As the EU considers tough new vape laws including a Europe wide flavour ban, a new study proves smokers quit using flavours.
You could call the results an ‘own goal’ given the Eurobarometer is actually run by the EU, and is used as a public sounding board on any future policies and European laws!
In the recent Attitudes of Europeans towards tobacco and electronic cigarettes survey, more smokers than ever before believed vaping was safer than smoking, with 57% using e-cigarettes to quit.
And in another positive jump, compared to a similar survey in 2017, more smokers have quit using e-cigs, with a whopping 31% quitting completely and 27% drastically cutting down on their smoking habits.
The good news doesn’t end there either, with 87% of vapers saying they switched from smoking and a tiny 2% saying they took up vaping without ever smoking a cigarette. Of those surveyed, well over 98% of those responding had never tried an e-cigarette blowing the myth once again vaping is a so called ‘gateway‘ to smoking.
However it’s the use of flavoured e-liquids by smokers on their quit journeys that stands out with most ignoring tobacco flavours and opting for fruit flavours.
I tried to crunch the numbers myself, however the results are confusing to say the least with tons of data all zipped up in huge swathes of data!
However the excellent World Vapers Alliance has done the hard work of sorting the wheat from the chaff and say:
Flavours is another topic of debate amongst policymakers and anti-vaping groups.
What they seem to constantly ignore is that most former smokers are able to stay off cigarettes by vaping flavours that do not remind them of the taste of tobacco.
As a former smoker and current vapers, I can wholeheartedly confirm this – I don’t even remember the last time I tried tobacco flavours.
Banning flavours will ruin the experience and send many back to smoking.
What we need is choice and variety!
And judging from the numbers, smokers AND vapers are telling the EU exactly that – in other words DO NOT BAN FLAVOURS!
The World Vapers Alliance says just follow the science, adding:
I think it is time to stop the scaremongering and get back to the facts.
Vaping does what countless lawmakers, tobacco control and public health groups failed to do: it helps current smokers to quit.
This should be our common goal and vaping clearly plays a key role in this.
The points above reinforce what we have been telling the EU lawmakers for a while: we need to include vaping in the EU Beating Cancer plan because it clearly works.
After the launch of the plan, the European Health Commissioner, Stella Kyriakides, said that the regulation of vaping will be based on science and research.
This is a perfect moment to take into account the research done in fact on behalf of the Commission through this survey.
Indeed…
It would be decidedly fishy if the EU was to ignore its own findings and introduce harsh legislation.
The facts speak for themselves – vaping saves lives.
Silly Question From UK Politician Gets A Great Answer!
Despite politicians around the world lining up to condemn vaping, it’s pretty clear most if not all of them don’t have a clue on the true facts and figures!
Indeed, most seem to jump on the gravy train of being anti-vapers mostly because of what they read in the press or what some group of soccermoms have screeched at them.
For instance, here’s Northern Ireland MP Jim Shannon Democratic Unionist Party, Strangford, who must have spent all of 30 seconds thinking up his hard hitting question to the UK Parliament:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to help ensure that people using vapes don’t start using cigarettes.
*Sighs*
Just imagine the question he could/should have asked…
Northern Ireland is home to around 400,000 smokers equating to around 1,000 deaths per year from lit tobacco related cancers alone.
Vaping deaths? Zero.
So instead of, I dunno, maybe asking if the UK Government was doing its bit to support his constituents on their quit smoking journey, he parroted a tired old argument that vaping is a gateway to smoking…see above and very many studies showing it really isn’t!
Jo Churchill, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care, replied and proved yet again – vaping is NOT a gateway to smoking according to the evidence collected by the UK Government and Public Health England:
The Government is clear that e-cigarettes should only be used by smokers to support their route to quitting smoking.
In the current Tobacco Control Plan for England, the Government commissioned Public Health England to publish annual updates on the evidence on e-cigarettes, including on their patterns of use.
Their latest report, published in March 2020, found no evidence that vaping among adults leads them to start smoking and little evidence that increases in vaping among young people leads to increases in smoking.
Despite that awesome answer, I doubt it will be long before another MP pops his or her head up asking a similar question and receiving a similar answer.
Read my article written back in March last year on the Tobacco Control Plan England: 8 Things To Know About E-cigarettes – UK Gov Blog
…and finally…If It’s Good Enough For Mary Jane Fonda…
She’s 83 and used to make my heartbeat skip more than few beats, and now the iconic actress Jane Fonda says he can’t sleep without her CBD vape pen!
It might be an ‘influencer‘ style announcement, as in a bit of marketing going on, but if you find it hard to drop off – listen to Jane!
She – like me – used to use hard hitting sleeping pills – and like many users they left her ‘hungover‘ the day after…
Since finding CBD vape pens she hasn’t looked back telling the media:
So it doesn’t get you high, but it’s four puffs and I’m asleep.
I’m kind of obsessed with hemp.
Not for the reasons that you might think, you know, because it makes you high.
Because I don’t smoke pot to get high anymore.
So if you fancy trying a Mary Jane Fonda style vape pen to help you relax and unwind – checkout the link below…yeah my pretty clumsy attempt at being an ‘influencer‘…best I stick to my day job lol.
Best CBD Vape Pen Starter Kits – 6 Top CBD Kits For New and Established Vapers
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Another quiet few days on the vape news front – hopefully more on Sunday!
