The French consumer vaping organization SOVAPE will cease operations, reports Vaping360.
Best known for organizing three Vape Summits in France between 2016 and 2019, SOVAPE also co-founded the European Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates umbrella organization. Since 2019, the group has commissioned annual surveys of French public opinion on vaping and nicotine conducted by major market research firm BVA.
However, this year, BVA notified SOVAPE that it could no longer participate due to a health industry client’s contract prohibiting BVA from also working with nicotine-associated organizations. During its existence, SOVAPE also faced criticism of connections to the tobacco industry.
In an Oct. 6 website post, SOVAPE explained that it can no longer carry out its mission due to the current climate of “censorship, threats, lies, denigration and slander, to which can be added the dissemination of fake news and the denial of scientific data.”
“Dialogue in this context is impossible,” SOVAPE wrote, “and clearly, it is now even ‘forbidden’ to provide information, such as a banal survey, on reducing the risks of smoking in France.”
SOVAPE will donate the balance of its funds equally to the Pasteur Institute and fellow vaping groups AIDUCE and La Vape du Coeur. SOVAPE will keep its website available for 10 years and maintains videos of Vape Summit proceedings on its YouTube channel.
“We regret that we are no longer able to cultivate a dialogue to promote the risk reduction approach against the main cause of preventable diseases and premature deaths in France,” SOVAPE said in its post. “We do not regret having tried but must acknowledge that it is no longer possible for us to lead this fight that is dear to us and which has nevertheless contributed to saving lives!”