EU's vaping aversion.

The EU is carrying out a process to establish new protocols for vaping, but is it just by namesake? It pertains to the reforms of the Tobacco Taxation Directive (TTD) and the revision of the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD), and yet it’s clear that whatever changes are going to happen, it’s not going to be good.

The next phase of review for the TTD opened back in March and will be running until late June, but only registered companies or businesses on the EU Transparency Register will be able to submit comments or concerns.

The general consensus in Europe is that vaping will be taxed in line with tobacco products, completely nullifying the cost benefit of switching to vaping. The impact of increasing tax on e-cigs can be most clearly seen in Italy when thousands of ex-smokers gave up vaping, went back to smoking, and the tobacco harm reduction industry was brought to its knees.

The phenomenon has been seen in America too: “California’s vapour tax went into effect in 2017, when 6.7 percent of current smokers in the Golden State were aged 18-24. In 2018, this proportion had increased by 34 percent, to 9 percent. Delaware’s e-cigarette tax took effect in 2018, when only 10.5 percent of current smokers were aged 18-24. In 2019, this had increased by 48.6 percent, to 15.6 percent.”

It seems more and more clear that ideology and misinformation are taking the lead to actual scientific evidence. Many countries are refusing to acknowledge and follow the stellar example of the UK.