Back in June 2020, the Dutch State Secretary for Health, Paul Blokhuis, announced that he wanted to ban all non-tobacco vape flavours in the Netherlands.
Even though consumers raised their voices and expressed their outrage against the ban, the Dutch government is now pushing on with its plan—ignoring impacted citizens and health experts alike.
This should be of great concern to all vapers around the world. The Netherlands has previously been regarded as a liberal society that has approached lifestyle regulation with healthy pragmatism. If such a country bans flavors, it is almost certain that there will be knock-on effects for other EU member states, as well as at a WHO level, with the FCTC COP9 conference coming up later this year.
There is a paradox in the making in the Netherlands: While running huge stop-smoking campaigns like STOPtober, the Dutch government simultaneously wants to make it harder to quit by banning one of the most effective means of doing so.
It could force a quarter of a million former smokers in the Netherlands to take up the habit once again.
Michael Landl – FilterMag – 2021-05-25.