Triumph Dashed In Denmark
Jyllands-Posten reported that the efforts of consumer groups and vapers had paid off over a planned flavour ban – but the government moved swiftly to crush hopes
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by Dave Cross
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“Tobacco smoking is the main preventable source of disease and death in Denmark,” said the Danish government as if this justified an assault on vaping – proven to be an excellent quit method for smokers and orders of magnitude safer than smoking.
The government slapped its proposals to crack down on tobacco harm reduction in order to reduce somehow the blight of tobacco disease to the European Commission: “A particular problem relates to smoking by children and young people, as they are particularly vulnerable to the harmful effects of tobacco and other nicotine products.”
It prompted an immediate response by advocates across Europe.
Mikkel Schmidt responded by warning: “Calling all EU vapers! Denmark is setting a dangerous precedent for a flavour ban, by sneaking it by the EU Commission during the peak of a pandemic. We need to stop this now!”
EU4Snus commented: “Calling all harm reduction supporters. It seems the Danish government hasn't observed that 7-8 million people die of smoking-caused diseases each year. Instead, they try their best to obstruct safer products like ecigs and snus by banning flavours for adults!”
Dansk e-Damper Forening (DADAFO), the Danish consumer group warned: “The worrying thing for DADAFO is the impact this will have on businesses and employees: We predict, based on market knowledge, that 90-95% of all e-cigarette specialty stores in Denmark will be forced to close before June 2021, as their business is mainly driven by profits from the sale of e-liquids with flavours. The last 5-10% of businesses will temporarily survive with the sale of e-cigarette equipment/hardware at a higher price than today. This is not long-term, as their competitiveness in relation to foreign business will be minimal.”
The European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates (ETHRA) encouraged European vapers to contribute their comments on the Commission’s website, and many made excellent submissions.
“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,” it said.
Jyllands-Posten reported, “The Health Minister (Here Heunicke) will put an indefinite ban on e-cigarettes after the EU Commission protests.”
It stood as a stunning success by the consumer groups involves and all the vapers who voiced their protest.
DADAFO commented: “The government and its support parties should have listened more to DADAFO and the many ex-smokers who have become smoke free by switching to vaping. It's on days like this, where we in DADAFO don't regret the many days and long nights where we have been writing hearing responses and letters to politicians and the EU Commission. This is a victory for the vapers in Denmark!
But, before champagne corks could ricochet of ceilings, the Danish government swiftly announced it had no intention of backing down or seeing sense. The Ministry of Health has announced that it refuses to accept the EU Commission’s opinion applies to vaping and eliquids.
Denmark’s countdown clock to the flavour ban on April 1, 2021 continues.
Shout louder, vapers. Shout louder.
Related:
- Dansk e-Damper Forening – [link]
- DADAFO Facebook – [link]
- ETHRA – [link]
- “EU bremser dansk tiltag mod rygning”, Jyllands-Posten – [link]
- ETHRA calls for help, POTV – [link]
Photo Credit:
Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay
Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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