Since October 1, 2023, vaping is only allowed with tobacco flavor, according to the Staatscourant, the official Dutch magazine. In this way, the country wants to make e-cigarettes less attractive for young people.
Exotic flavors like Lemon peel, strawberry cream from brain freeze make the e-cigarette more attractive to young people than the regular one. This is a problem, because it makes the threshold for vaping lower than the threshold for initiating smoking. And while the e-cigarette is healthier than its analog counterpart, vaping isn’t without its dangers. So you don’t want young people vaping en masse.
That’s why Dutch State Secretary Paul Blokhuis floated the idea in 2020 to ban flavourings. After some delay, the ban will go into effect next year. From 1 July 2023, only tobacco-flavored vaporizers can be produced. From 1 October the flavors are no longer allowed on the market.
Even the Superior Council of Health in Belgium is aware of the damage that e-cigarettes can cause, especially among young people. However, he does not advocate such a ban on flavors, “in hopes of helping even more smokers quit through this alternative,” said the oncologist and professor Philip Lardon on Twitter.
It would be different if only young people were affected by the ban. “It’s a good option for young people to ban flavors in e-cigarettes, especially flavors like bubblegum, lemonade, candy, popcorn, pancakes, cotton candy…, which you can really question,” Lardon said, in a clear message to the tobacco lobby.
Is the professor’s statement that e-cigarettes are useful for weaning traditional smokers true? Esther Croes, expert on Trimbos, opposes the Dutch channel NOS. “Research shows that only a few benefit from it.”
On the contrary, Croes sees that most smokers who start using electronic cigarettes, the so-called dual users: people who smoke both tobacco cigarettes and e-cigarettes. “And research shows that smoking only increases health damage.”
The new insights confirm that the smokeless generation The next generation must also be a generation without e-cigarettes,” Blokhuis said in 2020. “There is no room for e-cigarettes with all kinds of tempting and exotic flavors.”
