The Greek government has drafted a new bill that will ban all flavoured vapes except tobacco and menthol.
The legislation, announced by Minister of Health Adonis Georgiadis, is set to be presented to Parliament next month.
Georgiadis is reported to have said: “These flavours make e-cigarettes attractive to children and adolescents, and we must protect them.”
The Bill is said to also include a ban on the non-pharmaceutical sale of cannabis and strict penalties for anyone selling alcohol and tobacco or vape products to minors.
Consumer organisations and vaping advocates from Greece and across Europe have warned the flavour ban risks reversing the country’s hard-won progress on reducing smoking rates.
Since 2019, when Greece officially adopted harm reduction as part of its tobacco control policy, the country has reversed its previously growing smoking rate. This has been in stark contrast to the stagnation seen across much of the European Union.
A ‘huge step backwards’
Michael Landl, Director of the World Vapers’ Alliance, said: “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.”
It ‘punishes hundreds of thousands of ex-smokers’
Nikolas Christofidis, of 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.”
The advocacy groups have urged the Ministry of Health in Greece to engage with consumers, experts, and the scientific community to develop regulations that protect young people without sacrificing the health and freedom of adult former smokers.
“Evidence-based policies, not prohibition, are the path forward for public health,” they said in a joint statement.
Studies find flavour bans ineffective
The move from Greece comes after a recent study in the U.S. found tobacco and flavour bans have made no impact on the number of young people smoking or vaping.
The report, published in the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, looked at how Tobacco 21 (T21) laws, which prohibit cigarette sales to under 21s, and flavoured vape restrictions have affected youth smoking and vaping rates.
It said: “Assessing cohorts of high school students through 2021, during a time of state and federal policy change and the COVID-19 pandemic, we found no evidence for associations between state-wide tobacco [and] flavour restrictions and the likelihood or level of cigarette, cigar, or ENDS use.”
A separate U.S study found restricting flavours reduces vaping but causes an increase in smoking among young adults.
The research, published in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA), studied data from almost 400,000 Americans aged 18 to 29 years.
It found that state restrictions on the sale of flavoured vapes are associated with a 3.6 per cent decrease in vaping – but a 2.2 per cent increase in far more harmful smoking.
