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Tag: protest

  • Consumer Group’s Pouch Tour Hits Belgium

    Consumer Group’s Pouch Tour Hits Belgium

    Last week, the international consumer group Considerate Pouchers brought its Protect Pouches campaign to Brussels, calling for an end to Belgium’s ban on nicotine pouches. Volunteers engaged citizens and policymakers, distributed fresh Jet Pack coffee, and collected postcards urging Members of the European Parliament to lift restrictions.

    The campaign said that Belgium, with one of Western Europe’s highest smoking rates, denies smokers access to safer alternatives shown to be more than 95% less harmful than cigarettes. Global spokesperson Juan Rafael Taborcía emphasized that over-taxation and bans drive consumers back to cigarettes, and that Brussels should lead Europe in harm reduction.

    The Brussels action is part of a broader European tour.

  • WCTC Gets Protestors Wanting Input

    WCTC Gets Protestors Wanting Input

    On the opening day of the World Conference on Tobacco Control (WCTC) in Dublin, the World Vapers’ Alliance staged a silent protest outside the venue, visually highlighting the exclusion of consumers from global tobacco and nicotine policy debates. Demonstrators with their mouths taped symbolized the ongoing marginalization of those most affected by regulatory decisions.

    The protest is part of the “Voices Unheard—Consumers Matter!” campaign, launched as delegates gathered inside to discuss the future of tobacco control without meaningful input from the consumers who are most impacted by these policies.

    Michael Landl, Director of the World Vapers’ Alliance, said outdated, ideologically driven policies, often influenced by powerful interests like Michael Bloomberg, threaten to reverse progress in reducing smoking rates. “Safer nicotine alternatives have the potential to save millions of lives, but only if they are supported by sensible, evidence-based regulation. We cannot afford to let ideology stand in the way of real progress,” he said.

    The campaign comes at a time when the World Health Organization is pushing for sweeping bans on flavored nicotine products, including e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches. Such measures would remove vital tools from adults seeking to quit smoking and could drive many back to combustible tobacco.

  • Taiwan Group Protests THP Regulations

    Taiwan Group Protests THP Regulations

    Image: butenkow

    The Clean Air Alliance has called on the Taiwanese public to join a protest in front of the Presidential Office Building in Taipei March 22, 2024, against heated tobacco regulations that  benefit traditional cigarette manufacturers, reports The Taipei Times.

    The group states that though its been a year since the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act was amended, heated-tobacco products cannot be sold legally but 14 new types of traditional paper-wrapped cigarettes have been approved for sale.

    The alliance noted that the review standards for heated-tobacco products and traditional cigarettes are disparate and unfair toward heated-tobacco products, which benefits cigarette manufacturers.

    Police have put traffic restrictions in place in the area due to the protest.

    The protest is set to begin at 9 a.m. and end by noon.

  • Protesters Demand End to Mexico’s Vape Ban

    Protesters Demand End to Mexico’s Vape Ban

    Image: Sansert

    Vapers protested in front of Mexico’s Congress of the Union, calling for the country’s vaping ban to be replaced with risk-based regulation. The protest was organized by the World Vapers’ Alliance and All Vape Mexico.

    The protesters also demanded a halt to the constitutional reform proposed by President Andres Mauel Lopez Obrador that would elevate the ban to the Constitution. In addition, they called for approval of a risk-based regulation allowing adult smokers access to vapor products to quit smoking combustible cigarettes.

    Mexico’s vaping ban has been in place since May 2020.

    “The ban was introduced in order to prevent underage vaping; however, minors now have full access to potentially dangerous products on the black market,” said Alberto Gomez Hernandez, policy manager of the World Vapers’ Alliance. “At the same time, smokers who want to quit smoking have difficulty finding safe vaping products. The ban has clearly been a failure and must be reversed as soon as possible. Legislation cannot be based on whim or ideology; it must be based on scientific evidence and the experience of other countries that have had good results.”

    Vapes can easily be obtained on the informal market from underground vape shops and on the black market, which is controlled by organized crime groups.

    “It is very unfortunate that the federal government thought that the ban would prevent many young people from having access to vaping and does not give people who want to quit smoking the opportunity to use this option,” said Deputy Sergio Barrera. “We need to have clear rules. We need to know who can produce it, who can distribute it and who can consume it, and that is why we are pushing for regulation.”

    “The president sees a problem where there is actually a solution to smoking,” said Antonio Toscano, All Vape Mexico spokesperson. “His prohibitionist stance unprotects adult users, who are forced to buy black market products, where there are no quality controls, let alone controls on sales to minors. Prohibition is a danger to public health; good regulation could benefit public health enormously and save millions of lives.”