It sounds crazy but there really is a Denmark flavour ban plan looming.
Vape advocacy groups are so concerned they are calling on all vapers in Europe to get involved to fight this ridiculous ban.
More on how you and your organization can get involved and fight back in a moment.
So what’s this all about then?
If you thought Europe and in particular the EU was pro-vaping think again.
As Martin Cullip the chair of the New Nicotine Alliance told us last Christmas, the EU is still smarting that it’s bid to pretty much ban all vape products was defeated by concerted efforts of advocacy groups like the NNA.
It naturally follows, and given many of Denmark’s political parties support the idea, the Denmark flavour ban plan could be lapped up by those faceless un-elected EU mandarins, and as advocacy group ETHRA says:
If you tolerate this YOUR flavours will be next…
Good quote from a great tune – [Manic Street Preachers for those not in the know lol].
BTW ETHRA stands for the European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates.
Denmark Flavour Ban Plan – Why?
It’s the whole Tobacco Harm Reduction scene and thinking that has sparked this outrageous ban plan from the government of Denmark.
It believes there’s NO such thing as THR – yes really!
Instead it promotes a “quit or die” policy – as in go ‘cold turkey‘ and sweat it out – literally.
It goes without saying the science points to that not only being, shall we say, ‘silly‘ if dangerously stressful coupled with numerous relapses back to lit tobacco – the science shows vaping is up to 5 times more likely to result in a successful quit smoking attempt!
Worst still and if smokers can’t ‘man-up and quit‘ for want of a better phrase, the Government says they should go to a smoking cessation ‘expert’ and be given suicide inducing drugs…and be made to pay for them!
We KNOW those drugs and medications come with seriously dangerous side-effects and we KNOW gums – patches and sprays simply don’t work. As you’ll see from the article I linked too, Big Pharma and Big Tobacco have known they’re useless for decades!
So we can see the why – so what about the what?
Denmark Flavour Ban Plan – What Are They Banning?
In a nutshell – every single e-liquid flavour with or without nicotine except for – you’ve guessed it – tobacco and menthol flavours.
And yes…
It’s all about the children…
FFS…*bangs head on desk*
A so called ‘impact study‘ from Denmark’s Ministry of Health and the Elderly and sent to the EU said – among other total BS:
The WHO writes in their “Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic 2019” that children and adolescents who have never smoked and who use e-cigarettes appear to at least double their risk of starting to smoke cigarettes later in life.
Ah it’s from the WHO so it must be true…
We all know the World Health Organization is the biggest anti-vape brigade on the planet and most of what it says is complete crap.
We also know the so called e-cigarettes being a gateway to smoking among youngsters is rubbish and has been rubbished very many times.
But when it comes to e-liquid flavours it seems politicians in particular become brain dead and blinkered.
It’s almost as if someone has performed a mass hypnosis session with the mantra:
Think of the children…
Click of the fingers and you’re back in the ban room.
Funny if it wasn’t so sad and down right dangerous.
Full List Of the Denmark Flavour Ban Plan
Here’s the link to the full article from ETHRA and the Danish Vapers Association [DADAFO] that shows the ban plan in detail.
The key points are:
- Display ban of all tobacco including e-cigarettes
- Stricter bans on advertising and sponsorship
- Plain packaging
- Smoke / Vape Free school time!
- Ban on flavourings in tobacco products and electronic cigarettes
- Regulation of tobacco substitutes [non-tobacco nicotine products including none nic snus]
- Registration scheme for retailers of electronic cigarettes
- Stricter penalties
All very draconian and all ridiculous in the wider scheme of things.
How To Stop It Spreading Across Europe
Sadly with the support of the country’s political parties, the EU could simply rubber-stamp this proposal – which spells danger for vaping as we know it in the wider Europe.
TPD3 is currently being reviewed and the results from that will be made public in May 2021.
Should this legislation pass it will set a precedent for any other EU countries and nationwide bans could follow.
If you think for a single moment vapers here in the UK can be marked safe as we’re not in the EU – kind of…think again.
Once a precedent is set no matter where in the world, anti-vape groups will double down and begin lobbying our Government for similar bans – such as those in the US and possibly Denmark.
It really is that simple and now more than ever the so called ‘vape fam‘ needs to work as one.
DADAFO is calling for help and warns lives are on the line and not just from smokers not being able to switch:
If the Danish government gets away with banning flavours in Denmark it will encourage flavour bans elsewhere and could affect how the upcoming TPD3 regulates flavours.
Prohibition has already crept in, with flavour bans in Estonia, Finland and Hungary.
These bans could ultimately affect every European country, and bring the general public health in jeopardy.
Black markets, which have been mostly avoided in Europe, will very likely find a place in the market, and that is not good news for consumer safety.
Need we remind what happened in the US, regarding EVALI?
It seems crazy to me that what I thought was an open minded country is taking such an horrific backward step with the health of its nation.
The advocacy groups also says that far from kids in the country vaping – they’re more likely to smoke:
We need your help. We hope that all the European tobacco harm reduction associations will back us on this – sending in comments from each of the organizations.
DADAFO warned in December that a flavour ban could drive up to 70,000 Danish ex-smokers back to cigarettes and/or severely harm the general public health.
At best (if the nonsense about teen vaping being due to flavors is assumed to be true) this ban will prevent 1,200 Danish teens from starting to vape each year.
The official numbers for teen vaping have been declining since 2014, fewer and fewer teens are vaping, furthermore teen e-cigarette use is primarily amongst current or previous smokers.
At the same time, smoking prevalence for youth is going up.
There is indeed a problem, but the problem is NOT vaping or flavours.
The problem is still tobacco cigarette smoking among youth.
Shocking stuff indeed.
OK, to help fight Denmark’s flavour ban plan submit your thoughts direct to the EU using the form below:
The cutoff date is July 20th 2020 – but please get your or your organization’s contribution in as soon as possible.
Just to be clear – potential hypocrisy of the EU at this matter, not vapers 🙂
Hi,
I live in Poland and for a few years now I noticed a rise of flavoured beer. They are advertised as alcohol free but most of them have 2% or more counterpart. Not to mention colourful, flavoured vodka, sold in 100 ml bottles or even plastic shots, “ready to use”. Is it the same in other EU countries? I’m asking because I sense hypocrisy here…
The rationale is really puzzling. It looks like cover up actionism for their lackluster youth protection so far. (After all, teenagers easily got their hands on vaping products). But the flavour ban itself seems more about making the gateway hypothesis come true.
If you’re following the flavours=usage logic, then getting teens accustomed to tobacco-tasting e-cigarettes isn’t a very sensible strategy. That’s a quite reckless public health experiment. And not just for adult ex-smokers.