IEVA European Survey
New research by the Independent European Vape Alliance has conducted European survey that finds 80 percent of vapers stopped smoking completely
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by Dave Cross
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The organisation says: “The founding purpose of IEVA is to fight with one voice against local and community regulations, which are not suited to vaping products and their potential in terms of public health and health risk reduction.”
It adds, the trade body strengthens the “independent vaping industry of shops, retail and manufacturers all throughout Europe and beyond”, and represents, “e-cigarettes as a category in opposition to tobacco”. Its members include Voopoo, Uwell, Chubby Gorilla, Geek Vape, Juul, Smok, and Vaporesso (among others).
The survey repeats findings from other surveys demonstrating the importance of flavoured eliquids to vapers and how they contribute to successfully transitioning away from tobacco products.
“More than 80 percent of smokers who switched to e-cigarettes have completely stopped smoking,” says IEVA. “Around 65 percent of vapers in Europe use fruit or sweet liquids. These are two important results of a survey carried out by the European Independent Vape Alliance. More than 3,300 European e-cigarette users took part."
“The European survey shows: E-cigarettes are a widely used method in Europe to stop tobacco use. 81 percent of vapers have completely stopped using tobacco. Further twelve percent have reduced smoking with the help of e-cigarettes.
“86 percent of the participants assume that e-cigarettes are less harmful for them than tobacco cigarettes. Only two percent think e-cigarettes are equal or more harmful compared to combustible cigarettes. The British government agency Public Health England estimates that e-cigarettes are 95 percent less harmful than tobacco cigarettes.”
IEVA believes the findings demonstrates the importance of flavours. The survey found the variety of flavours appeared to be one of the most important reasons for vapers to use e-cigarettes:
- 40% of them use fruit flavoured liquids
- 25% prefer other sweet flavours
- 35% of vapers select tobacco-flavoured liquids
IEVA asked the participants how they would react if all liquid flavours except tobacco flavours were banned. The response given demonstrated the problems the European Union faces should it press ahead with a prohibitionist approach. Just 20% of vapers said they would switch to the limited range of tobacco flavours.
A third of respondents stated they would source pre-made juices on the black market, with almost 10% confirming they’d simply bin ecigs and go back to smoking cigarettes.
Dustin Dahlmann, President of IEVA, said: “Our survey confirms previous research that e-cigarette flavours are crucial for adult smokers. A flavour ban must be avoided at all costs, because it would lead many vapers to buy unregulated products on the black market or to start smoking again. And this would endanger the great opportunity that many more smokers will stop smoking with the help of the e-cigarette.”
Related:
- “Evidence review of e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products” by Public Health England – [link]
- “Role of sweet and other flavours in liking and disliking of electronic cigarettes” by Kim et al. – [link]
- “Reasons for using flavored liquids among electronic cigarette users: A concept mapping study” by Soule et al. – [link]
- “Electronic cigarette liquid and device parameters and aerosol characteristics: A survey of regular users” by Harvanko et al. – [link]
- Independent European Vape Alliance (IEVA) – [link]
- IEVA on Twitter – [link]
Photo Credit:
Image by TheAndrasBarta from Pixabay
Results from Independent European Vape Alliance (IEVA) – [link]
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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