“The Helvetic Vape association welcomes the decision of the Council of States (EC) to follow the recommendations of its Committee on Social Security and Public Health (CSSS-E) with regard to vaping products.
The association believes that the referral of the LPTab project by the EC is a strong signal to the federal executive to review its overall policy on tobacco control. The association is in favor of vigorous legislation on combustible tobacco products but refuses the inconsistent assimilation of vaping products to tobacco products. This is the position defended by the association during the public consultation phase on the LPTab project and during its hearing by the CSSS-E. In its opinion, the committee rightly pointed out its incomprehension about this assimilation. He is pleased that the EC has followed it on this point to refer the project to the Federal Council. The dismissal of the LPTab project as a whole by the EC is a valid sanction for the policy followed so far by the federal government on vaping. It is also an opportunity to open up different ways for access to nicotine-containing vaping products to be quickly simplified for the population of nicotine users in Switzerland.
The pillar of harm and risk reduction should be part of a broader tobacco control policy that takes users into account. A quarter of the Swiss population consumes nicotine but does so by using combustible tobacco products that are extremely dangerous to health. It is the burning of tobacco and its additives that generates serious illnesses and 9'500 premature deaths a year, not the nicotine itself that has a risk profile similar to caffeine. Along with prevention and therapeutic management, it is crucial to orient nicotine users towards taking control of their own health and that of those around them thanks to safer, tobacco-free and non-smoking modes of consumption. combustion, which exist today.
However, so far, the federal executive has shown an incomprehensible desire to prevent the development of alternative nicotine consumption patterns without tobacco and without combustion. The nicotine-containing vaping products have been intentionally maintained for 10 years in a legal no-man's land to prohibit their professional import and sale, while the toxic tobacco products are sold over the counter. Nicotine users are thus deprived of simple local access to the least risky independent products. Both types of products are, however, subject to the same article of the Ordinance on Foodstuffs and Household Goods (ODAlOUs), but the interpretation of the Federal Administration differs in favor of the most toxic products.
There is no scientific or legal justification for maintaining such a prohibition on tools to reduce the risks and harm associated with nicotine consumption. The use of current vaping products presents only a fraction of the risks (<5% taking into account the long-term risk) incurred when consuming combustible cigarettes according to the recent report of the Royal College of Physicians: Nicotine without smoke - Tobacco harm reduction.
The LPTab project is a continuation of the irresponsible policy of the federal executive. By waving the carrot of the legalization of the professional import and sale of nicotine-containing vaping products, the executive quietly equates these products with combustible tobacco, blurring any understanding of harm reduction and harm to the consumer. public. This, without taking into account Parliament's 2011 decision to clearly differentiate vaping products from tobacco products by placing them at the same level as smoking cessation products in the Tobacco Control Ordinance (ILOab).
The assimilation of vaping products to tobacco products is a nonsense, a trap that leads first to the protection of the market for combustible tobacco products and then prevents a real pragmatic policy of harm reduction and damage. This assimilation directs the treatment of vaping towards a restrictive logic that is disproportionate and counterproductive for public health.
The association of consumers Helvetic Vape will continue to put forward a modern and reasoned approach to nicotine consumption to get out of the rut of the dogma of abstinence, inherited from the past century, which has shown its limits. The association will gladly collaborate in the development of a new coherent and pragmatic project taking into account nicotine users with a view to reducing risks and damage integrated into prevention and therapeutic management. "
Source : Helvetic Vape
