Netherlands Flavour Ban – Down To Governmental “Crookedness”

The decision to bring in a Netherlands flavour ban has left the country’s vapers not only in shock but also scratching their heads in bemusement.

It seems the idea behind the ban of all flavours except tobacco and possibly menthol is down to a couple of completely outdated arguments – vaping is a gateway for kids into smoking, and that e-cigarettes are harmful to health.

It goes without saying lit tobacco will remain on sale…as it seems to do everywhere nannying politicians bang down the ban hammer of flavoured e-liquids – odd that…

I reported on Holland’s vapers coming under threat back in May this year, and it seems junior health minister Paul Blokhuis, who called for the ban, will be getting his way from July 1st 2020 – just days away…

Blokhuis decided on bringing in this draconian ban order after reading a fact sheet produced by the Trimbos addiction clinic.

Trimbos had more than few ‘facts’ that do not stand up to scrutiny including statements such as:

…it is now clear that the product is more harmful than initially assumed…

…[vaping] can have adverse health effects…

…For this group, [teens] there is increasing evidence that the e-cigarette is a stepping stone to tobacco cigarettes…

All rubbished very many times by the real medical experts, scientist and researchers that have taken a detailed, cold clinical look at e-cigarettes.

But once again we see a sound bite, fame hungry ‘junior’ politician throwing his/her country’s vapers and smokers under the bus for their 15 minutes of fame – and sod the health risks to thousands.

Here’s just a couple of my articles that counter these tired and quite frankly ridiculous anti-vape arguments:

• Studies Show Vaping Does Not Lead to Kids Smoking
• Teen Vaping and Smoking – The Cold Hard Facts Revealed
• E-Liquid Flavour Bans Are Threatening Lives
• Who Says Vaping is 95% Safer than Smoking?

As you are well aware by now, there’s plenty more where that came from.

Yet these ignorant politicians ignore the positive science around e-cigarettes, and instead scaremonger and take the abolish route.

Crazy and definitely criminal.

Netherlands Flavour Ban – Dutch Advocacy Group Responds

Acvoda is the country’s leading advocacy group and says it is ‘stunned‘ by the announcement.

They say the decision stinks of governmental “crooked reasoning and factual inaccuracies” and if the politicians bothered to look, they’d see the number of kids taking up vaping is decreasing – and that is also from the Trimbos website!

A spokesman said:

The reasoning that flavors are specifically on the market to lure young people is simply a fallacy.

From our supporters we know that the tobacco flavors, which the Secretary of State wants to keep, are the least wanted flavors among adults.

Recent research by RIVM and the sales figures for liquids also clearly show this.

By only offering tobacco flavors, you let vapers get used to the taste of tobacco, which actually reinforces the relapse (or switch by young people) to real tobacco.

Acvoda say the ban is an “insult” to the country’s vapers and will create a dangerous black market as vapers buy e-liquid sourced from elsewhere. We only have to look to the USA to see how that pans out.

The advocates point out that when it comes to vaping – there really is a terrible bias going on with lies taken as fact:

There is a real opportunity for all parties involved if people could be helped with an alternative that is at least 95 percent less harmful.

Scientists, policy makers and healthcare professionals would normally embrace all of that.

But in the case of smoking, which causes many victims in the Netherlands every year, a legally available, proven less harmful alternative is tainted with factual inaccuracies.

Health policies need to be effective and the flavors in e-cigarette liquids have played an important role for our members to definitively renounce the cigarette.

It is therefore a complete insult to all those people who purposefully use an e-cigarette to ban flavors.

In addition, you may wonder who benefits from vapers stopping buying their favorite liquids in (legal) Dutch stores and turning to the black market – the last thing we want to see here are the unsafe conditions we saw in the US last year.

For more info and how to help fight the proposed Netherlands flavour ban – checkout the Acvoda website.

Let’s hope by banding together and contacting politicians, the vapers of the Netherlands can win as was shown by the Aussie nicotine ban protests.

Vapers have a strong voice when they come together, as is being proven more and more.

Behalve geluk!