Dutch Zealot Wants Vapes Banned
Wanda de Kanter and a handful of anti-harm reduction lobbyists want the Netherlands to ban or severely restrict all forms of reduced harm nicotine products like electronic cigarettes
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by Dave Cross
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Wanda de Kanter has plagued social media for years, pouring out nonsense and refusing to engage in an intelligent way with harm reduction advocates. Now she has the Pfizer pharmaceutical company backing her call.
The UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) said it is concerned by the reports that they are calling the Dutch Government to take more stringent action to ban smoking and introduce stricter regulations for alternative tobacco products such as electronic cigarettes.
The outgoing Government in the Netherlands increased tobacco prices and limited the number of sales outlets, in moves to become a smoke free nation by 2040. Whilst this policy has been marginally successful reducing the number of smokers from 25% to 20% it is noted that the amount of tobacco sold has not reduced.
In order to further reduce smoking rates in the Netherlands, UKVIA says that legislators should be embracing alternative tobacco products, such as vaping, not introducing stricter regulations which will only serve to facilitate tobacco consumption. It contends that adopting an evidence-based approach, like that which has been successful in the United Kingdom, will help cement the concept of tobacco harm reduction.
The evidence is irrefutable, UKVIA says, “and it is disappointing that the country hosting COP9 later this year, is failing to recognise the potential public health benefits of e-cigarettes as a quitting aid. Misinformation is rife within the industry and attitudes need to change, starting at Government level.”
The UKVIA’s Director-General John Dunne commented: “I am concerned about these reports, especially in light of the global World Health Organization’s COP9 summit which takes place in the Netherlands in November 2021.
“As the UKVIA has said before, it is up to the UK Government to take the lead on this matter and to send a strong national delegation to the COP9 Summit to challenge these backward steps in public health and smoking cessation.
“Smoking related illness still kills many thousands of people each year in both the UK and the Netherlands. It is imperative on both Governments to do all that they can to reduce this number of smoking related deaths. They should trust the science and the overwhelming evidence and embrace vaping products and e-cigarettes. They are the most popular and effective nicotine replacement products on the market.”
References:
Next government must increase efforts to ban smoking: lobby groups - https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2021/05/next-government-must-increase-efforts-to-ban-smoking-lobby-groups/
Photo Credit:
Photo by Denise Jans on Unsplash
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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