9?utm_campaign=w_share_ep&utm_medium=dlink&utm_source=w_share - time: from 2:30 - reds adm :-)) Yet her party is against harm reduction and for puritanism and paternalism by voting for ridiculous and symbolic "vejp bans" in various outdoor places and flavor bans in e-juices.