Consumer Advocates Warn: Flavour Ban Threatens Public Health Progress

Athens, 16.4.2025. Consumer organisations and vaping advocates from Greece and across Europe, including the Greek Vapers’ Alliance and the World Vapers’ Alliance (WVA), are sounding the alarm over the Ministry of Health’s proposed ban on all vape flavours except tobacco and menthol. They warn that this measure risks reversing Greece’s hard-won progress in reducing smoking rates.

Since 2019, when Greece officially adopted harm reduction as a core pillar of its tobacco control policy, the country has reversed the previously growing trend of smoking—a stark contrast to the stagnation seen across much of the EU.

Michael Landl, Direktor der World Vapers' Alliance, erklärte:

“A flavour ban would be a huge step backwards for public health and harm reduction. By supporting a flavour ban, policymakers would push millions of adults back to smoking or into the black market, endangering lives and ignoring scientific evidence. Scientific research consistently shows that flavours play a crucial role in helping smokers quit. The endorsement of the flavour ban ignores those findings and the clear will of the people. This will cause more harm than good.”

Nikolas Christofidis, spokesperson for the Greek Vapers’ Alliance, added:

“Banning flavours in e-cigarettes is a superficial and dangerous decision. It does not target the real cause of use by minors, but it does punish hundreds of thousands of adult ex-smokers who have managed to quit smoking thanks to flavours. Instead of boosting harm reduction, they push them back to cigarettes or the illicit market. We call on the Ministry of Health to immediately reconsider this approach and to listen to the voice of consumers.”

Advocates urge the Ministry to engage with consumers, experts, and the scientific community to develop regulations that protect youth without sacrificing the health and freedom of adult ex-smokers. Evidence-based policies, not prohibition, are the path forward for public health.