Vape vape advocacy group We Vape has expressed concerns over the COP 11 meeting, which is being held in Geneva next month, and how the multi-national meeting might unfairly affect the vaping industry.
As global delegations prepare to gather from 17-21 November to discuss topics including tobacco control, the real world impact of their decisions will be hidden from public view, We Vape believes.
It says a push for any ban on vaping will risk both lives and small businesses, driving the black market and hitting shop footfall dramatically. As a result, it has launched a ‘Back Vaping Save Lives’ campaign.
It warns that none of WHO’s ideas, which have included a blanket global ban on vaping, the “demonisation of nicotine” and rocketing taxes on harm reduction products, are influenced by the 194 attending member states.
Any decisions reached are expected to go on to influence national health legislation worldwide. Yet no one can properly challenge these policy templates and to date, any member supporting harm reduction initiatives - including the UK - is simply ignored, the supplier says.
The WHO’s COP 11 will likely, as before, push for policies such as banning flavoured vapes and imposing cigarette-level taxes on vaping products. As a result, this will reduce sales and squeeze profit margins for stores heavily reliant on vapers, We Vape adds, while increasing a consumer shift toward the unregulated black-market.
Of course, convenience stores are already facing tougher regulations, including bans on product displays and stricter age-verification rules as part of the forthcoming Tobacco and Vapes Bill.
We Vape believes an attack on vaping is an attack on small high street businesses, already reeling from government tax increases on employees’ national insurance and the cost of living crisis.
We Vape founder Mark Oates (left) said: “How is it a supranational organisation can ban the media and the public, but be allowed to influence global policy so that it damages public health in nearly 200 countries, destroys small businesses and misinforms the people? That is what these COPs represent, yet we have no elected representatives fighting our corner, despite the UK being the biggest contributor, using taxpayer money.
“Convenience stores and the general public must be told the impacts these distance conferences have on their day to day lives, and their pockets.”
“Consumers, convenience stores and the general public must be told the impacts these distance conferences have on their day to day lives, and their pockets. We implore everyone who can to contact their MP and make it clear they challenge this counterproductive and secretive WHO process.”
You can find your MP at parliament.uk and use the template letter available at backvaping.co.uk.
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