World Vape Day: Millions of Adult Smokers Have Quit, But Danger Looms

Today, May 30, is World Vape Day. Created by consumers of e-cigarettes, World Vape Day is the day to celebrate the millions of American adults that have quit smoking with the use of vapor products. It is also a day to combat the World Health Organization’s (WHO) anti-science stance on tobacco harm reduction products.

E-cigarettes were borne from a “bad dream” in 2002 when Chinese pharmacist Hon Lik “forgot to remove a nicotine patch from his stomach before bed and had nightmares all night,” In the aftermath, Lik realized that “it was precisely that steady release” of nicotine in patches that made the cessation products “inadequate for him.” By 2003, Lik had invented the modern vaping device.

As a smoker, the innovation was not only personal, the invention was almost a familial legacy, as Lik’s father had passed away from lung cancer after years of heavy smoking. As Lik remarked, “It was too late for my father, but not for me. I switched over myself to electronic cigarettes.”

From China, e-cigarettes would reach Europe in 2006, and America in 2007, and by 2021, are available worldwide, albeit, some governments have or are in the process of banning them.

In America, “an estimated 8.1 million U.S. adults were current [e-cigarette] users,” in 2018. (In our own analysis, TPA also found that e-cigarettes were more effective than tobacco litigation at reducing smoking rates). In 2019, in the UK, there were more than 4 million ex-smokers in the UK that had tried vapor products, with 2.2 million of them no longer smoking. In Japan, there were over “11 million [e-cigarette] units” sold in 2019.

Despite the millions of adults that are now former smokers, e-cigarettes are under constant threats around the world. In March, 2021, China announced a proposal for new regulations on vapor products that “threaten big changes to the local [vapor] market.”. The Philippines is under scrutiny for it’s proposed draconian policies on e-cigarettes and funding it received from the Bloomberg Foundation and the Union. Canada has proposed a nicotine cap and ban flavors. On May 21, 2021, the Council of Ministers in the Netherlands passed a flavor ban, to begin July 1, 2022.

Amid these countries’ threats, the WHO’s Conference of the Parties (COP) 9 for the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) is due to meet virtually in November this year. The WHO refuses to acknowledge the concept of tobacco harm reduction, let alone appreciate the significance of vapor products on reducing smoking rates.

The WHO’s FCTC first requested a report on emerging tobacco harm reduction products at COP3. At COP7, the FCTC “invited Parties to apply regulatory measures … to prohibit or restrict the sale, manufacture, importation, distribution, sale and use of [e-cigarettes] as appropriate.” By 2019, the FCTC urged members to “remain vigilant towards” tobacco harm reduction products. Dr. Vera Luiza de Costa e Silva brazenly declared vaping to be “a treacherous and flavored camouflage of a health disaster yet to happen if no action is taken now.” Indeed, the FCTC Secretariat remarked to “the importance of the need to prohibit or regulate” such products. COP 9 will undoubtedly sow even more misinformation as the WHO continues to block adult access to tobacco harm reduction products.

There is some hope on the horizon. In the UK, the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Vaping has denounced the WHO’s stance on e-cigarettes and other tobacco harm reduction products and is moving towards regulations that may be even looser than the policies imposed by the European Union. The APPG for Vaping remarked that the UK delegation to COP9 should oppose “any decision proposed that would equate vaping products with combustible cigarettes.” At the publication of the APPG for Vaping report, MP Mark Pawsey – and chair of the APPG Vaping group – declared that with “WHO taking an increasingly hostile stance on vaping, it is more important than ever that the UK be guided by the science.”

While we celebrate World Vape Day – and the million of smokers that have quit smoking by using vapor products, we must listen to the WHO and remain vigilant – against them, and against prohibitionist policies that do not listen to the science, or the voices of the vapers.