A campaign against what they call the “Ministry of Tobacco”, and that is reminiscent of the strategies of groups like HazteOír: a bus that travels the streets with controversial slogans to attack government policies. In this case, the vehicle seen on the streets of Madrid this week displays phrases like “They want you to keep smoking!” or “Health prohibits vaping, condemning thousands of people to death.” It is financed by Anesvap (Spanish Association of Personal Vaporizer Users) in response to the Royal Tobacco Decree.
The regulations developed by the Ministry of Health, which has just been made public, seek to prohibit flavorings and flavorings that give a pleasant taste to electronic cigarettes, which has generated a strong response from defenders of these devices.
“RIP Vapeo” or “#elvapeosalvavidas” are some of the “claims” of the association in this campaign against regulation. They claim that vaping is much less harmful than tobacco and focus on its ability to help users quit. “Flavors are not the problem and their prohibition is our downfall,” says Anesvap in its campaign, which includes on its website testimonies from people who say they will return to smoking because of the new regulation of these devices.
However, it does not mention a reality that Health and several medical societies point out: that vaping is not harmless and that it also serves as a gateway to tobacco for the youngest through a youthful aesthetic and the usual flavorings.
A regulation for a “smoke-free generation”
Although the percentage of students aged 14 to 18 who smoke daily has fallen from 23.5% to 7.5% between 1996 and 2023, the data has not been as encouraging for electronic cigarettes. Quite the opposite. 54.6% of adolescents say they have tried them, a percentage that was only 17% a decade ago. The Studies survey of 2023 warns that the figure has never been so high. It is alarming in the youngest ones, since at 13 years old, 14.5% of students have used these devices at some point and at 12, 7.65%.
This Royal Decree has the objective of achieving a “first smoke-free generation” in Spain. To this end, several of the measures in the standard are the responsibility of the vapers. All products that contain nicotine must include the following message: “This product contains nicotine, a highly addictive substance. Its consumption is not recommended for non-smokers.” And if they do not have it, they should also warn: “Consuming this product is harmful to your health.”
The decree also proposes an increase in the taxation of vaping products, matching them and even exceeding the taxation of conventional tobacco. Something that Anesvap has used to refute the Ministry’s proposal. Ángeles Muntadas-Prim, its president, believes that “this ban intrinsically leads to the widespread elimination of vaping in Spain, given that only 13.2% consume tobacco-flavored vapers; In addition, with the new tax reform, vaping will be more expensive than smoking.”
Muntadas-Prim also denounces that this decision will force thousands of people to relapse into conventional tobacco, ensuring that “it will cause the emergence of a dangerous and chaotic illegal market, it will not stop underage consumption at all and it will make small and medium-sized businesses disappear.” sector where we acquire our products.”
Anesvap maintains that vaping is key in the fight against smoking, but the Ministry of Health, in a report prepared in 2022emphasizes that “from a health point of view, the use of electronic cigarettes cannot be recommended” to quit smoking “when there are other alternatives whose effectiveness has been scientifically proven.” The sense of risk we have from these devices is small due to the attractive and fun advertising, the people who use them (singers, actors and models), because they do not smell bad… but that does not mean that they are not harmful.
Only two in ten people between 15 and 24 years old who vape do so as a way to quit tobacco, according to reveals the latest survey Agessimilar to Estudes but with a greater age range. The same study indicates that of every four individuals who have used electronic cigarettes at some point in their lives, three have chosen cigarettes with nicotine.
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