The Hague – 24 March 2022 – The World Vapers’ Alliance (WVA) held a protest in the Hague today in opposition to the impending ban on vaping flavours in the Netherlands. This marks the second event of the WVA’s Flavours Matter campaign, as a growing number of countries attempt to prohibit one of the most powerful tools in the fight against smoking: vaping flavours.

On the occasion, WVA’s Director, Michael Landl said:

“Last year, citizens in the Netherlands overwhelmingly rejected a vaping flavours ban in a public consultation. Politicians have chosen to ignore their voices and now they’re at it again, risking the lives of up to 260.000 Dutch people, who might go back to smoking in the absence of flavours.”

The WVA brought an art installation containing a puzzle with a word missing from the sentence: … help smokers quit! The missing word was symbolically added: smaken in the form of a puzzle piece in front of the Dutch Parliament, where MPs have been discussing the issue throughout the day.

“We’ve seen so much progress over the last decade, in terms of lower and lower smoking rates in the Netherlands. The more tools smokers have to help them quit, the better. Vaping flavours have been one of the most effective methods, with studies citing that those who vape flavoured e-cigarettes are 230% more likely to quit than those who don’t. But that route to smoking cessation may soon be banned if people do not speak up against this public health disaster in the making,” Landl added. 

Dutch consumers can contact their political representatives via the WVA action centres to share their vaping success stories and convince them to stop the ban: https://worldvapersalliance.com/mp-nl/

This event is the second in a campagne launched two days ago in Stockholm by the WVA, called ‘Flavours Matter’. The WVA will be travelling to countries around the world where flavours are at risk, to showcase the benefits of vaping flavours and ensure that they remain a key component of quitting smoking. Without flavours, millions of people around the world are likely to switch back to smoking.