{"id":34865,"date":"2026-03-04T10:14:50","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T10:14:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/?p=34865"},"modified":"2026-03-04T10:14:56","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T10:14:56","slug":"germany-plans-menthol-vape-ban-under-draft-cooling-agents-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/post\/germany-plans-menthol-vape-ban-under-draft-cooling-agents-rule\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany plans menthol vape ban under draft cooling agents rule"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Germany is moving to ban menthol vapes and a wide range of e-liquids containing cooling agents under draft regulations that could take effect later in 2026.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proposal, put forward by the Federal Ministry for Agriculture, would prohibit menthol and other flavourings that use synthetic cooling additives on the grounds that they make vaping \u201cmore attractive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Germany\u2019s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) has argued that cooling effects may influence how products are inhaled. In its assessment, the institute said: \u201cAs the cooling effects make it easier to inhale, they can result in increased nicotine intake and possibly lead to greater dependence, especially among young and inexperienced users.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the draft regulation also acknowledges that cooling agents are \u201cpoorly researched,\u201d with \u201cvery limited\u201d data available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The planned ban would carry particular significance given that Germany, in line with the rest of the European Union, prohibited menthol cigarettes in 2020. Data indicates that smokers who previously used menthol cigarettes often seek similar flavours when switching to vapes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/strong> <\/strong>Concerns over evidence base<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Heino St\u00f6ver, professor of social science addiction research at Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, said the evidence does not justify the scope of the proposal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe scientific evidence is not there\u201d to support such a sweeping ban, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cBan on flavours will not help decrease the high smoking prevalence,\u201d St\u00f6ver added. Germany\u2019s goal of reducing its smoking rate to five percent or below by 2040 already appeared \u201cunrealistic\u201d before the proposal and now looks \u201ceven more unrealistic.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Germany\u2019s smoking rate is estimated at around 28 percent, equating to approximately 125,000 deaths annually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Industry and consumer response<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Consumer representatives argue that the draft rule would extend beyond menthol and affect a large share of products currently on the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Klaus Heckershoff, a German vape consumer, said the ban would include the sweetener sucralose as well as various synthetic cooling agents, \u201cwhich are contained in many liquids that I use.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When many popular e-liquids contain these ingredients, he argued that the so-called \u201cmenthol ban\u201d would in practice affect almost all vapers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bundesverband Rauchfreie Alternative, the German consumer organisation for smoke-free alternatives, said that cooling agents are widely used in flavour formulations to \u201cmake them round – without it they are kind of unfinished, even if you cannot taste or notice the cooling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Board member Andreas Schimo described the proposal as \u201ca disguised flavour ban.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cA lot of consumers prefer flavours with cooling – such as \u2018iced apple,\u2019 over \u2018apple\u2019 – because it gives them a stronger throat hit, which in turn helps them to stay off cigarettes or even reduce the nicotine in their vapes,\u201d Schimo said. \u201cUnlike in cigarettes, cooling agents makes the inhalation harder and not easier.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Schimo also challenged the comparison with combustible cigarettes. \u201cWhile it\u2019s true menthol makes the inhalation of tobacco smoke easier, you cannot transfer this to e-cigarettes,\u201d he said. \u201cTobacco smoke leads to smoke-induced irritation of the airways. As e-cigarettes do not produce smoke, there is no smoke-induced irritation which would have to be cooled.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that a previous BfR paper stated: \u201cE-cigarettes do not release irritating combustion products whose effects would need to be masked by additives. Therefore, inhalation facilitated by menthol is significantly less relevant with these products than with tobacco cigarettes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Schimo, \u201cNow they are saying the opposite without having any new research, data or science on this matter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The draft regulation remains under consideration and, if adopted, would introduce the restrictions later in 2026.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Germany is moving to ban menthol vapes and a wide range of e-liquids containing cooling agents under draft regulations that could take effect later in 2026. The proposal, put forward by the Federal Ministry for Agriculture, would prohibit menthol and other flavourings…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":990005,"featured_media":34866,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[257],"tags":[329,328,186],"slider":[],"class_list":["post-34865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-european-union","tag-germany","tag-nicotine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/990005"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34865"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34873,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34865\/revisions\/34873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34865"},{"taxonomy":"slider","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/slider?post=34865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}