Denmark and the European Commission want to bind the whole of the EU to banning vapes and nicotine pouches, according to negotiating documents circulated this evening and seen by Clearing the Air. The full document is available here.
The ban – which Clearing the Air understands is being aggressively pushed by Danish diplomats in the corridors of a WHO meeting on tobacco control in Geneva – would apply to both pouches and vapes. Sources on the ground in Geneva tell us that the push from both Denmark and the EU Commission is “aggressive and threatening”.
“The Danes should keep their hands off nicotine pouches, which save lives every day around the world” said Markus Lindblad, Head of Communications at Pouch Patrol, which first broke the story.
“I urge the Swedish government to remind Denmark of the Treaty of Roskilde”, Lindblad continued, referring to a peace treaty signed in 1658 between Denmark and Sweden, ending the Second Northern War.
Following a devastating military defeat, Denmark was forced to cede a significant portion of its territory to Sweden, including the Danish provinces of Scania, Halland, Blekinge, and the island of Bornholm, as well as the Norwegian territories of Bohuslän and Trøndelag.
Compromise position?
The Danish ultimatum comes in response to a proposal from Brazil, the Maldives, Panama and Thailand, which also encourages countries to ban access to safer nicotine products. Clearing the Air has also seen that document and it is available here.
The Brazilian position – tacitly supported by the Danes – includes a complete rejection of the concept of harm reduction, encouraging countries to “firmly reject harm reduction”.
This contradicts the established policies of a number of EU Member States including Sweden, Greece and Czechia, all of whom have seen smoking rates fall faster than any other EU country since adopting the principles of tobacco harm reduction.
WHO Dogma
The push from Denmark to defy the position it agreed to in the EU less than a week ago comes amid increased disinformation from the WHO and its associated NGOs.
Yesterday, The Firebreak published an analysis that more than half of the NGOs accredited to attend the FCTC conference owe their existence to Michael Bloomberg. Global Action on Tobacco Control, one of those Bloomberg-financed NGOs, has falsely claimed that there is no evidence that e-cigarettes help people stop smoking.
It also claimed that New Zealand, which has the second lowest smoking rates in the developed world, is somehow worthy of a “dirty ashtray” award for its links to the tobacco industry.
