SOVAPE ‘Throws In The Towel’
SOVAPE, the long-standing French advocacy organisation that has done so much to promote vaping and tobacco harm reduction, has ‘thrown in the towel’
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by Dave Cross
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SOVAPE, the long-standing French advocacy organisation that has done so much to promote vaping and tobacco harm reduction, has ‘thrown in the towel’. Announcing that it has been subjected to a long list of attacks and having obstacles placed in its path, SOVAPE says it is no longer able to carry out its mission; the organisation has decided to dissolve.
“Adding to a long list of attacks,” SOVAPE says, “BVA's recent refusal to carry out SOVAPE's annual survey confirms the impossibility for the association to continue its dialogue action on reducing the risks of smoking in France. SOVAPE has therefore decided to dissolve itself.”
Since 2019, SOVAPE has commissioned a survey from BVA every autumn on the perceptions of the French regarding the risks of vaping and nicotine – the results of which have deteriorated year on year due to lies and misinformation from public health ‘experts’.
“We will not be able to assess this evolution in 2024, despite a historical relationship, BVA refused this year to conduct the 6th wave of the survey, because it is linked by a contract with a health player that prohibits it from working with players linked to vaping and cigarettes.”
The organisation continues: “SOVAPE is an association under the 1901 law, run by volunteers, whose mission is to cultivate dialogue about reducing the risks of smoking. The refusal to follow up on this survey illustrates the political censorship suffered for several months and makes it impossible to reflect on reducing the risks of smoking and its context in France.
“This refusal is added to a long series of erroneous and defamatory statements regarding the fight led by the association – as in the magazine l'Express - fortunately contradicted by an article in the AFP. These unfounded attacks, through the press, are added to the actions carried out behind the scenes with political leaders or the administration, pressure, sometimes exerted directly by cigarette lobbyists, or more personal attacks on the fringes of the association, with a gag order against the blog of one of our members, and reprisals at the professional level of personalities who dared to support our approach.”
“Censorship, threats, lies, denigration and slander, to which can be added the dissemination of fake news and the denial of scientific data, have created a climate that makes this mission untenable” - SOVAPE
The loss of SOVAPE from the advocacy scene is not just a blow to French smokers and vapers, but to all those trying to promote evidence-based approaches and tobacco harm reduction strategies across Europe and beyond.
Actively involved in organising vape summits and attending conferences since 2016, the organisation’s volunteers helped to set up ETHRA and produced a stream of essential data from their annual surveys.
Sadly signing off, SOVAPE says: “We would like to thank all those who have supported us over the eight years of the association's activity. In accordance with its statutes and the spirit of its mission, SOVAPE will give the remainder of its funds in equal parts to the Independent Association for the Defence of Electronic Cigarette Users (AIDUCE), for its commitment to the rights of users of the harm reduction method; to Vape du Cœur, in view of its activity of providing practical assistance to help precarious populations quit smoking; and to the Pasteur Institute, for its scientific research work.”
Photo Credit:
Photo by Daryan Shamkhali on Unsplash, resized and cropped
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.
